06.06.05 - Back for more in Willingen World Cup:
Time for another World Cup, this time in Willingen in Germany's cool and lush hills. On Monday, after a 4 hour drive on the auto bans from Belgium, we arrived in a very nice tourist town full of character and charm.
Our accommodation was nice. We were cheering when we saw the dishwasher and laundry. We'd finally get a break from hand washing clothes and dishes.
There was already a huge atmosphere and vibe about the place with all the team vans, trucks and cars kicking about. The downhillers were in town too, so it was all doubled. With the World Cup Downhill being on Sunday, our race was on the Saturday, with a qualifier on the Friday ? or so we though...
Good News
We were a bit stuffed from motor pacing on the Thursday, and I was still recovering from Houffalize. So we had to amp up for Friday's qualifier. We did all the right things on the morning of the race ? eating right, warming up, bikes clean and ready to go. But my legs were feeling dead and sluggish for some reason. So I was happy when Dan rode up to me 15 minutes before the start to say gthere's no fu#&in qualifier!h. I had to take my iPod speakers out (playing System of the Down to try and get going) to make sure I heard right. And they had actually decided there weren't quite enough riders to justify one, especially on such a fast and open course.
Road Race
Saturday morning was a bit touch and go with the weather. It was looking like a possible mud-fest. The course was as 'roadie' as you can get, with one long gravel climb to the top of a hill, then a couple of short single tracks amongst mostly fast, open grass descents. Very boring, very physically demanding, and very fast.
The morning was a bit rushed, as I had to sort out a bend piston on my disc brakes. In the end I was sitting in the Hayes tent for 30 minutes while they kindly did an emergency repair. I got to the start line just in time, but missed out on half my warm-up. The crowd was big, the rain held off, and I was prepared to battle the field.
I'd been promoted to second-last row this time, so I was pretty happy! I hardly had time to think before the gun went off, so it was on. After the first corner I ended up in a barbed-wire fence. I was most cut about the tear in my new knicks than I was about the 10 or so slices in my left calf and quad!
The laps were only about 13 minutes long, which made it tough not to get lapped. By the time the leaders came around for their second lap, we'd be half way around the course battling through bottlenecks and piles of riders in slippery, rooty singletrack.
I felt crap on the first lap (maybe due to a bad warm-up), but got better every lap. By lap 4 I was feeling awesome. Nothing exciting happened, but I missed the time limit for lap 6 by a minute or so. I finished in 143rd. It was disappointing to no be able to finish the race. You feel somewhat robbed of your race. But I expected this from such a course and accepted that this World Cup game is a long-term one. Patience will come into play.