Champerey World Cup!
I've been pretty stoked on skiing this week. Maybe it's arriving in the little Swiss Alps village of Champerey and looking at avalanche barriers and classic lines on the Dents du Midi across the valley that reminded me of impending winter.
Multitasking on the climb, working on both dropping Italian Champion Marco Fontana and my game face…
Fast forward. Its lap two of the World Cup XC in Champerey. Im riding up the first proper climb of the race, a short, steep dirt track lined with screaming fans across from a meadow filled with cows sporting huge bells as a sound thats definitely not cows rolls across the hills. Thats right ITS THE FIIII-NAL COUNT-DOWN!! Amazing. At about this same time I realize that Ive survived a hectic start (more on that later) and settled into the teens somewhere with legs that feel pretty much like magic complemented by recently honed east coast skills. This could be good. Especially with that baseline pumping through my brain (Which it still is now, dammit.)
Right, about that start. Sometimes people get nervous before things that scare them. World Cup races dont have this effect on my seasoned persona. Unless theres a 1k paved climb right off the bat that you HAVE to make it to the top of in front to actually race after the first (AWESOME) descent. Waterfalls and fast cars dont really phase me, but the prospect of having to deal with a bunch of cracked out Euros on a paved road will scare the poo out of me in no time. As I rolled up to the line in 22nd position I knew what I had to do. Leaving my trusty Anthem X SL with Felice on the grid I climbed over the fencing and spotted a port-a-loo across the way. Salvation. Skinsuit down and in the position I noticed, just at the last possible second, the clear lack of T.P. Shoot. Big shoot. Maybe something that rhymes with shoot but with an i Too late. As I assessed my situation I heard the French announcer call Deux Minutes. There was a rudimentary sink, no Bidet, but itd have to do the job. I washed up and was redressing whilst climbing over the fence and back into the fray Whew.
After that experience I was no longer worried about the difficulty of ANY bike race start, let alone this measly paved hill charge. I held my ground and funneled into the woods at the top in about my starting position. No gain, no loss.Time to get to business. The office for the day was perfect. An already sweet track was only improved, in my opinion, by the 1cm of rain that fell at dinnertime the night before. We knew the amount because Olis extremely scientific water glass placed on the porch measured the squall as such. Then we each drank half. It was delicious.This water was massaged into the dank black soil by the womens race (in which Lea Davison laid town a career best and top American in 12th) and made the track just right. Not muddy in a sloppy way, just slippy. The first woods section was just like the Bog in Bangor, twisty rooty up and down-ness, then the climb, then a Mt Waldo Quarry trail copy descent with more Bog at the bottom for good measure. I love it when they bring Maine to World Cups. By lap three I was into the top ten and still moving forward, passing skinny guys on the climb and catching the next ones in the good bits. A pause on lap five to ride like kind of a prick after allowing the evil thought that I was pretty good to interrupt THE FINAL COUNTDOWN for a moment was recovered from with two to go and the front of the race was in my sights. It was also in five other guys sights.They stayed up and I ended the day stoked in sixth place, only 1:06 away from an impressive win by Burry Stander. Carl was right last week when he said that racing WELL is fun, not just racing for the sake of it. I had a damn good time out there and am kind of relieved to have had at least one World Cup where things work out for the body.
A pleasant cooldown with 16th place finisher Sam Schultz (where we both acknowledged the radness of the lap two soundtrack) ended a pretty darn sweet week in the Alps.I pointed out all the sick riding around the valley that I somehow resisted overdoing it on in the name of racing well and we vowed to catch up on that upon returning for another Word Cup next year. And yet again when the World Champs come to this idyllic village in 2011. Im pretty fired up for that one too
For a pretty rad music video check this out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_IKcMl_a9A
