Kashi's MTB Journal
05 May 2008
Back to one of the biggest world cup classics... Madrid, in Casa del Campo.. the hooker park. This year we found out something new... the girls don't like there photos taken! I made the mistake and within a few seconds there were rocks flying at our hire car!!! Ops, soorryy ;) We seemed to get on better with the 'normal' people of the park, as each night we took out the hellfires (RC trucks) onto a nearby area and raced them around. We sometimes had around 50 people standing watching the show :) Oh yea, and I learnt somthing else.. Pittbull's and RC cars don't mix.. and mine now had some serious teeth marks to prove it!
The super dry, loose, punchy, high speed conditions were probably the closest we'll get to the Olympics, so that meant a little extra practice trying different tire combinations and suspension pressures. The heat got up to almost 30dC on race day, which was a bit of a shock to the system after the cold rainy spring we've been having.
Based on my feelings last week, Benoit was confident I'd ride well... and he was right! During the week I did three 3-4hr rides, two with good tempo. This is much more then I'd normally do on a world cup week.. but my recovery has become very good now and sure enough the legs felt great off the line.
The race was a little like the weekend before in Offenburg, with a huge group staying together at the front. But I learnt my lesson and tried hard to back off just a little on each steep climb. I dropped a few lengths each time, but was still able to stay in the first 3-6 riders for most of the first half of the race, even leading at one point at the steepest and most crowded section. The noise was so awesome I'm sure I had goose bumps!
My tire choice was on the risky side, but I really wanted to make a proper test of the killerbee treads for this kind of track. These are practically full slicks, which means super fast rolling, but sketchy on the corners. I ended having just one small crash and loosing just a little on the loose corners, but I could feel the difference in the speed and I think they really helped me roll back up to the group each time a wheel.
With 3 laps to go Jose and Julian accelerated and the bunch shattered. I dropped back into 9th, as I was nervous of blowing myself with all those steep sharp climbs. I rode my own tempo and by the final lap I managed to catch up to the chasing pack of 5 riders (4-8th) and got back in the mix again for a furious last lap. I dug deep to hold off for 6th place, ending up just 1'12 from Julian and 20" to third. Its a nice sign that I've managed to improve my ability on this style course.. something I've never been good at before, but will be oh so necessary come august!
Unfortunately for Roel and Jakob it was not such a great day. Actually many of the top riders were out of contention today. Perhaps due to it being the 3rd in a row, does change things a bit. So what do you know, I'm back in 7th place again overall... That's certainly been MY number over the years!
The super dry, loose, punchy, high speed conditions were probably the closest we'll get to the Olympics, so that meant a little extra practice trying different tire combinations and suspension pressures. The heat got up to almost 30dC on race day, which was a bit of a shock to the system after the cold rainy spring we've been having.
Based on my feelings last week, Benoit was confident I'd ride well... and he was right! During the week I did three 3-4hr rides, two with good tempo. This is much more then I'd normally do on a world cup week.. but my recovery has become very good now and sure enough the legs felt great off the line.
The race was a little like the weekend before in Offenburg, with a huge group staying together at the front. But I learnt my lesson and tried hard to back off just a little on each steep climb. I dropped a few lengths each time, but was still able to stay in the first 3-6 riders for most of the first half of the race, even leading at one point at the steepest and most crowded section. The noise was so awesome I'm sure I had goose bumps!
My tire choice was on the risky side, but I really wanted to make a proper test of the killerbee treads for this kind of track. These are practically full slicks, which means super fast rolling, but sketchy on the corners. I ended having just one small crash and loosing just a little on the loose corners, but I could feel the difference in the speed and I think they really helped me roll back up to the group each time a wheel.
With 3 laps to go Jose and Julian accelerated and the bunch shattered. I dropped back into 9th, as I was nervous of blowing myself with all those steep sharp climbs. I rode my own tempo and by the final lap I managed to catch up to the chasing pack of 5 riders (4-8th) and got back in the mix again for a furious last lap. I dug deep to hold off for 6th place, ending up just 1'12 from Julian and 20" to third. Its a nice sign that I've managed to improve my ability on this style course.. something I've never been good at before, but will be oh so necessary come august!
Unfortunately for Roel and Jakob it was not such a great day. Actually many of the top riders were out of contention today. Perhaps due to it being the 3rd in a row, does change things a bit. So what do you know, I'm back in 7th place again overall... That's certainly been MY number over the years!
