Coming Back
I realized the other day that the last two articles I wrote
for Pedal Magazine were “Overcoming Fear” and “Overcoming Injury”. I joked that it would be nice to title my next
article “What to do when everything goes exactly according to Plan!” but when
does that ever really happen?
After a fun week and Canada Cup with my Luna teammate
Maghalie and her family near Montreal, Quebec we were off to Europe for our
first World Cups of the season. I was
excited and ready to be back at it, but also aware that I was coming down with
a cold. Really? Can’t I just have a regular old problem free
comeback?
The best thing about a cold that knocks you out though is
for the first time EVER I think I slept 7hrs on an international flight and
then had 4 naps between Munich and actually arriving in Nove Mesto! All I seemed to want to do was sleep. My body has a pretty killer immune system
though so by Thursday I was feeling pretty good.
The course in Czech is awesome. The climbs are wide enough to enable lots of
passing but strewn with roots; the descents all lead to flowy undulating
singletrack where you can open some space on rivals if you’re riding well. It’s the kind of course that is hard not to
have fun on, especially on a full suspension like I was riding.
The weather was also phenomenal, low to mid twenties, but
enough recent rain that everything was gorgeous and green or brilliant
yellow. We settled into our home at the
Four Cats for the 3rd year in a row.
My prep was up and down, some days feeling sharp other days off. The twinges of self-doubt when you haven’t raced at that level in a while were trying to creep in, especially after the Friday thunderstorm and slick Saturday conditions that resulted in me hitting a tree off of the vertical drop. I had to do some serious regrouping Saturday. Reminding myself of all the work I had done to know that I was ready for this race, reminding myself that I ride my best when I’m having fun, enjoying each moment rather than focusing on what could be or what was.
I went for a walk in the
fields behind our house to clear my head, listening to Daft Punk “Get
Lucky”. It was such an awesome song I
couldn’t help but dance; and why not? I
was alone in a field right? So I’m
really givin’er dancing down the lane oblivious to the two mtn bikers about to pass me… trying to
pretend they didn’t just see that. It
was an awesome moment and got me back in the right headspace. Have fun with Life!
Pre-rock out session in the fields
So a couple people decided to show up in the Czech countryside to watch the race
The race was awesome.
I felt strong and smooth. I
gained a few positions on the start loop so that I entered the singletrack in
15th. By the time we had made
it to the start finish however, the accordion effect of riding single file
through tricky terrain meant I was already 50 seconds off the leaders. I felt calm though and tried to leap frog my
way from group to group. It took me
several laps of riding through roaring crowds, but I made it to the front, or so I thought. When I caught Gunn-rita and Annika I thought
they were the leaders. Pauline was
already so far off the front that I wasn’t even getting time-splits to her, so
far that my win that day would be finishing second. I’m not typically one to settle in, but for
my first race back I was pretty happy to ride it in clean and consistent for 2nd
on the day. That being said I am pretty
excited to tow the line with Pauline and the other top women again next weekend
in Germany and do my best to ensure a tight battle for the win!
Thank you to all the wonderful people that really made this weekend shine Waldek, Dusty, Mike, Keith, Julien, Alex and my luna teammates.
BBQ time with friends from Orbea and Oakley
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