It's just dawned on me that this is the only time in my life that I'll ever be so close to my first World Cup race, which is something that most people will never experience. I don't think I'm noted for being a particularly emotional character, but the last few days, and no doubt the next few will be the same, have definitely had heightened emotions. I remember World Champs 2006, in Rotorua, where I was nothing more than a noisy spectator. The thought of racing at this level had never even crossed my mind, but I knew afew of the NZ team back then and I did spare a thought for what it might feel like knowing, when you first step in to the venue and the event village, that in a few short days you will be on that start line with many of the worlds best. After the gun goes it's business as usual - although inthis case with more competitors, but essentially the game plan doesn't change - go hard, hurt lots, cross the line at the end knowing you gave it your best.What I'm finding different is in the lead up. Watching the national champs on Saturday brought it home. This is a big deal - a big deal that I have to treat as just another race...
Saturday was a pretty full day for me. Because the course was closed to the public from 7.30am I had to get up early to spend some time on it. It was all pretty standard stuff until I crested the start climb, a moderate km, and started the first descent. Ok to start with, just more rocks and roots than I am used to all in one place, but then, oh boy - this one section was HARD! It's a long, long time since I bothered to stop to suss out a line, preferring to just rely on looking far enough ahead and if I see a better option on the way past I'll take it next time. But with this there was just no obvious line. Things were wet after overnight rain and that made it all much worse, but I didn't realise how much it had rained until someone told me later in the day, so at the time I thought this was the normal condition, save a bit of drying of the morning dew. But it's still a tough section, and once you're down that there is plenty more technical to keep you alert which I tripod-ed all the way down that morning. All up it's probably not even 60m of track, but it's the toughest 60m I've seen in a long while -there just isn't a comparison back home - maybe the rock garden (and it was 3 years before I cleaned that!!!).
Doesn't really look that hard, does it? I have a whole bunch of pics of the course which I'm uploading as the site lets me so if you're interested, keep checking.
After that confidence-shattering section I didn't fare much better on a lot of the rest of the course. That situation has improved though - as I said, I found out how much it had rained, and also learned that things dry out significantly as the morning goes on as long as there is no more rain. The pics above are about 4.5 hours after my ride and it's much, much drier.
The course has 2 tough climbs. The start climb and a climb about a 1/3 of the way in. Both are only about a km but the start climb has some soft gravel/dirt which requires extra effort, and the second one, after the first descent drops you back near the start/finish (a descent that includes a cool manmade rock/step feature, and a nice dive through some sweet singletrack littered with rocks and a sweet hotline or 2) and you climb in the open (ie, heat and humidity) up to some switchbacks - it doesn't look steep, but it is, and they are tight and rocky, ever-willing to throw your front wheel off line or spin your back wheel out throwing your knee in to the bars (yep, ow).
Following this there is another tricky section, more rocks and roots, a creek and a very technical, albeit short and shallow climb - difficult because of the slippery terrain and tight switchbacks.
I should mention, the course crosses over itself twice so there are a couple of bridges and underpasses as well - the bridge at the start/finish is pretty damn tall and steep and definitely requires some pace to get up.
After the creek section there is some 'easier' riding - nothing on this course will be easy - it will either be technically difficult and/or lactate-city or something that will feel like recovery from those! But there is a sudden drop in elevation made possible by some pretty sweet berms on track reminiscent of vegas-trail (smooth and flowy).
The final part of the course, naturally broken up because it crosses an access road so I refer to it as 'the far loop' is just a few minutes long but still packs in a lot of variety. It begins with optional lines down a short technical descent (straight line is the hot line) before sweeping back up in to 2 very tight switchbacks again waiting to do their best to get your feet down - a bit of sheer grunt helps but only if you really control the front end. The last piece of track waiting to take riders off their bikes is a very short pinch up some rocks, usually a bit wet and therefore slick and therefore unrideable. Even the elite boys on Saturday were off here, so it's a running section. Thankfully only short. From here there is about a kilometre to go of nice trail, very up and down, a rutted clay-like drop-in and almost straight back up a steep clay-like chute with a couple of tree roots at the top so weight management and gear selection are critical. Soon enough you're out of the singletrack and in to a series of 3 massive berms (rarp-rarp-raaarp) before hammering it back to the start/finish. I've ridden the far loop 2 extra times (so as not to get booted off the course on Sunday morning) and really like it. Now it feels like one less section to get dialled before next Sunday, and it will be even better if it's a bit drier.
So apart from ride the course, and fretting about it a little bit, what am I doing with myself to pass the days? Well, Saturday was Canadian Nationals so after a proper breakfast and a shower I went back to the course to check it out. Handy too, as I got to watch riders tackle the more difficult sections of the course. Mandy was racing, as was Andrea in U23 so I had a bit of fun cheering them on, popping up all over the place as you'll know if I've ever cheered you on in a race (great spectator course...).
Unfortunately Mandy had some trouble with her pedal having it come out completely during the first lap. But to her credit she managed to get it back in and rather than dnf with a mechanical she actually ended up getting out on a 4th lap (full race was 5 but Marie-Helene Premont and Catharine Pendrel were so busy chasing each other the pace was super hot).
There were 3 stand-out features of the racing that I saw. One was watching the top U23 woman nail the toughest line on the course (that first descent). It's far and away the best line, if you can ride it. It's certainly what I'll be aiming for. Anyway, this girl reached it at the same time as one of her competitors and swiftly educated us all as to the benefits of taking this particular line. She flew down it like it was nothing. After we all picked our jaws up off the gound someone said 'oh she's a local Quebec girl' and we all went 'ooooooohhh' because frankly nothing else could have explained what we had just seen. Inspiring. Unfortunately I couldn't find her later on to ask for some lessons - maybe I'll see her during the week...
2nd was watching the guy who came 2nd in elite men (I forget his name just now, Kabush won). In the berms near the end of the lap, half way down, while I was at the top, he straight-lined it! He picked a line where there was no line and fair looked like he was nose-diving off the track! The whole crowd was amazed and next thing he's riding off as per normal. Much debate ensued as to whether he saved himself any time - I think the overall consensus was no, and that was my thinking. But he gave us all a good bit of entertainment :o)
Finally, from earlier in the day... the race between Premont and Pendrel. Wow! What a race. Only 6 seconds separated them at the finish. Premont took an early lead but by lap 2 Pendrel had taken it from her. They seemed to swap a couple moretimes, and as they came in to the far loop for lap 4 Pendrel had 10 seconds on Premont (and I let Premont know as she raced past me at that point). I then rushed in to the loop and a few minutes later sure enough Premont appeared with about 15 seconds on Pendrel. Premont is one of the girls who is likely to kick a bit of dirt back toward me come Sunday but I couldn't help but support her - she's one of the icons of the sport and you have to give those riders the respect they deserve. The final lap, again Pendrel had a slight lead going in to the far loop and I waited at the final road crossing where we could see them exit the singletrack, come down the berms and across to where we were only seconds from the line. Premont appeared first, quickly followed by Pendrel - both racing for their lives. At that point the precious seconds Premont had gained were always going to be enough as it was smooth riding to the end (just a little undulating). What a race - phew! A great day to be a spectator :o)
I chose to watch most of the mens race from around the start/finish area, and had a good catch up with Mandy as well. A long and tiring day given I didn't even race!
I took Sunday a lot more quietly, getting in some more early time on the course and getting the far loop dialled, meeting a Quebec coach in the process. He has 110 athletes! Mostly junior and peewee, but that's still a lot. He had about 10 of them riding with him as they were racing later in the morning. He himself described them as the future of the sport in this country - he's racing on Sunday as well and was able to confirm a few thoughts about the course and conditions.
After cleaning my bike off the peewee races were getting started. Marie-Helene arrived just before and lead the very young ones around their little course - maybe 50-60m through the event village. One lap the really wee ones - the little guy that won thrust his fist in the air as he crossed the line - what a little star! He must have been all of 5, 6 at the most. I have a young fan in Christchurch, Sami, who is 6 who recently beat most of the boys at the local bmx race - I think she'd have given this young dude a run for his money. It's amazing what they do for the kids here and the numbers they get. There were about 20 just in the really young kids race. More in the next one - they did 3 laps. As they got older there was a revised version of the world cup course for them - just the scary technical stuff takenout. Though from what I saw of the kids this coach had with him, they can ride technical just fine! They're introduced to it from such a young age, it makes it easy to see how they can get so damn good at it. Awesome.
Sunday arvo was a good time to relax a bit.
Monday John and I went in to the City to explore. Wow! What a place! It seemed every corner I turned had something to explore, a street to go down, a shop to go in to, art or jewellery to browse and purchase, history to learn, culture to soak up. A fantastic mix of commerce, culture, history and industry all in quite a small space. After exploring the Citadelle I looked at some local book markets, then weaved in and out of very european streets being thoroughly distracted from my lonely planet walking tour. The place was an explosion of colour and energy and it would be easy to spend a LOT of money here (if you had it!). Just amazing. Some of it was just overrun with tourists, but I found some quieter areas which made a nice change briefly from time to time. We were too late for me to see the changing ofthe guard here (not free here anyway) but I did get to see the guards changing duty - just after the cannons and clock tower signalled noon.
Too much to write about it all here, but some pics might help...
Today has been a rest day. A chance to sleep in a bit, do laundry, sit down and catch you all up in a bit more detail and upload some photos to share. It's amazing how the time just goes sometimes... I did however, find myself sifting through Robyn's old racereports. What better task for an athlete feeling a bit overwhelmed than to go back and see how her mentor found the experience. For a bit of nostalgic reading, go here (first World Cup) and here (first Mont St Anne build up). I've read it all before, years ago, but suddenly it takes on some extra significance.
Speaking of Robyn, she's been in Beijing for a few days now and despite being manically busy is still around for me and also blogging on the Olympic site along with many other members of theteam - both support and athletes. Not long for them now and no doubt some of them will have some nerves building up too. Just wait til they get to the athletes village, and their venues - what a rush. For me, for now, a World Cup is enough to get the blood pumping. I've gota hard training ride on the road tomorrow so back on the course again on Thursday, when I'll be working hard to get all my lines dialled and get that technical confidence back up where it belongs. Oh to have a gravity dropper!
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