MaxiAvalanche qualifier
It's been a rough stay here in Andorra for the past 3 weeks. I have got sick twice, the second time landing me in the hospital for an overnight stay. Not sure if it was something I ate, or it could possibly have been the water. Either way I felt like I was going to die the second time.
The weather has also not been the best, but today it has been sunny and great all day and we are hoping for the same tomorrow for the actual race.
The qualifier went well today. I wasn't sure what to expect in a race like this, so I just let the race come to me and played it out. Tomas Misser was in my heat and I knew he would be good. He has won this race before and has a lot of experience with these races. I got the holeshot and led through all the first technical section before dropping onto the fireroad which has a slight uphill to it. I had probably 10-20 bike lengths on Tomas coming onto the road, but I didn't pedal hard and Tomas bridged up to me. The next section of tech I also lead and opened up probably 10 bikes again on Tomas, but on another flat part before a flat tree section, Tomas bridged the gap once again. Going through this next section we were together and I mad a mistake and went over the bars. It was just a slow part so I didn't loose much time, nor did I get hurt. Tomas now had the lead and I made a little effort to bridge back to him now. From here I just tried to follow Tomas, but there were two big flat to rolling uphill sections coming that would last probably 4-5 minutes. Tomas opened up about 20-30 bike lengths on me. He was strong and I didn't think if I made the effort to stay with him I would be very good in the bottom technical part which if very demanding and requires good bike handling. In each turn I could see I was getting a little closer and finally I was on his rear wheel. There was one more small uphill that lead into a 30 second flat section. At this point I was still right on Tomas and was content to get second and just follow him in. For the quali you really just need to be top 6 to be on the first row for the finals, but as we entered the underground tunnel section with a small river running through it, Tomas was playing it really cautious and I was able to pretty much coast by him to take the lead and bring it through the last couple turns.
It was a good race and experience for sure. Tomas will be strong tomorrow as will Frank Parolin and Remy Absolon who are specialist at these type of event. The hard part tomorrow will also be making two runs, each run counting towards the overall.
Time to rest up, it's going to be tough...
Posted by Brian on June 14, 2008 10:39 AM