Thursday, September 10, 2009

Mountain Bike World Championships 2009 Canberra Australia


I flew out of Denver Thursday night and arrived in Canberra on Saturday morning after 23 hours of travel, 3 air plane flights, one frustrating experience going through customs, one missed flight and a short bus ride. Traveling is a bummer.

Canberra has strangely similar terrain to Wyoming. To think I traveled half way around the world, crossed the equator and the International Date Line, and end up in a place just like I left. The two big differences were kangaroos and left side of the street driving.


The course was very cool! For those of you who watched the pro race on freecaster you probably have a bit of an idea what the course was like, but pictures never quite do the course justice. The whole thing was built for the race and a bunch of rock were brought in. There was always something interesting going on in the course, it made for hard racing because you always had to be thinking. There was a start loop road section that bypassed the fun section through the trees. It then met back up with the course on a short inclining fire road before narrowing down to single track. Right off the bat there was a technical rock step up with a tight switchback at the end. Then you entered “cardiac climb”, steep up hill section, not technical but hard to power up. You toped out on that and were led into “cadaver corner” a technical little rock section. Then through “defibrillator” a section of rollers that you could pump through to keep speed and get a bit of a rest at the same time to prepare for “death adder”. This was the technical switch back section. Big rocks, very difficult, even some of the “easier” go-rounds were challenging. I nailed all but one section. Going up the last bit of “death adder” you can look to your right and see “hammer head” which is where you will be in a matter of moments.
Chloe showing how its done on "hammer head" A line

There is an A line and a B line of ’hammer head”. The A line is crazy, the set up for it is odd, you ride over two huge boulders in order to get the right angle of entry, then there is a huge rock drop/roll into another that has a turn at the end. I wasn’t able to ride this line, it just freaked me out. There were lots of places it could go wrong. I took the B line, slightly less scary, and slower. After that there is a three rock roll, I was getting it in practice but messed it up every time in the race, there was a go-round for this one two but it was super slow, you could run down the triple roll way faster then riding the go round. Then you power up some rollers and go under the down hill course, before starting a down hill of your own. This part is super fun, big berms, always on the verge of sliding out on the gravely dirt. A short little traverse and into some dual slalom type action, the left line was so much faster. The two trails merge together just in time to cross the road and shoot up onto a grassy field where tech and feed are. Power through the feed zone and up a short fire road climb, where there is always a head wind. Then into single track again. Twisty fun single track, and compared to the first half of the lap, not technical. This single track brings you around to the feed zone again. You pass through the feed zone and go up and over the course on a bride. By this time your about 800 meters out, you go down a stretch with a few little table tops then round a corner and there is a little drop, or you can take the go round. The finish in now in sight, you make a right turn, then a 180 degree left turn into the finishing straight.

My race time was 10:30, got up and tried to eat a good breakfast but was already nervous so I forced down some serial and yogurt. Took the van out to the venue, and got a good warm up in on the trainer, I need to remember to start bringing those to races, I like them for warm up. I did a few sprints on the road, then it was time to wait. 15 minutes till start we had to start getting in our designated boxes to be ready for call ups. 10 minutes till start, call ups. I had a really good call up I was first on the second row, right behind Michelle Hediger (2nd place). 5 minutes to start everyone is in place. Waite. By this point I am so nervous I cant stand it, lets get this race started all ready. Then finally, 1 minute……30 seconds…….15 seconds, GO!! I was not expecting it, 15 seconds doesn’t really mean 15 seconds, it means that the gun will go off ANY time in the next 15 seconds. Caught a little by surprise I had a slow start, I felt like a rock in a river with all the water flowing around me. I don’t think I was quite dead last off the start but I was surely a fair ways back. I managed to move up a few spots on the road but I was still in the back log going up the first little technical section. The first climb was a scramble, forced to dismount because of an error by one of the riders ahead I ended up trying to run up the climb, but there were lots of other girls fight for those spots and it was a bit crazy. It thinned out a bit after that. There were still a girl right on you tail or just in your sights, so you were pushing hard all the time. You race faster when there are people around. I was stuck behind this girl from Chile, she was botching all the technical sections and totally throwing me off. I was going to the run up to the triple roll and she messed up right on the entry, I tried to go for it but she was in my way and I hit a rock funny and unclipped. Ran down, and passed the girl and Essence (teammate) passes me. Through the fun berms, and girl crashes in front of me, I barely miss her. Up the fire road after the feed zone I am cruising. I pass one girl and catch up to a group of girls, Essence among them. Essence is first into the single track I am close behind. I follow her all the way down the back side of the course. She is a fast and smooth downhiller so following her makes me go faster.

Through the start finish it’s a group of Essence, a Canadian, a Russian and me. The Russian and I get a gap on the other two up the fire road . I am having trouble with the technical up hill sections, I am able to maintain the lead over the Canadian and Essence, but the Russian gets a bit of a lead over me. She maintains the lead for the rest of the lap, I can see her, I just cant quite make contact. Coming through the start finish she is right ahead of me. I catch her in the twisty tree section and pass her up the road, getting to the single track first. Up the climb I botch it, but I still maintain the lead. She passes me right before you start the berm descent. I stay right on her, I just cant quite make the pass. Up the fire road my legs are tired, I sit in, there is a bit of a head wind. She wins the sprint into the single track. I know I have to get ahead of her at some point, the finish is getting close. But every opportunity she speeds up, and I cant make the pass. As we come through the feed zone I know where I am going to make my move. On the last little downhill there is a drop, which the Russian went on the go-round for last time. I would take the drop, much faster then the go round and gain the advantage. It worked. I now had a few seconds advantage coming into the finishing straight. That was all I needed. I was able to hold her off. Finally winning a sprint to the finish! 16th place! And top North American to boot. It was a good race, my technical skills were not spot on and I have things to work on, but overall I’m stoked. I love World cup style races, short and sweet. And I love the atmosphere there. Everyone is there because the love riding their bikes, and they are stoked to be there. The spectators are great, cheering like crazy for all the racers. I am blessed to be able to have experiences like these and hopefully I will have many more in the future.