Sudety MTB Challenge, Stages 2 and 3

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BY: Melanie Alexander

Published: 7th August, 2011

STAGE 2
Tuesday 26th July. Distance: 70k from Kraliky to Stonie Slaskie. Ascent: 2740 meters.

 

We still had the overall lead by just over a minute so got to start in the front pen again.
We were caught at 15k by the towing Pell's mixed team, we hung on for a bit up the start of a 11k climb but I could not hold the pace and they were out of sight soon after. We had no choice but to chase hard all day. The terrain was hillier today with longer, steeper climbs and longer more technical descents. At the top of the 11k climb there was a 2k technical descent with plenty of roots and rocks. All fired up I was determined to not loose any time on the descents, it was brilliant following Mark putting 100% trust in his lines taking things quicker than I would by myself. As we flew past others I surprised myself with what we were riding over and the more roots and rocks I went over the more I enjoyed it.

 

 

We continued to ride well on the descents but still they were not in sight. We figured we had lost the lead as we hadn't even seen a glimpse of them. At 61 k there was another long more technical descent with big rocks, like a dry stream bed. We managed to ride most of it. Nearing the bottom we could see the 'Pell's mixed team' dismounted and pushing and this just fired me up more as we took more risks to ride to the bottom.

 

Dry stream bed

 

A fire road climb followed which got rougher, they were 100 meters up the road. We were feeling good and gradually closed the gap catching them at the bottom of a hike a bike climb. We got to the top first and entered another fairly technical 2k descent before a couple of kilometres on the road to the end. We crossed the line with a 3 minute lead, ecstatic. Race time: 5hour01. It felt good to be able to win a Mountain bike race due to being confident on a bike; this was going to have to be our tool.

 

 

STAGE 3
Wednesday 27th July, Distance:59k from Stronie Slaskie to Bardo. Ascent: 2302 meters.
Start of day overall lead of 4 mins.

 

Really fun trails today. This day was tough but brilliant, the trail either went up or down. There were steep climbs, hike a bike climbs and there was a lot of memorable long descents which were quite challenging in places. 

More rocks and descents.

 

We held the lead till the first feed station and felt positive this was going to be a good day for us. We then had a battle with the third placed mixed pairs in the General Classification 'Gomola Trans Arco' they were thriving on the more challenging days riding and were great fun to ride with. They made us pick the speed up a bit on the climbs. We rode together for a fair distance, then at around 36k we entered another single track descent in front of them and at the bottom they were not there. A muddy rutted forest track for 12k followed and we pushed on still going at a good speed. The last climb about 4km from the end ramped up sharply and my chain snapped.  Again we got caught by a lot of riders as we fumbled trying to separate a link, but neither of the mixed pairs caught us. The final single track descent was long, a lot of fun and fast as we wanted to make back time. The day finished with a short spurt on the road. We had gained a clear win of 5 mins. The 'Pells mixed team' finished second and 'Gomalo Trans Arco' a further 10 mins down, losing time after trying to fix an awkward puncture.

 

Top of final descent.

 

That night a few riders warned us that the following days ride was going to be the toughest of all, even though it was the shortest. Looking at the contour map we could see there was a lot of up and down, no flat and plenty of steep climbing. I had made a mistake in keeping my Anthem set up with a double ring. Mark was finding the double ring fine but for me the continual grinding up the hills was taking its toll on my legs. We had a chat with the mechanics (who were brilliant) but they did not have the rings for me to alter my set up. Oh well, all I could do was make sure I got plenty of sleep and tough it out. 

 

Accommodation Wednesday night. We had surprisingly good nights sleep.

 

Thanks again to my sponsors: XCRacer.com, Gateway Cycles, Mt Zoom, Accelerade and Exposure Lights.