Yeeeeeha!
I had the best result of my career, 19th in a World Cup - its still sinking in. They 'random' selected me for drug testing after the race so i got to brush shoulders with the race winners in the waiting room. It was only after the 4th bottle of water that i realised what a day it had been... kinda like trying to sober up for work after a big night on the town, piecing together the snapshots of what went down.
From the gun we went straight up a 'muscley' steep road, it was mayhem - everyone was all over the road taking crazy lines just to get that 0.5 second advantage and stand the chance of getting into the singletrack one slot ahead. I had almost forgotten what World Cup starts are like, it was a kickstart back into reality - there is no track given and none asked amongst these guys, this is business. Merciless business.
The course was very similar to the Chile Challenge course which i raced a few weeks ago so that was a serious advantage - i knew what to expect... basically 6km of climbing then 3km decent. Its a tough course. We were the last race of the day so the track was all rutted out with braking bumps. Lots of powder dust made you keep a bit of a following distance from the cloud ahead and making overtaking really risky. But I wasn't held up on any of the decents - all of these racers can hold their own on any course. The split between hardtails and full bouncers was 50/50, some of the rock garden climbs were so rough that it was quicker to run them than to bash your way between the sharp rocks and increasing your risk of puncturing.
After the first lap I was hanging onto 25th spot. The pace on the first two laps was brutal and i was suffering to keep my position. On lap 3, my legs came back - something clicked and those jerseys up ahead started looming closer. Its probably thanks to last season's marathon and stage racing that I just seem to get stronger as the race goes on ... its a good way to finish.
On the last lap, I managed to catch and pass 2 more riders, one was Phil Spencer (GB) - I suffered past him in the top rock garden and managed to put some seconds into him by the highest point on the course. It was really important for me to put another commonwealth citizen behind me to increase my chances of selection for the Commonwealth games next year. Over the top I had to keep the pressure on, telling myself to flow the lines and keep the Pom off my wheel. The course marshalls blow whistles everytime a rider comes past them, the silences between the screeching blasts were getting less and less ... the pressure was on ... putting on the gas again my front wheel washed out but i managed to save it and cross the line with a 7 second buffer on Spencer.
A whole lot more than just another day at the office in the leather seat! This was the race of my life.
See official results at
http://www.uci.ch/ucinet/uci.asp?page=rankings&discipline=mtb&l=eng
