Hi all,
My most recent race was the World Championships and it was being held in Champery, Switzerland. After competing in the Val Di sole world cup the previous week we had travelled straight to Switzerland and we arrived there 10 days before my competitions. We were staying in a nice hotel a couple of miles from the course and in the middle of the Alps so the views were something else. Once we got there we had a couple of easy days before some 3-4 hour rides and plenty of laps of the course. The course was very good, I knew it before I arrived as I had raced a world cup on it last year and it was very similar, lots of roots quite hilly and for my race it was muddy. I had two races for worlds, the team relay was first on the Wednesday then on the Thursday it was my junior men's race. The team relay was something I hadn’t done before but it consisted of a 4 person team and each person did a lap of the course. Our team consisted of me, Kenta Gee, Tracy Moseley and Liam Killeen. We arrived at the course plenty of time before and got set up; our lead out man was Kenta, with me taking the second leg followed by Tracy then Liam finishing it off. It was exciting getting ready to race and once I finished my warm up I headed over to the start where Kenta tagged me and off I went it was one lap as hard as I could. I managed to reel in people and ended up having a race with two other juniors for my lap and came through in 7th and sent Tracy on her way. It was a very hard race effort but I was pleased with how I went and we ended up finishing in 9th which was great.
I then headed back to the hotel to get some food and a good night’s sleep before the next day which was my race. My race was in the afternoon so we arrived at the team arena in plenty of time which meant I could sort out bottles and complete my warm up. I headed over to the pens 15minutes before my race start and chilled out waiting to be called to the line. The gridding was based on world rankings and my current world ranking was 9th and with 8 people on a row I would be the first man on the second row. As I headed to the start line I decided in the middle in between the two favourites for the race was my best place to start. My race was 4 laps of the course plus a start loop and the field was just over 100 people.
They counted down through the minutes then with 15 seconds to go I was ready, The start was crazy with people trying to fit through gaps that didn’t exist and taking some crazy lines but I stayed towards the front and out of trouble. The race began to split up the main climb and as we entered the first decent I was third wheel which was perfect. Then as I headed down the decent I came round a corner to find the two boys that were ahead laid on the ground tangled in each other so a quick bunny hop over his bike and I was in the lead! This meant I had a good view of the decent and I was able to build up some time and when I finished the start loop I found myself with a 20second lead, ya beauty! I then wasn’t sure what to do because I knew it was a long race and we were only on lap one so didn’t want to get carried away but at the same time didn’t want to hang about. I eventually got reeled in by the French national champ about half way through the lap and I followed him for the rest of the lap but I couldn’t hold his wheel as he attacked up the main climb. Then at the end of the lap I got caught by another French cyclist and a Costa Rican which was better as I could follow their wheels and I managed to get in a rhythm through all the roots and mud. We stayed together for the rest of that lap but by the end the French boy had punctured and the cost Rican drifted about 15 seconds ahead with the French leader now about 50 seconds up. I kept up my own pace then for half a lap then got joined by a Swiss cyclist and a New Zealand to form a group of three. I was able to settle into this and going into the last lap we were catching the Costa Rican cyclist. As we climbed the final hill The New Zealand boy attacked and I tried to follow which dropped the other Swiss boy and put me in 4th but I couldn’t hold the New Zealand’s wheel and he rode across to the Costa Rican who was still just 10seconds ahead but they began to race for silver and bronze and I dangled further back. I tried to make up time on the final decent so I couple be in with a chance of a medal but I wasn’t able to bring them back but I was still very pleased as I crossed the line to take 4th place at the World Championships.
Link to report with results and photos, http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/uci-mountain-bike-world-championships-cm-2/junior-men-cross-country/results
I have a couple more races left this season with the Youth commonwealth games coming up this week followed by the final national round.
Thanks for reading, Grant
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