Under 23 Mountain Bike World Championships

Well I have recently got back from the mountain bike world championships that were being held in Saalfelden, Austria. It was my final big race of the year so I was looking forward to it. We travelled to the race the week before and got plenty of time to practice the course. The course consisted of a main climb into a section of woods with loads of off camber sections and exposed roots before dropping down a fast decent into another shorter but steeper climb and finally dropping off a rock and some rock gardens to arrive back at the finish. Other than that the week running into the race was spent doing short rides and resting, mainly watching films and chilling. Race day was a Friday and it was sunny with an afternoon start which meant that it was going to be a hot race and I knew it was going to be a hard race as everyone is on top of their game at worlds. I lined up on the start gridded 84^th which wasn’t the best place to be as it was about 10^th row back and I knew the first couple of laps were going to be hard work trying to overtake.

Soon enough they had counted down and I was ready to go, from the start it was flat out straight into a tarmac climb where I was on the limit trying to get past as many people as possible and managed to get myself into the top 40. The problem with being this far back is as soon as the trail gets tight you have to stand and wait while everyone fits through which means you are losing time on the front of the race. Anyway once I got through I started to move up and was feeling good as I came round the first lap just outside the top 30 but then I started to pay for my earlier efforts and over the next two laps I found myself making mistakes drifting back through the race and struggling to get in a rhythm which wasn’t good. Luckily I managed to settle down mid race and started to come back with my last three lap times all inside the top 20 of the race which brought me up to 32^nd place and that is where I finished. I was hoping to do better but It was my first attempt at the under 23 category and a hard race so I have lots to learn for the future.

So that was my final race of the year of which it has been a busy one starting back in November with the cross season followed by early mountain bike season then a three month road block and finally finishing off back on my mountain bike. There’s been a lot of learning along the way and I’d like to say a massive thanks to everyone that’s helped me out this year especially my coach Phil and the team at BC, family and friends, Boardman Bikes, Braveheart Fund, Mavic and everyone else I have forgot to mention, it is much appreciated! Next up I have some time off followed by the start of cross season in November.

Thanks for reading, Grant.

Evening in Austria

BMC Swiss Cup Basel

I have had 2 big mountain bike races in the past month of my season and the first one was the final round of the BMC Swiss cup in Basel on the 26^th August. I wasn’t sure how the race was going to go as I had previously just finished a three month block on the road and I was unsure how I would fair on my mountain bike again. We headed to the venue the day before to get some practice laps of the course in,  it was a wide start loop with plenty of overtaking available followed by some flat transitions and one main climb and decent with a whole lap taking about 12 minutes it was going to be a fast 8 lap race. There were some big names in the race with 2^nd (Nino Schurter) and 3^rd (Marco Fontana) at Olympic Games there as well as multiple ex-world champions which would make for a cool race! I lined up for the race gridded last but I was hopeful in this race that there would be time to overtake in the start loop and put myself in the race.

Custom number board from mechanics haha.

 I started well and managed to move up and put myself as near to the front as possible and found after the first lap that I was sitting second group with Julien Absalon and Fabien Giger with a front group of 5 slipping away. This was a pretty cool place to be as Absalon is a 2x Olympic gold medallist and multiple world champ so I was rather happy to spend a bit of time on his back wheel and see what I could learn, I was also feeling quite good on my bike. I stayed here until half way through the race when there was an attack from Absalon on the main climb and I couldn’t go so I dropped into no man’s land for a bit until I was caught by the next group of 6 people and I managed to get comfortable in this group. The pace was fast but I was feeling good so I kept towards the front of the group and worked hard through the next couple of laps before we reached the final lap and it all kicked off again on the main climb. I still felt okay and was able to follow the moves and then the finish came to a sprint between six of us for 8^th place and I rolled in 12^th spot which also meant I took 1^st place in Under 23 so it was a good day on my bike. Next up was my final race of the year which was the world championships, being held in Austria.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/swiss-cup-2012-5/results

Thanks Grant