After the Val Di Sole World Cup, we made our way to Milan, Italy to board a plane for Barcelona. After a long travel day and a couple days in Andorra to train and reset before the circus of World Cup racing began, I got out on some beautiful rides over famous mountain passes and Andorran towns. I was excited to get on yet another new course for me, and discovered the track rooty, rocky, steep, and slippery from the evening rains. I was in love by the first lap, with climbs as steep as you’ve ever seen and long natural rocky and rooty descents. Again, U23 women raced at 8:30am Sunday morning. Despite the week day rain, the weekend turned out to be hot and sunny and the course dried out completely, leaving Sunday’s forecast to be hot and dusty! Luckily an 8:30 am start meant cooler temperatures, but I still found myself in the start box wishing for my ice vest as the morning sun began to beat down on us. I rolled up to the start happy, grateful, and excited to be there. I was called up to the line 19th in third row, my farthest WC call up yet. The start was straight and slightly uphill followed by an almost immediate 90 degree turn up the first steep climb. All of a sudden we had 1 minute till our start, then 30 seconds, 15…and the gun fired. I found my pedal, eyes focused, smooth, doing my best to avoid wheels and bars as the circus unraveled. The tape turned and our field was bunched up all across the track making it hard for me to move up. I fought my way to the top where it turned into a fun flowy dual slalom section. We were painfully slow down that as traffic backed up and every rider made their way down in single file. Up the next climb I dug deep pushing myself to the front of the slow group I was with and wanting to be first into the long technical descent that was just ahead. I also was fully aware we were racing at 6000 feet, and pacing was crucial. I worked to find the balance between pushing to where I wanted to be and not going too deep. But again I found myself behind a group of riders as we crested the climb and, crosseyed from the effort, I found myself at the back of the group. The descent was long with barely any passing places. I was frustrated as again we crept down the trail at a snails pace. Finally, the course turned and opened up onto one of the steepest and longest climbs. I pushed hard, happy to feel my legs burning with the good feeling and able to make passes. After the first lap I was riding with two others, and knew the top ten was in a large group close in front of us. I wanted to bridge to that group but knew I was already pushing hard and didn’t want to dig myself into a hole I couldn't recover from at that altitude. Lap after lap I was feeling the intensity of the altitude, but the feeling was familiar as I remembered training high intensity at altitude in Durango. That group in front of us slowly spread out and I battled back and forth with 16th for most of the race with riders close in front and close behind. 18th, 19th, then 17th, I forced myself not to care, knowing the race was far from over and my position didn't matter.
With two laps to go I held nothing back, battling relentlessly on each climb and staying razor focused on the descents. Every second mattered. A small gap grew with the rider I was with on the climb, which I closed on the descent, but then she opened it back up on the next climb. For the rest of that lap it was just about staying smooth and squeezing every last drop of energy I had left in me. I finished in 17th, really really happy to have felt more like myself, put down a fight, and checked off all my goals. World Cup racing is a different animal, and every race is a different kind of battle. I’ve gained a lot of really good experience this trip and am just grateful to have had this opportunity and hungry for more.
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AuthorSavilia Blunk, 20 | XCO MTB racer for Liv Racing Archives
March 2020
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