MaxiAvalanche Victory
After spending the night in the hospital just a few days prior to the race I didn't think I would have the energy or power to do great at the race because the pedaling sections were very hard, but I played my cards right and came home with wins in both heats to take the overall victory.
The first race was at 10am, but with 3 chairs to get on and having to drop your bike off on the start line 30min ahead of time, an 8:30am departure was necessary. I was called to the front line from my good qualifier and really thought the start would be cake for me. It was only about 20 feet to the first turn, but whether it was the spot I picked or maybe I didn't anticipate the ribbon being pulled up, my start was not good and I was about 10th coming out of turn one. I made some quick work of some guys and played it chill while trying to pass others. Within a few minutes I had worked my way up to second behind Frank Parolin who was about 20-25 seconds out front. I knew he was a strong pedaler and didn't know if I would be able to reach him as the long pedaling section was coming up. I could see I was gaining on him in all the technical stuff and to my surprise, I caught him just 10 seconds after we got into the flat pedaling part. I stayed with him the entire time, trying to recover and get ready of the more tech stuff that was coming as I figured I could pass him there. To both our surprise one guy came from nowhere and passed us both on the pedaling just before the tech DH stuff. I finally found a place where I passed both of these guys, but Frank was still on my wheel. I knew there were no good places to pass after I got around him on the DH stuff, so I tried to save some energy for the next pedaling part which was about 2 or so minutes from the finish. There was a small uphill to a flat 150meters and this is where I made my attack, putting a good 10-15 bike lengths on Frank and allowing me to take it easy a bit on my way to a first heat win.
Second heat was a bit different. I got about a 5th place start this time and quickly moved to 3rd behind Frank and Remey Absolon. I passed Remey after about a minute and then shortly after I passed Frank. From there those guys stayed behind me, always drafting where they could. The wind was picking up and the rain was starting to fall, so the course was getting slick.
When we entered the long pedaling, Remey tried to make a move on me towards the end of this section, but I didn't allow this to happen. Not sure what happened to Frank, but I think he crashed somewhere and this left just Remey and I together. I kept him at bay and then where I attacked Frank on the first run, I did the same to Remey and got enough of a gap that I could play it cautious entering town on the slick stones and took the second heat win to give me the overall.
It was a fun time and a great experience. Definitely harder than I thought in all aspects. The pedaling was a lot and hard and the DH's were very technical, with some being really steep and rough. It was a good all around course for sure. The right set up with suspension, tires, etc was mandatory and the Ibis worked great. I ran a roco air shock in the rear and a new proto 2009 coil 55 fork which was butter. The tires were a 2.35 stick E el moco up front and a 2.35 stik E small block eight in the rear with a special cut of knobs.
At worlds now, so more reports to come soon.
Posted by Brian on June 20, 2008 3:22 AM