Hi everyone,
It’s Thursday here in New Zealand, the day after my cross country event at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Rotorua. This afternoon I’d be able to say more about Rotorua—Jenna and I are going to be tourists today—but I’ve spent the last four days staying out of the cold, riding, warming up, and eating some of the best food I’ve ever had three times a day. Come race day, I was well rested, well fed, and absolutely thrilled by the lack of rain clouds in the sky.
About ten minutes before the start of my race I had to visit the Porta-Loo and succeeded in ripping my number off my back while trying to figure out how to efficiently remove my skin suit. The skin suit also has no pockets, so I had to put two gels in my shorts. One of these gels exploded all over my leg while being called to the start line with two minutes to go. Despite my anxiety over sporting the skin suit, the ripped number and gel oozing allover my leg on the start line, I will probably wear it again because I felt fast.
My call up was 21st of thirty-some riders, third row of three. I found myself in a poor position on the line, and when the gun went off the girl in front of me missed her pedal and I had to swing wide around the back of the pack in order to move up on the outside. Before the start I made it a goal of mine to reach the end of the start loop in a position that would allow me to ride up the first steep, slick incline. I could only ride one line up the climb so I figured I would have to get there before it inevitably jammed and girls are forced to run—I hate running. And I didn’t have to. As our field funneled into the climb, I was fifth. The Chinese duo was off the front immediately and nobody saw them again until the finish. Ren Chengyuan and Ying Liu placed seven and five minutes ahead of third place finisher, Sarah Koba of Switzerland. I won’t be surprised if their lap times will put them within the top ten of the elite women’s race.
So I was still climbing in fifth. By the summit of the main climb I was still in fifth and a little surprised. The girls ahead of were nowhere in sight but I had a sizable gap on the trailing group, things were looking good. Then I lost my head and forgot how to ride my bike. Three girls flew by me on a particularly fast section of the decent, I tried to hang with them, crashed, and two more girls flew by me. Tenth. Still good. One of the girls who passed me was Terezka Hurikova, the 2005 Junior World Champion, whom I finished six and a half minutes behind last year at World’s. Nathalie Schneitter, the 2004 Junior World Champion, who beat me by over 20 minutes two years ago, also passed me. While it was a bummer they passed me, it meant I beat them up the first climb. I think once I realized that I got my head back. And I finished lap 1 (of 4) in 10th.
While climbing up the first ascent on lap 2, I caught sight of Jenna not far behind me (Jenna Zander has been a travel buddy and competitor, now she’s a teammate and roommate here in New Zealand—and a very fast one too). I fought to keep a gap between us for the remaining laps. Jenna never seems to get slower as a race goes on and I usually do, but my faster starts usually allow me enough of a gap so we’re within seconds of each other at the finish. And yesterday I had enough of a gap to keep her behind me until I crossed the line. Somewhere around lap three, a German girl, Adelheid Morath, caught me on the decent and kept her gap up the climb and over the line. I crossed the line in 11th with Jenna about 20 seconds back in 12th.
Maybe I should have described the course a little. It’s 6km with very few rocks, a number of steep, rutted, and rooty switchbacks, a couple misplaced two and a half foot poorly constructed drops, and some high speed grass sections while ridden conservatively are fun, but at race pace absolutely terrifying. The climbs had some steep sections where I’d only hope the Chinese girls were also in their granny-gears. The first climb took about 12 minutes, while my lap times ranged from 25:18 to 26:36 (This is interesting: Jenna’s lap times ranged from 26:03 to 26:15, dang that’s consistent). And the views from the summit of the climb were incredible; I remembered to look on every one of my four laps. It’s been over a page so I’m sure you’ve now heard more then enough. I’m almost done.
Next year I’m going to have to be in the top five and there is no question about whether or not I’ll be doing this again. I think I fall a little more in love with racing every year and it’s what I plan on doing for awhile. There are so many people who have encouraged, supported, and challenged me over the last few years. It’s because of you that I love what I’m doing and why I’ve had such incredible opportunities. Thank you all.
-Chloe