Race Report: World Cup #5, Val Di Sole, Italy

Glad I had my granny-gear for that race…  Seriously, the course was a series of short, super-steep climbs punctuated by equally short downhills.  Picture doing 8 VO2 intervals 4 times (hopefully that sounds hard…).  The race was short- 4 laps put the winning time at 1:23- but it sure didn’t FEEL short, I was barely making it up some of those climbs by the last lap.  I had a great start- even led the race for a few minutes, but I just didn’t have the legs to stay up there.  It was the kind of race where if you weren’t 100%, you weren’t a factor.  So I rode in 4th for a bit, then 5th, then 7th which is where I ended up at the finish.  Nothing too exciting to report.  It was a pretty sad sight (Waldek telling me to “attack the climbs” and me thinking that I was just happy that I was riding and not WALKING), and not exactly the come-back I was looking for after my less-than-stellar race in Champery.  Yes, I’ve had worse races, but I’ve also had better races, so it was a little frustrating.

Now I am enjoying some time at home: resting, recharging, and gearing up to SLAY IT at the last two Mountain Bike races of the season.  That’s the plan, anyway.