Ant White & Rich Rothwell's Andalucia Bike Race 2013

Last year Rich Rothwell and I finished 5th in the Masters category when it was just one category (30 year +) so fancied our chances when they introduced the new 40+ category. We both trained hard over the winter. I raced a lot as well.

Sometimes the hardest part of a race is just getting to the start line. This proved the case for this race.

First up a warning:  Don't ever use AIRPARKs car parking if you going with a bike to the airport.  In true "Health & Safety jobs worth" mode they wouldn't let me on the bus with a bike box, despite plenty of space and no sign of a flotilla of wheel chair users on the horizon.  Ultimately it cost me more for them to drive me in my van to and from the airport (their Concierge treatment) than for the 7 days of parking. 

Secondly, Monarch airlines delivered me very late to Malaga so I missed the train to Cordoba on the Friday evening.  No major worries though … a night at the Holiday Inn and an airport pick up from Rich in the morning was the solution.

Thirdly, you'll like this … Josh Ibbett's father (Tim) arrived on Saturday morning, that made 7 in our group (including the WAGs + infant) to set off from Malaga airport for registration in Cordoba.

While unloading at our hotel Rich realised his bike bag wasn't with us.  Rethinking proceedings we realised it was left at Malaga airport. Yep you read that right.  A phone call to lost and found proved fruitless.  Rich was somewhat fraught and left for Malaga to see if it was still on the side of the pavement.  

While registering I got a text from Rich saying essentially, no bike joy.  I thought I'd mention to the race organisers that I would be starting the race without my partner because of the lost bike.  Viktoria (an organiser & top girl) then had a word with the Scott support team (top guys) and they provided a top bike - Spark 29er.  I borrowed a spare helmet from Sally Bigham (cheers!) and Rich avoided Josh's clown sized spare cycling shoes via a late night trip to Decathlon. 

Phew …

Can we just race now please.

Although we were gridded very far back with the other oldies we safely worked our way through the usual crazy start through the old streets of Cordoba.  

When we hit the bumpy steep stuff we lost some ground.  Although the medium Spark was the perfect fit for Rich it hadn't had the XCracer shop/MT ZOOM lightweight tuning and Rich was struggling to climb as fast as he usually does.  We plugged on, Rich trying very hard.  We were not happy about our overall race positioning. The final excellent downhill run-in to Cordoba was welcome.  

As we finished our names were called out over the tannoy. We were a bit confused but then found out we'd won the Masters 40 category. Rock and Roll!  The race is co-sponsored by an olive company, we received some presentation boxes.

A review of the results revealed we were only a minute up on the next team in the 40+ category … a Spanish team, Doctore bike.  This was going to be tight then.

Similar to day one, but longer & harder.  The start was a classic XC power push with the multitude of riders weaving chaotically around big muddy puddles. Sharp steep climbing and swoopy techy down hills followed.  My favourite stage actually.  

We jousted for the first half with the other top Vets team but from about half way they started to pull away leaving us in the pain cave.  

Rich was a little dejected and contemplated the meaning of life and futility of it all.  I was hopeful that the very long decent would mean we could claw back some time.  With a mile to go we popped out onto very sketchy steep section which reminded me of Newnham parks pipeline descent. Hold the back brake, slide, hope for the best.  We slid right past the Doctore bike team … the lights were truly out for one of them.  In the final pretty short run-in we pushed hard, full of adrenalin, and claimed a minute and a half and another Vets victory. Ace!  The 3rd place team was nearly half an hour back overall. It was now a two way battle. 

We figured that if one of the Doctore bike team had run on empty the previous day they would struggle today. This proved to be the case.  A quarter of the way in we were caught by the strongest rider in the pair, the body language and broken English/Spanish gave the impression that his partner was out.  We pushed hard at the front of some groups to open up some time gaps on those behind.  The rule is you should be no more than 2 minutes separated from your partner, if you are and go over a time mat you incur a five minute penalty.  We couldn't see the guy's partner on the long up hills so there was a big time gap.   We concluded between us that we had probably won the race. We took it easy on the treacherous down hills, the bumpy white rocks were tyre sidewall splits waiting to happen. We admired the scenery on what is the prettiest stage, but resisted the urge to pick flowers in the Alpine meadows.

On the final super steep climb the weaker of the two Doctore Bike riders came sprinting past.  We weren't sure whether it was him as there was a lot in similar kit.  Ultimately there was confusion at the end.  At the prize presentation their names were called out but they weren't around.  I explained to the organisers they had been riding far apart all day and had merely crossed the line together.  We were chilled, how much olive oil do we really need?

The formal race results were released later that night, again with no time penalties.  A review revealed that had gone over at least 2 timing maps 5 and 4 minutes apart.  They should have had at least 10 minutes of penalties applied. We emailed the organisers.

At the chilly start there was still no change to the results, this meant Doctore were only one minute behind us on the overall.  I talked to the race presenter and the one of the two round UCI guys about the issue.  

This was another day in the pain cave.  We went up high, it was cold, again we were riding with the Doctore bike team.  In this stage they rode very well, they sniffed victory.  

The stage was a blur, it had been altered to seemly be mostly a snowy fire road fest.  The weather had deteriorated and there was a lot of snow on the original route. 

My back brake was hardly working which was a little treacherous.  I hadn't really drunk anything and weakened towards the end as well.  We lost 4 minutes in the stage but if they had sorted out the time penalties we should still be in the overall lead.  

They hadn't sorted the previous days results out. The other team were awarded the overall jersey.  We "talked" to the other round UCI guy at the end. At first he started to postulate that the timing maps weren't accurate etc., but after rechecking things he rather sheepishly came back to us and said he would be applying a 15 minute penalty to the other team.

We were staying high up in the hills above 1000m and made our way down through the bad weather to Jaen.  It was lashing down with rain and I hoped they would cancel the stage.  They did, also the time penalties had finally been applied, double yay … we were now 12 minutes up. 

As a group we decided we would try and take control of our luck and move to a hotel lower down near Jaen rather than run the gauntlet of frozen roads the next day - a smart move.

Again the stage was altered.  It was changed from c45km time trial to a 52km marathon.  We convinced ourselves that this would be a quick XC scamp around the farmland on the outskirts of Jaen.  There was no neutral start, we positioned ourselves on the front line to the far left in order not to be rolled over by 50 Elite teams.

Annoyingly I had chosen this day to forsake warmer clothing.  We went high, up into the snow line for quite a while.  On the way day we had a few problems.  The wet conditions made things sketchy. I got very cold, my back brake gave up biting, Rich couldn't clip-in for a long while and I crashed into the floor to avoid an ambulance coming up a snowy fire road.  

In the end we made it to the end with 50 seconds to spare on the Doctore bike Vets team to win the stage and the overall.  It was an intense and longer than expected.

Lots of great race footage on the Andalucia Bike Race website

Alban Lakata & Tom Mennen won the overall Elite race

Top race!

Top results from Matt Page & Mel Alexander who were 3rd in the mixed Category, Hamish & Seb Batchelor (13th in the Elite field after a puncture fest on stage 1) and Sally Bigham who won the womens category with her partner Milena Landtwing.

Ant & Rich (Olive Oil Magnates)

If you ever come across a red EVOC bike bag with a Trek Superfly Pro 100 in it just floating around let us know.  It makes a good present for a taxi driver, or his son. Will probably swap for small child.

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