SuperEnduro sufferfest…
Saturday in Italy was spent at the Sauze d’Oulx bike park riding in preparation for the race on Sunday. In addition to feeling pretty drained of energy from all the riding we’ve been doing over the past few days, I have developed a complete aversion to all Italian food; meaning I am not eating… anything. Saturday night consisted of a “Prologue” – a timed street race through the town, through alleys and down staircases. I didn’t do particularly well, but it was fun to race through the town. Sunday morning, the day of the race, started with the usual stomach ache, worsened by coffee. I loaded up my bike and gear for the day and set off to the start of the event.
The race format is entirely unique to any racing I’ve done before. It combines timed downhill runs with cross country climbs between runs, essentially self shuttled downhill races. Racers start at a proscribed time, and have allotted amounts of time to get to each downhill start, at which point the downhill run is timed and added to the cumulative time. The first climb of the race was a particularly rough uphill on a steep gravel road, the morning sun already beating down on the riders. Having only brought my big downhill bike to Europe, I realized I was severely disadvantaged on the climbs, as most of the rest of the riders were riding bigger xc bikes, which are lighter and have more gears than the downhill bikes. The first downhill run, which was actually used three times during the race was a bermy loose downhill through a field, with tight grassy turns that required much caution.
After a pedal through town, we hopped on the chairlift to the middle station and set off on a 7k climb on a gravel road to the top of the mountain. I ended up walking my bike almost half of the road (and threw up once), but thankfully made it to the top with plenty of time. The second downhill was about 4 miles – long for a downhill track and took around 17 minutes (very long) to complete. After such an arduous climb, it was tough to force out sprints on flat sections. This downhill was repeated for the third section, although we were able to ride the chairlift to the top, giving our legs somewhat of a break.
The 4th and final downhill section was my favorite – fast and steep, with one uphill loop for good measure (I simply ran up rather than trying to pedal). Finishing and sprinting up down the hill to the podium finish was a terrific feeling, as I’d been out on my bike for nearly 5 and a half hours. I’d been hoping for a podium finish (top 5) but missed 5th by about 30 seconds. Next weekend we are racing in France, and having done one race, I know where I need to ride faster. After a big dinner, I passed out – and finally caught up on some sleep!
