That was an interesting change in 2 weeks for essentially the same event. Czech Republic was an amazing buzz and endless fun. Albstadt was a little bit of a let down. The course was pretty good but it lacked something fun. Its pretty well just straight up and down the hill on a fairly narrow track (about the width of most of the Stromlo trunk trail) with about 4 corners in the descent. The location was interesting as well, the start/finish straight is literally between a car wash, a supermarket and some apartments. It felt a little bit just shoved into the corner of the town. The race itself was a lot different to the other world cups. People at my end of the field were far more aggressive and pushy than the other rounds. There also wasnt enough space to spread the field out before the single track. It was crazy. From about 50th back we were all running for literally the first 1.5km, to then get to ride 600m of fireroad and then back to running for another 500m. While running it got a bit rough. Everyone trying to squeeze further up the field in the bunting. Lots of pushing, shoving, kicking and the occasional bike toss made the whole thing really on edge. One guy lifted his bike above his head, ran up the outside of about 6ppl only to trip (or be tripped) and fall off the side of the track and back to the back. When things actually got back to a riding race we were on the main descent. It was really hectic in traffic. The trail is fairly steep, not too bad, but as it rained earlier in the week the dirt became a bit different to anything Ive been on. It turned into a rock hard, almost polished surface. I think it would be like riding down a Teflon coated frying pan. If someone made a mistake infront you could jam on both brakes a hard as you wanted. You wouldnt go over the bars. Both wheels would skid and skip along, you might slow down a little, but not much. German crowds werent my favourite either. Thered only be slight noise coming from them when a German rider went past. Apart from that they stood and quietly watched..... and smoked. The second half of the track was as smokey an RSL Club in the 90s. It was rubbish to ride through. My lungs were hurting enough without it. With the tight and steep nature of the track the race spread out very quickly. Id catch little bunches of three or four but it would take too long to be able to squeeze past, so by the time I did there was an even bigger gap to the next little bunch. Not the best experience for a race. Im not sure if it was all that bad or if Nove Mesto gave me unrealistic expectations of what it would be like :P At the end of the day though it was still awesome fun and its been an unreal experience getting to chase the races I have so far this year. Thanks to everyone who has helped along the way. Especially to Julie Bassett, James Eldridge, Eliza Eldridge Bassett, Torq Australia, Mark Fenner and FTP Training, Motion Clothing, SRAM, Adidas Eyewear and Monza Imports Australia
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 07:41:57 +0000
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