Getting Back to the World Cups

World cup #1 Albstadt Germany 

On the way to Albstadt 

Albstadt is a quiet group of small towns in Schwabish Alb Germany that is a pretty hard place to get to for out of towners, at least without getting lost a couple of times on the web of tiny little roads that riddle the remote countryside.  

Once we made it to town it still took us a couple of hours to find the course that turned out to be little more than a very recently built/ improved little nest of snakes tucked into an impossibly small and steep hill.  If you can build a world cup course here it must be possible almost anywhere! Big Props to Skyder productions for making the improbable a reality! 

The course itself proved to be a bit of a bear, steep as any we have seen and with at least one feature (depending on who you ask) that was a bit more demanding than is typically found on the XC circuit.  Safe to say it was a "new school" course and it was one that brought a certain exciting "TV worthy" watchability but unfortunately also claimed what might have been a healthy early season from several athletes prior to the competition, and several more during the racing. 

Mary and I spent the last couple of days in true RV style, constantly on the move from random quiet night time locations surrounding the race venue, to the wi fi signal in the Mc'Donalds parking lot to daily training on the World Cup Course.   Probably a bit less chaotic than it sounds since this is not far form our normal mode of operations.  

The language barrier helps us bend the rules.

Pre race street tune 

Race day came with the threat of rain and though the women escaped the wrath until the final lap the course quickly deteriorated and made for some demanding riding on all the portions that were not absolutely wrapped in hardener.  For better for worse however this was a very small portion of the course. 

Mary ended up having a really solid day though a normal but terminal  "cross country syndrome" would leave her slightly dissatisfied with anything less than a commanding win her 27th on the day was a sign of great fitness and a resolve to take the world cup bull by the horns.   

Mary on a rail!

I would love to be able to show the footage of my race start that had me  standing around for way to long at the back of 130 riders as we filed one by one into the single track.  I would actually be unable to watch this myself but it would be nice to have on hand if only just to prove that those at the back did not have anything like a fair shake at the racing.  How about including a Start loop guys!? 

Loosing 4:50 on the first lap did not do very much for my overall chances on the day but the course proved entertaining in its state of dis repair and as usual the racing was a good fight once things eventually got moving. 

Finally got a few turns in without the traffic!

Glad to be running  Kenda's Karmas

One of Those days

It's still spring in Germany and this means some seriously unsettled weather that has brought day after day of rain to sun to rain to sun.  This making it  not seem to be the worst time to make the drive to the Czech Republic where we will be contesting the next world cup at a more familiar course in Nove Mesto.   

We may have to bring some extra bread along from Germany

There are some great shots of the racing along with some of the best commentary and results to be found at cyclingnews.com hope you have the time to check it out.  

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