2014 Retrospective And New Team News

Yikes, where does the time go. My year end summation of 2014 has been forgotten, until now, the almost last week of January.

 

I had planned for a long and in depth look back at last year complete with all sorts of analysis and video. Instead 2014 will get this quick and simple blurb.

 

The Good

 

Plenty of good this year. The finish at the Barry Roubaix is certainly one, and realizing I missed a podium by one spot was one of those "well crap" moments of the year.

 

Sticking with the gravel theme, the 8th place finish in the MTB category for the Gravel Grovel was a highlight. My training paid off and I felt like I had a great race. The only  thing that could have gone better was my pit stop at the halfway point. Too much time spent getting the chain re-oiled and getting food. Need to cut that down to one minute max in the future.

 

My bounce back from my mid season slump was a good thing. After three bad DINO races (one DNF, two mid to back of pack finishes), I put in more road time leading up to the Southwestway finale, and worked to get my endurance stronger. It worked, and I had a podium finish for the last race.

 

Improvement on the cyclocross front was a plus, as was winning an actual cyclocross bike. Next year, must dominate Cat 4 field.

 

The Bad

 

As referenced above, my mid season slump was the most prominent downer of the season. The crash which started it at North Vernon was bad enough, but the two crappy finishes in the next two races were terrible. 

 

The finale of the OVCX race at St. Mary's was a disappointment. I had worked hard to improve my Cat 4 ranking during the season, and was rewarded with a second row call up for the Indiana state championship.  As had been shown in previous Indy Cross races, if I can get a good call up, I will stay at or near the front for the rest of the race. Unfortunately, my late arrival at the race course and missed call up ended that. Lesson learned from this? Do. Not. Miss. Your. Call. Up.

 

The Ugly

 

I think the bad was ugly enough....

 

Moving on to happier topics, I can announce a new team for this season. In 2015 I will hang up the DRT kit and will be riding for Matthews Racing, a mountain bike team sponsored by Matthews Bicycles on the eastside of Indianapolis (so go and buy your bike stuff there). Matthews is an established team and I know many of the riders and have actually teamed up with their riders in the past for events (see Death March 2014). They always have a strong presence at the DINO races and it will be nice to have a home base set up at races as well as some team support. I'm looking forward to a good season with Matthews and hopefully I won't screw up too badly.

Three XCO World Cup Races To Help Indoor Training Suck Less

Unless you enjoy riding in the cold and snow, which I admittedly do quite often, this time of year will likely find you sitting in a back room or basement plugging away on a trainer, rollers, or a spin bike for hours on end.

Indoor training is not exactly exciting although training videos (such as the Sufferfest) can make things more bearable. But, there is another option which does not include a staring contest with your water heater as you try to finish an interval set. For a bit of racing excitement while you pedal away in one spot, we mountain bikers can turn to reruns of the UCI World Cup XCO race series. Thanks to Red Bull, each World Cup race is shown live online at Red Bull TV.
 

While this is great, the really fun part is the on demand feature which allows you to watch races from the past few years. In other words, perfect entertainment for winter training. There are plenty of races available, with seven races per year and both elite men and women races being available, along with eliminator races. (Be warned, the website is difficult to navigate. I've found the best way to find a race is to search for the actual race and year in Google as opposed to spending hours digging through the website) Warning, there are spoilers below, so if you don’t want to know how the race ends, just click on the link and get pedaling. Otherwise, dive on in…
 

Elite Men World Championship 2014, Hafjel Norway: A very recent contender, this past year’s world championship race saw XC giant Julien Absalon facing off against Switzerland’s Nino Schurter. Absalon was fresh off his first World Cup overall win since 2009 while Schurter was the reigning world champion. Schurter had also missed a few early World Cup events to dabble in road racing but had returned to win the final three races of the year, using his full suspension 27.5 Scott Spark 700 to good effect on the technical parts of Mont Sainte Anne and Windham, while Absalon seemed to lose time on his traditional hardtail.
 

As expected, the race came to a head to head affair, Absalon versus Schurter. Neither man could get much of an advantage, although Absalon launched a blistering attack during the main climb on the course in what had all the makings of an attempt to break Schurter. Although Schurter had appeared somewhat fatigued, he responded in kind and both riders raced neck to neck, out of the saddle, in a full sprint up a ridiculously steep climb. It was a fantastic scene and great display of power.

Schurter and Absalon shoulder to shoulder on the main climb at the
2014 World Championships.
(Captured from Red Bull TV)

While Absalon conceded the uphill sprint and settled back on Schurter’s wheel (yeah, I’m going to give away the ending) he eventually passed Schurter, opened a gap and went on to win the world championship, while Schurter uncharacteristically face planted on a rocky downhill on the final lap. Not that this cost him the race since the gap to first was too large to overcome anyway, but such a mistake is not seen often from Nino Schurter.

Side note: Italian racer Marco Fontana (Cannondale Factory Team), despite not making any noise during the World Cup races, came back and rounded out the podium with a solid 3^rd place finish. Must have been because he got rid of his traditional baggy shorts and went with straight lycra. The women’s race is also a good watch, with North America being well represented with Canadian Catherine Pendrel and the United State’s Lea Davison coming in first and third respectfully, despite both missing early season races with injuries.

Race Link: http://www.redbull.com/us/en/bike/stories/1331674777305/replay-uci-world-championships-men-s-xco

Elite Women, La Bresse France 2012: Perhaps my favorite race of all those available on Red Bull TV, La Bresse featured a course designed by Julien Absalon's brother and actually contained very little, if any, manmade features and several difficult technical sections. The women’s race featured the regular big names and Katerina Nash with the Luna Pro Team took an early aggressive lead over her Luna teammate Catharine Pendrel and Julie Bresset of France.

 

By lap 3 Pendrel and Bressett had caught and passed a fading Nash, with Pendrel taking a very narrow lead. However, on a steep muddy downhill section Pendrel foundered a bit and went off a drop too steeply, almost went OTB and had to put a foot down to regain control. Bresset was hot on Pendrel’s wheel, and also took the same drop too steeply, nearly hit Pendrel, broke left before flying over OTB and went face first into the rocks and mud. While Bresset and Pendrel were busy trying to sort themselves out, up comes Nash who dismounts, runs past both riders, and takes the lead.

Chaos breaks out on the downhill at La Bresse as Julie Bresset goes over the bars.
(Capture from Red Bull TV)

At the same time, Gunn Rita Dahle was in fourth and still in the hunt and eventually works her way up to second behind Nash. The race is Nash’s to lose, but what has to be fatigue gets the best of her and a series of small mistakes and crashes allows Dahle to gain even more. Finally, on the last lap Nash crashes just before the downhill which claimed Bresset and Pendrel allowing Dahle to pass her with a very short lead heading into the finish. I won’t spoil what happens on this one, but the race is a favorite. The leaders, all giants in women’s World Cup racing stayed close to each other for the entire race and the mix of catastrophic crashes and multiple lead changes kept things exciting up until the very end.

 

Race Link: http://www.redbull.tv/videos/event-stream-52/cross-country-women-elite

Elite Men Albstadt Germany 2013: Germany hosted the kickoff event of the 2013 season and the day of the race was marked by a wet and slick course thanks to a rain storm. This led to an exciting race which saw the two favorites, Julien Absalon and Nino Schurter both having off days. For Absalon the end came on lap 5 of 7 when his bike literally came apart. He had been leading by a good margin and was reduced to angrily stalking down a hillside carrying the pieces of his shattered bike, a walk which was documented in excruciating detail by the numerous video cameras on the course.

For Schurter, things just didn’t pan out and he appeared to suffer a mechanical which his mechanic blandly attributed to a fork issue in a mid-race interview. The race came down to a group of 5 riders who were roughly 15 seconds apart at the intermediate time check. Ultimately, the day belonged to Australian Daniel McConnell riding for Trek Factory Racing. In 2012 his highest World Cup finish was 19^th but at Albstadt McConnell was in the right place and steadily worked his way near the front (he was outside the top ten before lap 5) and was set up for a furious run into the finish. This was the start of a good season for McConnell who ended up having enough points to take 2^ndoverall in the series.

Honorable Mention: Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 2012, Elite Women: Also a great race, this one stands out for the long duel between Poland’s Maja Włoszczowska and Canada’s Emily Batty. Repeated attacks failed to dislodge either woman from the other’s wheel, but the turning point came on the last lap in the middle of a very technical and rocky downhill called the Tree House. Batty went into the section in the lead and took the much shorter and harder inside line but seemed to do so in a careful, and slow manner. Włoszczowska was hot on her heels and absolutely bombed down the longer and less direct outer line, came even with Batty in the middle of the section, and came out slightly ahead for the run in to the finish.

(Red Bull TV Capture)

 

It was a fantastic move which paid off in grand style, while depriving Batty of one of her best chances for a World Cup win.

Race Link: http://www.redbull.tv/videos/event-stream-32/womens-cross-country

Of course, the above thoughts are my own, and there are plenty of other good races that would work well for helping those long hours of indoor training fly by if the need arises.  Have a suggestion for another race you think deserves a mention? Share with the class in the comments section.