A quick trip to Brazil for Pan American Championships

Traveling to South America to our race bikes has become something of a specialty for Mary and I over the past decade.  These trips typically make up a small segment of our overall racing year but are often the ones that we have made a point to expand on.   The opportunities for getting away from our normal routine and well off the beaten track and  seem unparalleled to us when traveling south of the equator and because of this almost every trip has brought an adventure beyond our expectations.        

Trips of this nature require tremendous self sufficiency and though we are often near enough to the comfort bubble of the tribe of the bike to reach out for assistance the likely reality is that if we didn't bring it along we aren't going to have it.   This has led us up to where we are today,  better than average at packing and living out of our bags, and savvy at talking our oversize luggage onto air planes.  This still leaves us just an easy mis step away from the potential of a dramatic "woops" moment of neglecting to bring some essential item (race license or bike shoes for instance) that often can't be picked up at the local corner store. 

The past years of going for it and taking pains to try and do things right (whatever that means) with every shred of intent and motivation that we have has taught us a lot, primarily that you should take the time lay out what you need for your trip carefully, down to the last detail and even then always be ready to improvise. 

Our most recent trip brought Mary and I to Barbacena Brazil  to take part in what was our 10th  Pan American Championships.  This event is a perennial highlight as it is a unique chance to take part in a the heated battle for the sought after title of continental champion!  Along side the racing the continentals have often proven to be a stepping stone into some incredible life experiences that have presented themselves from meeting all sorts of rad foreign riders and being open to the ideas and adventures  that spontaneously come forward when coming in contact with such charged up people.   

We entered into this trip with some measure of brashness  fully committed to taking part event though it was clear that the path was going to be a difficult one.  By the time our petitions to enter the event were granted (you cant just show up at this race) and the team was officially chosen  we were just 3 weeks out,   making logistics, visas and tickets  all the more compressed and expensive in an already spendy  trip.   The real down side was that time constraints and alternative racing obligations prevented us from taking any opportunity to extend the trip on either side to experience much of the country and culture outside the race venue.   

Speaking at least a bit of Portuguese is pretty much mandatory if you want things to go smooth in the day to day while traveling in Brazil.  English didn't seem to come in all that handy and or our spanish skills didn't do much to enhance the experience of getting by either.  We were however happy to find that the majority of the people we came across were quite friendly,  tolerant and willing to help though it mostly came down to our solid charades background to get our communications across.  

Mary and I arrived at the host hotel after 35 hours of demanding travel from door to door.  The bikes were unpacked and built and over the next days we rode to and from the course trained our lines, filmed, discussed tactics, ate an unfamiliar Brazilian version of healthy,  recovered and tried to get back to feeling normal from the travel and rested up for the event.  Most of our time was spent inside our 3rd story hotel room within  the concrete jungle, ear plugs in, internet rolling and trying to remember to not brush our teeth with the tap water.  hardly an exotic trip as far as sights seen but for all intents and purposes we had all the tools available to handle the business that we came for.  

Healthy?

Mary diving into the dirt tunnel durring practice.  

Race day came as a relief to the stagnant holding pattern  and allowed us our first chance to really cut loose and do what we love to do, rip on our bikes!  It was hot/humid and demanding just to make our way around the punchy climbs and fabricated technical pieces that riddled the course and the significance of the event really had us keyed up to give it our all.  We enjoyed great support from the small USA cycling team that attended the event and that allowed me not to be in full support mode, feeding bottles to Mary prior to my race and Mary not have to do the same for me after her competition.  

Stoked up for our 10th Pan Ams together! 

Mary really rode her own race making a daring early escape attempt and impressively commanding the pace for the first 4 of the six laps seemingly without any other considerations in mind but her own.  Unfortunately the heat and difficulty of the course strung the race out far longer than we had anticipated  and as it became apparent that Mary's effort was  miss timed as a duo of  athletes were able to bridge their way up and eventually surpass Mary leaving her to ultimately make it in for the bronze!  Mary showed some great form and though she didn't come to Brazil to give up the pan american  champions title that she has enjoyed for 4 years out of the last decade she was none the less pleased to add a bronze medal to her overall count of 9 medals in the past 10 years of attending the pan am event.  

Professional women's podium 

My race felt like an especially epic battle but one that I never really had that good solid feeling that I was fully engaged in .  The first 3 laps of 7 were smooth enough without any of the  mishaps that are so common in the typically  frenzied opening moments of Cross Country racing and I found myself riding in the teens before the physical disaster of debilitating leg cramping started to take hold. Anyone who knows this feeling can imagine my dismay and especially as no amount of hydration or backing off the pace seemed to alter my sorry state.    I found myself almost looking for some issue to take me out of what really started to become misery but I know that one of the  only things that would feel worse than riding through cramps would be to  consciously chose to not  continue to ride through cramps.  In that spirit I continued digging deep while trying to block out the reality of the situation for the remaining 4 laps to finish it up for an eventual 21st. Yikes! no matter how hard you try  some days just don't go as planned. 

Has a good chance for some XC boosting on this new school course

The rain and slick mud made everything harder in the final laps. 

After the race Mary and I pedaled back to our hotel through an incredible tropical downpour that hosed off the race mud and filled every pore with the filthy backwash of the city streets.  Mixed emotions about the day had yet to sink in as we bathed in the  fatigue and self induced numbness that allows us to push ourselves so close to the limit of our pain tolerance when racing.  Our  minds had already turned to the prospect of having to immediately pack the bikes and travel home the very next day clearly without ample time to discover much else in this  fantastic country let alone take care of out primary needs for recovery.  

Mary looking beautiful and already recovered the day after the races

Reflecting back on the experience from our familiar and lovely training grounds in California it is pretty clear that this was an especially demanding week.   No doubt we were happy to come away with a another safe trip along with a strong showing for our team and country but there was definitely some things we would want to change if we could do it over again,  as usual hindsight is 20/20.

I am sure that in some way we will be the wiser from the experience and hopefully more capable in all that presents itself to us in bike racing and life. Happy to have  the chance to apply this knowledge as we are already  planning the next race trip and heading into it with every shred of intent and motivation that we have.

Hope to see you out there somewhere along the way 

Mike and Mary 

Beautiful mountains outside of Rio shot from the bus ride back, hope to ride here  again one day soon!

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