 |
| #Team KENDA - Intense documenting the moment and enjoying the stunning views. Mercantour National Park, France |
Mary and I returned to Europe after just 10 days at home, boosting our seasonal total to 14 days sleeping in our own bed for 2016. So far, in that alone the season has been a success. Following both the UCI World Cup circuit all the way through XC World Championships alongside the Enduro World Series (EWS) on every round to date has demanded no less than full commitment of our time and effort.
 |
| The daily grind... I do not mind. |
The last rounds of the EWS brought us back to Europe and full time living in the RV - our preferred method for life on the road, racing bikes. How better to shelter at the trail head (or race venue), make your own fresh coffee, hot tea and foods, tune the bikes at your own mobile shop and recover with a shower after the ride (race).
 |
| Mary has this down to an art... |
We made the drive south from Munich through the Schwabish Alb of Germany, passed through a couple of km of Austria to gain access to Switzerland where things really start to get beautiful.
 |
| No better way to explore a new place (and keep fit) than on the bikes. Val di Ferrera, Switzerland |
We trained and camped our way south eventually over the San Bernadino Pass into Italy and down to the Mediterranean coast. Tunnels and bridges by the thousands smoothly connecting the endless valleys that overlook the Riviera.
No doubt that RV living is sweet but having the issues of both a house and a car in one makes for some pretty consistent issues especially when your RV is approaching legendary status, as ours certainly is.
 |
| This time around the worst of it was the failure of the leisure battery and how it seems to have put our entire electrical system out of service. We have parts on order! |
 |
| Training days at the #EWSValberg France |
Here is a little
video we made - Hope you enjoy checking out a few condensed minutes of our life on the road and some trail footage of us looking at lines for the EWS...
The
Mercantour National Park is directly north of Nice and less than 50 (winding) km from the Mediterranean, here we found 9000 foot mountains shrouded in thick layers of mid September snow while the valleys below were yet to drop a green leaf. Storms pound this area year round and we were not disappointed in the lead up to race weekend.
 |
| The skies cleared, it stopped raining - checking out SP6. Thank you @sven_martin for the photo capture! |
Lucky and against the odds the rain held off for the races and what had been slick and sketchy throughout training became dry user friendly tack that improved for the entire weekend.
 |
The top of SP1 was hair raising on some sections / these drops were pretty exhilarating... Precision and riding within your own limits is everything.
|
The riding is really special in the mountains surrounding Valberg. There are a tremendous variety of old school trails just about everywhere you look - most with enough flow to be ridden on the first go round but really increasing in complexity when you add speed and ride near your limit. At which point you really have to stay in check and know what’s over that next riser, because in many cases it may not be all that much more than a narrow slice of safety above an exposed ledge.
The riding proved exhausting both for the distance of the transfers and waiting for the shuttles. We were near our limit throughout the two and half days of training here just to get one practice run on every stage. We were more than relieved that the EWS staff decided to eliminate the Friday prologue as the extra muddy conditions would have guaranteed hours of cleaning and tuning just to make a 2 minute race the night before the main event. As it was, our two person team was overextended and had very little time to do everything we needed to do before the 5:30am wake up call for Race day.
 |
| With the help of some Jim’s Organic Coffee, a couple of warm up moves on the yoga mat and the stoke of competition, I was out the door on on the way to my 7:59 am start and 8:30 first stage - a beautiful and technical trail away. |
It was slick on stage 1, In my opinion the most technically challenging stage, so I was glad to make it through the majority of the jagged upper features on the bike without issue and fast enough to pass my 15 second + man, (riders were sent off in individual 15 second intervals). Then it all went bad when I blew a crucial line in the final 180 degree corner and launched myself over the bars and down a steep rocky wash. Very lucky that I hit the ground sliding, although it took me a good bit of time to claw my way back up the shale to the pile of bike that I had left imbedded into the trail. Yikes.
 |
| I dialed this line in training... |
 |
| Mary ripping her Intense Cycles Tracer 275 |
Mary has been enjoying the EWS races. Alongside her supporting role, she is determined to improve her skills and enjoy this as riding therapy as she decompresses from her long season of XC World Cups. She only put a leg over her Enduro bike starting in July after completing a full XC season - Pretty impressive to just hang in on these huge endurance days riding extreme and demanding trails!
Definitely some mixed emotions about spending this past week in bike paradise with broken ribs and really needing and wanting to do much more than nothing. Frustrating and not doing what we were expecting in likely one of the finest areas in the world to ride enduro bikes but at least for all intents and purposes we are pretty much at home.
The final round of the EWS in Finale Ligure, Italy is still a week out, but certainly on my mind! At this point I am leading the masters category and need to have a half decent finish to pull off the overall… This is something that I would have a lot more stoke on doing without injury but at this point I still have a couple of more days to focus on recovery and do all that I can do to be as comfortable as possible in what will no doubt be another epic race weekend.
All the best!
Salud!
Mike and Mary
 |
Overall #EWS Leaders Podium - Valberg, France
(L-R) Cecile Ravanel (Open Women), Adrien Dailly (Under 21 men), Richie Rude (Open Men), Raphaela Richter (Under 21 women) Mike Broderick (Masters Men) |
0 Response to "The Ups and Downs of Racing"
Post a Comment