So here I am sitting at a couple of thousand feet above the earth on my way back to South Africa thinking about my recent trip to Europe to compete in the German and France legs of the UCI World Cups held in Albstadt and La Bresse, as well as the BMC Swiss Cup held at Granichen, Switzerland. I think for me to put everything into words will take a couple of pages so I think I am going to try and split this up to make things a bit more manageable for you guys to read.
The Start
To say that the kick off to my European campaign was a rocky start would be the understatement of the year! We were to race the 4th round of the SA Cup series in Port Elizabeth on the Saturday before I was to fly out to Germany, however, on the Tuesday night before the PE race, as I was sorting my bike out and making sure everything was in order, I discovered that it was not. I had a hairline crack in my frame! I frantically got hold of Scott South Africa to organise a replacement swing arm which, thanks to the tremendous help of Joggie Prinsloo, I was able to replace the next day.
After one or two small hiccups, I made it to PE and race day dawned on Saturday. I had an atrocious start, to say the least, as I couldn’t clip into my pedal and then almost took out half of PE’s spectators as my foot slipped off the pedal. Fortunately I was able to catch up with the front guys but got stuck in a bit of traffic going into the first piece of single track which would cause me to lose sight of the top 3 guys. I was fighting for 4th/5th place with Julien Jessop up until my 4th lap when I bit it hard on one of the technical descents of the course and injured my leg quite badly. I would finish up in 5th place which I was content with knowing that I had decent form going to Europe. What I didn’t realise however, was that in my crash I cracked my frame… again. This time a bit more seriously as the frame must have smashed a rock pretty hard. I frantically got hold of Scott South Africa and Joggie once again came to my rescue and was able to arrange a new part for me which literally arrived an hour before I left for King Shaka International Airport.
Germany Bound
Fortunately, I wasn’t the only South African making my way to Germany for the World Cups and Cherie and Mariska (thanks guys – I mean gals) would keep me company during my travels, which was probably a good thing as I don’t think I would have made it out of Dubai airport without their help. So with the exception of missing a train, the trip went off without a hitch and I arrived safe and sound in Albstadt, Germany.
Public transport is a beaut, and thanks to these two for showing me the ins and outs
For the first World Cup I would be staying at the Squirt Athlete House with fellow South Africans James, JP and Ariaan (kinda South African). This is an initiative that Squirt has started whereby they provide accommodation to their riders for the World Cup races. Before I continue any further, I would really like to thank Barry, De Wet and everyone else who made this a possibility as you have helped me tremendously in giving me the opportunity to go to Europe and gain a bit of experience racing there.
James and Ariaan on kitchen duty
Albstadt accommodation was a 200 year old building, but still stunning
The view from my room
Slippery wouldn’t quite describe the track at Albstadt when I first rode it. Oil-soaked, Teflon-covered rocks in the wet might come close J. I made it about 500m into my first lap on the Thursday morning and had already crashed spectacularly, however, the top European riders would ride these conditions like they were dry, something us South Africans don’t get accustomed to too often. Fortunately the rain that had been predicted seemed to stay away for the rest of the week and the track would start to dry out by Sunday making the conditions slightly more tolerable.
I know for those of you watching Nino and Julien on redbull.tv the course looks fairly basic, as I thought the same thing. It’s not! The climbs are so steep that my Garmin would auto-stop because I was not going fast enough and the downhills are basically mud covered drops that you just hold onto for dear life and hope that you get to the bottom. And then the “Teflon-coated” rocks are just there to keep you on your toes for the rest of the lap.
I follow a few forums on the internet and someone asked the question about what it’s like from the South African riders’ perspective opposed to the top pro riders. For the guys like Nino and Julien, no expenses are spared and their job is to ride their bike under the best possible conditions imaginable: they arrive at the pits, head out for a lap, come back and change tyres, gear ratios, of which they have a huge selection, their bike gets washed and they go out for another lap. When course training is done they go back to their hotel where they get massages (I heard a rumour that one of the top women gets a three-hour massage) and relax and get ready for race day. As far as possible everything is done to make their lives as easy and stress free as possible.
For the privateers on the other hand, we’re limited to what we can fit in our luggage weight limits. When something breaks we have to try figure out how to have it fixed. To put it into perspective it was four o’clock on Saturday evening before Albstadt that I had finally got my bike sorted out as best I could after the mud parade we had been practicing in, which as I’m sure you will know really destroys your equipment, and then still had to try figure out what we were doing for supper.
My bike after one of the cleaner days
One of the other big differences is your start up calling for when the gun goes off. There are a lot more racers at a World Cup than what we have in South Africa and when the gun goes off it feels like an eternity that you have to wait before you can clip in, just because you are waiting for each row to get going. Finally, what they don’t show on TV is the massive amount of congestion the back markers have to deal with. But I’ll talk more about that at a later stage.
Sunday dawned to be a pretty spectacular day, the sun was out, temperatures were perfect and I guess I was as excited/nervous as one would expect getting onto the start line and seeing what European racing was all about. James and I headed over to the course at around 13h15, picked up our transponders and started our warm up before being shuffled into our call up pens.
14h20, odd time? The gun went off and 150-odd athletes were sprinting down a tar road as hard as they could to try to get into the corner first (basically feels like you in a final bunch sprint of the Tour de France) – at the end of the start straight there is a 90-degree corner which, by the sound of the brakes, I thought everyone was going down – fortunately not. By the time the first hill came I was so far in the red I didn’t know how I was going to manage the next 8 laps, but there wasn’t too much time to think about this as I was already losing positions as people take all kinds of risks and chances to try and overtake you.
As a result of all the congestion, when I finally came through on the start lap I had already lost a few minutes on the leaders and for Albstadt, this is not exactly an ideal situation to be in. The course is short and we were supposed to do 8 laps, so if you have any hope of not being lapped, you had to keep your time losses to a minimum. Unfortunately though, at the bottom of Devils corner, a sharp left hander into a steep descent, where the A and B line re-join, I had two crashes on lap 2 and lap 3 at the same spot where guys started joining the course again after taking the B line. The second crash resulted in me rolling my tyre which left me having to run to the tech zone. I was pulled off the course shortly after this, at the end of my third lap. This was a rather disappointing result for me, as to travel all the way to Germany and not even be able to finish 50% of the race was a lot below my expectations and aspirations. However, mechanicals happen and this is the nature of the sport.
Next, I would be traveling to La-Bresse, France with Elisabeth Brandau from the EBE-Racing Team. She was to be my host for the last week of my Europe trip as well as my lift between the World Cups, for which I am truly grateful. The hospitality that they showed me and in taking me in and looking after me is beyond words. Thanks Elisabeth J. You, Marco and Max made my stay in Europe memorable and I can’t wait to come back.
Before I say cheers, I just want to say thanks to JP for helping me out in the tech zone and for helping me sort my bike out from time to time, as well as to Ariaan and James for making me feel part of the team at the Squirt accommodation. Was really awesome learning from you guys and having you show me around the places we were staying. I also want to thank Joggie Prinsloo for really coming through for me and helping me get my bike sorted out.
Finally to my sponsors Squirt Lube, Defeet Socks SA and Hi-Tech Therapy for your assistance and support in my first Europe trip, thank you your support means the world to me.
Hopefully this gives some insight into the World Cups and the conditions we had to face. I’ll hopefully post the next one early next week.
God Bless
Cheers
Mathew 6v26-27
Stuart Marais Racing 