World Series, Kitzbuhel, Austria 15th July 2009
Morning everyone,
Well the 4th round of this years World Championship has been run and won. I "did" have fond memories of Kitzbuhel from last years World Cup where I finished 2nd. So this year I wanted the top of the podium!
I arrived in Austria with some good training under my belt from Saarbrucken, Germany where I'm based whilst over here in Europe. Its a great city, and there is a good group or guys training here which makes it fun.
I'd been in a small hole after coming down from altitude and flying over from the US. But that is fairly normal for myself. I'd kept my volume high and was feeling better everyday as the race approached. The weather in Kitzbuhel was not looking wonderful in the days before ( low 20s ) but none of us would have expected how it would turn so dramatically during the race.
I guess I should start, with the False start!. That's right, I got the perfect start. It was just what I was looking for. I had some fast Russian feet to follow in the beautiful lake off the pontoon. Well that was until I ran into him after 300 meters that is. I thought what the hell is he doing! Then I saw the kayaks and marshals waving madly and blowing there whistles and the gig was up. I turned back to the pontoon, only to see half the field still standing there. The long day had begun for me.
The second start, which was the real one. Was of course not as good as my first. My arms were already full of lactic acid, and I really struggled to hold onto the first group. I just hung in there though and was satisfied to exit where I did under the circumstances.
So onto the bike, It was rather a challenging and technical course. Especially when it started to rain like nothing I've ever had to deal with in a race before. But the problem for me was not so much the rain, But how quickly the temperature dropped with it.
Oh yeah i forgot the CRASH... yes me again! On the second lap everyone was starting to get a bit nervous with the amount of rain coming down. This usually means possible crashes. I thought if I ride at the front, I'll stay out of trouble right? wrong. Some guys up front started swerving across the road and before you know it 6 of us were lying on the road at 45kph. As it happened I thought to myself, this is a joke. What the hell did I do to deserve this.
As I hit the ground I knew straight away that I got lucky on this one. I picked my bike up quickly, straightened everything up that needed to be, jumped back on and chased as hard as I could to get back to the front.
Once I was safely back in the bunch I quickly checked myself over. I could see I hardly had a scratch which was lucky. I had hurt my neck a bit, and I must have landed on my collarbone/ shoulder as it was giving me some grief every-time I got out of the seat to climb the hill on each lap. I was back in the race and I knew it. I tried to focus again on my race plan and execute the race as best I could.
Halfway through the bike the temperature started to drop, and it just kept dropping. At one point we had 6 degrees!! I know we were in the Austrian mountains but isn't this meant to be summer... I really started to lose my composure the colder I got. I found myself drifting in and out of the race, and started to shake and shiver non stop. I could see a lot of the others guys were also in the same predicament but it was only a small comfort at this point. I tried everything to get warmer before the end of the bike came. I knew the race would be decided early under these conditions, and it was going to be important to keep in contact right away.
As I jumped off my bike in Transition 2 I've never felt so uncoordinated. My body just wasn't responding to what I was asking of it. And when I tried to put my shoes on, this simple task turned out to be some what challenging or laughable which ever way you look at it. I ended up fumbling around for more than 30 seconds before I finally got them on and hit the run. My next problem though was how to run when you cant feel your legs or your feet. Not to mention it burns to breath and you need to, a lot!!! Lastly I was already 30th on the race course before I started to run. Some of the other guys looked like they were in Hawaii with the way they were running. I sure wished I was there too at that moment.
With every meter though I started to feel better. I picked up guys every lap from then on, and would eventually run myself back up to 9th. It was not what I was hoping for at the start of the day. But this World Championship series is starting to be about what you can get from the races that don't go to plan more so than from the ones that do go to plan. So with this result I move up the World rankings to 8th. My next race will be in Hamburg in two weeks time. I'm sure I'll be in even better shape for that one as the timing of being down from altitude will be perfect for me.
I'm still a bit stiff and sore after the crash and race. But I have some healing hands around here in SB that will have me back up and running come next Sunday.
So until then, take care everyone. The forests of Germany are calling me!
Cheers,
Kris