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Tour of Himalayas pt 1
James and Nadine
I’m 3km from the top of the Babusar Pass (4175m), it’s hailing and my jacket is in my kit bag 25km back down the valley. The promised views of Nanga Parbat (the 9th highest mountain in the world) are hidden by low cloud, so I have nothing to distract me from the rocky jeep track straight ahead of my front wheel. I haven’t eaten or drunk anything since the cut off point and mark of the final 6km climb to the top of the pass, which was where for the third time already during the stage I had no choice but to squat at the side of the road and let last nights ‘carbo loading’ evacuate my insides.
Half way through stage one of the 2007 Tour of the Himalayas and for me its game over. Any delusional ideas of matching James Ouchterlony’s results from last year’s event quickly dispelled by a bout of diarrhoea that has swept through virtually all of the participants overnight. Now it’s just about finishing. I can’t fly all the way to Pakistan for a race and not even finish.
What am I doing out here anyway, groveling up a never-ending climb in my lowest gear? I make an effort to remind myself about talking to one of the volunteers the day before. She is due to take up a post as a teacher at the school that is being built by the organisers of the race – the Kaghan Memorial Trust. The school won’t have any pupils older than seven, because all the older children died when the old school collapsed during the devastating earthquake that struck the Kaghan valley in 2005, killing an estimated 75,000 people. You can’t really complain about a stomach upset when faced with statistics like that.
This was the event's second year (though it was known as the Tour of the Karakorams last year) and featured three epic stages all held at altitudes over 2500m. Seven international teams (each consisting of three men and two women) had come from Denmark, Canada, USA, England, New Zealand, Germany, Holland, Pakistan and Australia.
The first stage was the longest at 60km, where the biggest time gains would be made and in many cases lost. Nadine Spearing, along with three other female competitors on the Dutch and Danish teams were too ill to start. This meant that Michelle Roberts, the second female member of team Great Britain and New Zealand, had to finish the stage or we’d be out of the team classification. Fifteen minutes before the start I’d given Michelle my last two Imodium tablets, believing I’d got the bug out of my system and knowing that Michelle had to finish. They didn’t help her for very long, but Michelle dug deep and showed real grit, just missing out on a podium finish for the stage. For me, I was simply relieved to make it back, the battle between myself and Rebacca Ormsby of Australia (she’d overtake me while I was having an emergency toilet break, I’d catch her up and pass her, only to have to stop for the loo again – you get the picture) on the return leg having drained me of any remaining energy left after the climb to the top of the pass. At the front of the pack, it was professional cyclist and Olympian Robin Reid of team New Zealand & Great Britain beating Casper Helling of Holland (speed skating hour world record holder!) by over ten minutes to take the stage in the men’s competition. It felt like an unfair advantage being on the same team as him, but he wasn’t the only professional rider competing and the way he apparently shrugged off the stomach problems that had most of us struggling, showed the toughness it takes to be a pro roadie.
Half way through stage one of the 2007 Tour of the Himalayas and for me its game over. Any delusional ideas of matching James Ouchterlony’s results from last year’s event quickly dispelled by a bout of diarrhoea that has swept through virtually all of the participants overnight. Now it’s just about finishing. I can’t fly all the way to Pakistan for a race and not even finish.
What am I doing out here anyway, groveling up a never-ending climb in my lowest gear? I make an effort to remind myself about talking to one of the volunteers the day before. She is due to take up a post as a teacher at the school that is being built by the organisers of the race – the Kaghan Memorial Trust. The school won’t have any pupils older than seven, because all the older children died when the old school collapsed during the devastating earthquake that struck the Kaghan valley in 2005, killing an estimated 75,000 people. You can’t really complain about a stomach upset when faced with statistics like that.
This was the event's second year (though it was known as the Tour of the Karakorams last year) and featured three epic stages all held at altitudes over 2500m. Seven international teams (each consisting of three men and two women) had come from Denmark, Canada, USA, England, New Zealand, Germany, Holland, Pakistan and Australia.
The first stage was the longest at 60km, where the biggest time gains would be made and in many cases lost. Nadine Spearing, along with three other female competitors on the Dutch and Danish teams were too ill to start. This meant that Michelle Roberts, the second female member of team Great Britain and New Zealand, had to finish the stage or we’d be out of the team classification. Fifteen minutes before the start I’d given Michelle my last two Imodium tablets, believing I’d got the bug out of my system and knowing that Michelle had to finish. They didn’t help her for very long, but Michelle dug deep and showed real grit, just missing out on a podium finish for the stage. For me, I was simply relieved to make it back, the battle between myself and Rebacca Ormsby of Australia (she’d overtake me while I was having an emergency toilet break, I’d catch her up and pass her, only to have to stop for the loo again – you get the picture) on the return leg having drained me of any remaining energy left after the climb to the top of the pass. At the front of the pack, it was professional cyclist and Olympian Robin Reid of team New Zealand & Great Britain beating Casper Helling of Holland (speed skating hour world record holder!) by over ten minutes to take the stage in the men’s competition. It felt like an unfair advantage being on the same team as him, but he wasn’t the only professional rider competing and the way he apparently shrugged off the stomach problems that had most of us struggling, showed the toughness it takes to be a pro roadie.
With the times added up, team Britain and New Zealand took a commanding lead in the team classification with the Netherlands in 2nd and Canada 3rd. The presentations took place in the tiny village of Jalkhad and with the cameras filming the trust received a donation of $50,000 from one of the richest men in Pakistan. Such a large sum of money was in stark contrast to the poverty in the village - surrounded by inhospitable mountains it consisted mainly of tents, with one stone building, a dirt road and a bridge we’d been made to walk across at the start of the stage because part of the timber deck had given way! With the start/finish arch taken down and our bikes loaded up, we were ready to depart, and I wondered when the villagers would next see a lycra clad group of Westerners riding by on bikes worth thousands of dollars. Once on the transfer back down the valley to our base in Naran (with one section of the road amazingly having road markings!) the pain of the climbing was forgotten as people swapped tales of the sweet singletrack in the meadow along the valley floor and dozens of local children cheering us on.
After a fitful night’s sleep and more trips to the toilet, the alarm clock went off and it was time to prepare for stage two, a 5 lap cross-country race around Lake Saiful Mulk, with views of the snowcapped Malika Parbat (5290m) in the distance. An amazing location for a race, the only downside being the 3200m altitude, which had you hyperventilating all too easily! Everyone was transported up the 10km climb to the lake in the back of Jeeps, some of them open topped with bangra music blasting out of the stereo as we bumped and bounced our way up the track. Once at the top, we were presented with a warm sunny afternoon, quite different from three days previously, when many people had ridden up to the lake to test their legs and do some acclimatising before the race, only to be caught in a thunder storm once at the top.
The 6km lap, which most of us hadn’t pre-ridden, turned out to be a gem – beautiful and sharp, diving and swooping round the emerald green lake. It was a lesson in riding light and smooth through the rocks, with no clear lines and as people found out lots of opportunities to puncture, even if you were running a tubeless setup. At the far end was a deceptively tough climb that led to a super fast section of singletrack with lots of little crests and drops, perfect for jeyboy style bunny-hopping. With 4 river crossings per lap, two of which went over your knees and a dodgy bridge to cross at the end of the lap where you were forced to walk, the course also had an adventure racing flavour.
Unlike the first stage, when it was agreed to neutralise the race until everybody had waded through a river (1km in) today it was game on from the start. With this in mind, most competitors attempted some sort of warm up before the start (although nobody had managed to pack their turbo trainers with their luggage…) giving you a chance to judge peoples form. Jonathan Gormick of team Canada looked to me like the man to beat. Ipod psyching him up, pedaling smoothly, his team issue Santa Cruz Blur an ideal bike for the course, he looked confident of the win. On the women’s side, Britta Martin of Germany looked a good bet. She’d finished second overall in the race last year and would have to make her move today if she wanted to improve on that result.
After a photo op. for the assembled media, it was time for everyone to line up together. The start loop consisted of a mad dash round a stone building - picking your line through a meadow full of rocks, then a quick jostle for position before the first rock garden. For me the first lap was about learning my lines and seeing how my legs felt. I didn’t feel great, but I was just ahead of the people I’d raced against yesterday, so there could be no backing off. At the end of my second lap I’d managed to catch and gap Catherine Vipond of Canada and two other female riders. I hit the next rock garden as fast as I could to try and hold them off, but this was the wrong tactic – my heartrate was maxed out and I was all over the place fighting my bike. Choosing the wrong line up a short climb, I span out and Catherine smoothly rode past me, making me realise that the course required more than just an unthinking flat-out effort.
After a fitful night’s sleep and more trips to the toilet, the alarm clock went off and it was time to prepare for stage two, a 5 lap cross-country race around Lake Saiful Mulk, with views of the snowcapped Malika Parbat (5290m) in the distance. An amazing location for a race, the only downside being the 3200m altitude, which had you hyperventilating all too easily! Everyone was transported up the 10km climb to the lake in the back of Jeeps, some of them open topped with bangra music blasting out of the stereo as we bumped and bounced our way up the track. Once at the top, we were presented with a warm sunny afternoon, quite different from three days previously, when many people had ridden up to the lake to test their legs and do some acclimatising before the race, only to be caught in a thunder storm once at the top.
The 6km lap, which most of us hadn’t pre-ridden, turned out to be a gem – beautiful and sharp, diving and swooping round the emerald green lake. It was a lesson in riding light and smooth through the rocks, with no clear lines and as people found out lots of opportunities to puncture, even if you were running a tubeless setup. At the far end was a deceptively tough climb that led to a super fast section of singletrack with lots of little crests and drops, perfect for jeyboy style bunny-hopping. With 4 river crossings per lap, two of which went over your knees and a dodgy bridge to cross at the end of the lap where you were forced to walk, the course also had an adventure racing flavour.
Unlike the first stage, when it was agreed to neutralise the race until everybody had waded through a river (1km in) today it was game on from the start. With this in mind, most competitors attempted some sort of warm up before the start (although nobody had managed to pack their turbo trainers with their luggage…) giving you a chance to judge peoples form. Jonathan Gormick of team Canada looked to me like the man to beat. Ipod psyching him up, pedaling smoothly, his team issue Santa Cruz Blur an ideal bike for the course, he looked confident of the win. On the women’s side, Britta Martin of Germany looked a good bet. She’d finished second overall in the race last year and would have to make her move today if she wanted to improve on that result.
After a photo op. for the assembled media, it was time for everyone to line up together. The start loop consisted of a mad dash round a stone building - picking your line through a meadow full of rocks, then a quick jostle for position before the first rock garden. For me the first lap was about learning my lines and seeing how my legs felt. I didn’t feel great, but I was just ahead of the people I’d raced against yesterday, so there could be no backing off. At the end of my second lap I’d managed to catch and gap Catherine Vipond of Canada and two other female riders. I hit the next rock garden as fast as I could to try and hold them off, but this was the wrong tactic – my heartrate was maxed out and I was all over the place fighting my bike. Choosing the wrong line up a short climb, I span out and Catherine smoothly rode past me, making me realise that the course required more than just an unthinking flat-out effort.
With clouds building at the far side of the course as the race progressed, droplets of rain began to fall, giving you an extra incentive to finish as quickly as you could. The rocks had a decent amount of grip in the dry, but would quickly become lethal if it started to rain properly. After flying past me at the start, I’d seen Michelle sitting at the side of the course looking very unwell - bad news for team Great Britain & New Zealand. Our lead at the top of the classification looked even more precarious when I rounded a corner on lap three to see Nadine with her bike on the floor, a slash in her rear tyre and sealant everywhere. We’d had all our C02 canisters taken off us at customs, but thankfully someone had passed her a pump, so I gave her my spare inner tube and left her too it. It turned out to be a bad decision by me – in a hurry, she didn’t put enough pressure in the tyre and by the end of the race, despite chasing as hard as she could, Nadine had collected a further two punctures and had been lapped by the leading female competitors.
Despite all the bad luck encountered by our female riders on the day, the fast riding by our New Zealand team-mates continued, with Chris Burr (another puncture victim) taking the stage win on his pimped out 5 ½ inch travel Santa Cruz Heckler. Robin Reid was hot on his heals, with Jonathan Gormick taking third despite a very short acclimatisation period (most of the New Zealand, Australian and German riders had arrived in the mountains several days before the rest of the competitors, giving themselves more time to adjust to the altitude). Showing a turn of speed to win the stage in the women’s competition against younger (sorry Marg) opposition was Marg Fedyna of Canada, La Ruta de Los Conquistadores Champion and former world 24hr solo winner!
Given the choice between a jeep ride back down to Narran, and a 10km downhill, most riders unsurprisingly opted to ride back to base once the stage had finished. It wasn’t an ideal cool down – your body was battered by the time you reached the bottom – but it was ace fun to ride past a glacier and see how many jeeps you could overtake!
part 2 on Friday
Despite all the bad luck encountered by our female riders on the day, the fast riding by our New Zealand team-mates continued, with Chris Burr (another puncture victim) taking the stage win on his pimped out 5 ½ inch travel Santa Cruz Heckler. Robin Reid was hot on his heals, with Jonathan Gormick taking third despite a very short acclimatisation period (most of the New Zealand, Australian and German riders had arrived in the mountains several days before the rest of the competitors, giving themselves more time to adjust to the altitude). Showing a turn of speed to win the stage in the women’s competition against younger (sorry Marg) opposition was Marg Fedyna of Canada, La Ruta de Los Conquistadores Champion and former world 24hr solo winner!
Given the choice between a jeep ride back down to Narran, and a 10km downhill, most riders unsurprisingly opted to ride back to base once the stage had finished. It wasn’t an ideal cool down – your body was battered by the time you reached the bottom – but it was ace fun to ride past a glacier and see how many jeeps you could overtake!
part 2 on Friday
adelansley
dabaldie
