XC Racer Blog Post

Sudety Mountain Bike Challenge

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BY: Melanie Alexander

Published: 7th August, 2011


GETTING THERE, PROLOUGE AND STAGE ONE. Rest of stages to follow.

 

 

GETTING THERE

 


Myself, race partner Mark Spratt and Lisa Kamphausen caught a flight from Heathrow to Prague two days before the start of the race. We spent the afternoon sight seeing Prague. Anthony White and Mike Blewitt arrived a little bit later joining us for dinner. The accommodation Ant had found was ideal; cheap, in the centre of Prague and offered an eat as much as you like buffet style breakfast which we took full advantage of Saturday morning before getting a taxi to Kudowa Zdroj, Poland the race start for The Sudety Mountain Bike Challenge. It took just over two hours to get there and cost thirty five euros each. Saturday afternoon we span our legs out pre riding the route of the following day's prologue.


The route gave a good indication of the kind of riding we would be tackling throughout the coming week, the first half was mainly off road with some good single track, roots, and rocks, sharp climbs and one steep descent and on the whole definitely climbing. The second half was faster and finished on twisty road.

 

 

Accommodation for two nights 

 

PROLOGUE

 
It started on Sunday 24th July with a 7.2k hill climb prologue.  Teams were set off first with a 30second gap. We finished in a time of 38.03. With teams and soloists still racing for the next two hours we had to wait till the evening's award ceremony to find out where we had finished within our classification and later we found out we had done alright. We had finished first. Second in the mixed team were 'Gomola Trans Arco' from Poland with a time of 38.39 and third were 'Pell's team mix' from Czech Republic in a time of 39.12. We couldn't read too much into this other than that it was going to be a close race!

 

Prologue podium for the mixed pairs

 

STAGE 1
Monday 25th July. Distance: 102k from Kudowa Zdroj to Kraliky. Ascent: 2900 meters.

 

Winning the Prologue meant we could start in the first chute with the top solo and  men's teams plus the leading riders from all the remaining categories. We pushed a hard pace and led in our category from the start. We found we were riding with the leading women's pair; Ivonne Kraft from Germany and Portuguese national road champ Celina Carpenteiro. It was a slightly uncomfortable pace for me but I was enjoying riding with them. I don't remember too much about this stage - there were short climbs and descents, grass, mud and fire track but it felt pretty fast and full on. At the second feed station at 49k we caught up with the leading solo woman Kim Saenen (Belgian mtb marathon champ). We had a good group forming, all pushing hard.

 

 

Soon after I flatted, I had managed to find a 6 inch nail which went straight through my tyre piercing it twice.  Many riders seemed to pass us including the two mixed teams - first the 'Pell's mixed team' and then 'Gomola Trans Arco' who passed as we were packing tools away.  We caught them fairly quickly then I tucked in behind Mark and sooner than expected we had the 'Pell's mixed team' in sight on a hike a bike section. We gradually continued to wheel them in and on a steep climb riddled with roots we attacked and formed a gap. We continued to push hard. At 80k came the start of an 8k climb. My legs were starting to ache but we knew that once at the top the last 10k was mainly down hill or flat which kept us in good spirits.

 

Leading mens pair.

Some fast guys were leading the race, including the olympic and world mountain bike champion Bart Brentjens.


5k from the end on a fast fire road descent I flatted again. This was an awful fix. Mark did not hear me shout out to him, I blew my whistle and still he continued. He had the spare tubes so all I could do was run down the hill till he realised I was no longer behind him and he had to climb back up. Once back together it was a faster fix but just as we were packing tools away we were caught again by the 'Pell's mixed team'. We had no choice but to ride to the end with them. In the rush we had not put enough air in my tyre which made cornering sketchy. It finished with a sprint and we came second by 4 seconds as there was no sprint left in my legs. Race time 5hours58.

 

 

Pell's  Mixed team winning the sprint and Mark looking in wonder at my lack of sprint

 

We were really disappointed; we had pushed hard all day and not succeeded. But what mainly got to us was the 'Pells mixed team' were towing. Towing to our surprise was allowed in the race so they were not doing anything wrong but we just felt it wasn't going to be a fair race.


We had lost at least 10 minutes today so we had to be the stronger team didn't we?


That evening Mark did a good job of patching the tyre up so I was able to continue running tubeless. The risk of pinch puncturing on these trails was way too high to run with tubes. Accommodation was in another school; we managed to find a quiet room where only 5 riders slept.

 

Thanks to my sponsors: XCRacer, Mt Zoom, Accelerade, Gateway Cycles and Exposure lights.





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Melanie
 

Melanie Alexander

Elite XC and endurance racer. Riding for Cyclopaedia, Fit in No Time, OTE Sport, Mojo, WTB, Le Col

www.melaniealexander.co.uk

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