Bikechallenge 2012 stage race

The 2012 edition kicked off with a demanding uphill staring in the marvelous spa city of Kudowa Zdroj traversing the Table Mountains. It was mainly about to score a good position for the first stage. The long lasting rainy period left its marks visibly and tangibly so that traction was imperative.

Odds are good that this edition of the Bikechallenge will provide a great battle among the usual suspects that are: Erik Skovgaard [DNK], Tomáš Vokrouhlík [CZE] , Martin Horák [CZE]. End the time trial ended up just in this order, albeit with marginal distances.

I lined up with very reserved expectations my system still suffers from unhealed virus. Humbly, I must be satisfied if I can just accomplish all those 6 days as that’s been season plan. Much to my surprise, though, right after the first couple of hundred meters the sensation was more than positive. And as always, one has the notion to have good legs; it’s hard to back off. I must be utterly humble with my expectation so top 30 would be more than awesome. 

The time differences are rather hilarious, chiefly in the range of seconds. But as experience thought us, if you are pushing it way too had in the first stage there is no way to regain this intensity, what’s more, the GC placing trend tends to be negative, meaning chances are, you can’t recover from this first outburst any longer. 

Tomorrow, Czech Republic will welcome us in Kraliky, a frequent stage venue of the race.

The astounding spa venue of Kudowa Zdroj had us charge our mental batteries with great expectations, all seemed to be just as fresh as eager, that’s mostly due to the high temperatures already at start time.

From the get go the first groups went and Skovgaard set a high pace to eliminate the still decently large group. Vokrouhlík and his BMC team partner Horák meant to decide the race in the more arduous part of the stage, though the Danish Skovgaard kept e relentless pace even downhills so that the first leg went to him. 8 minutes later the BMC riders crossed the finish jointly.

I have got the notion that the race matured over the years and lost its carnage nature insofar as its trademark as a relentless race featuring parcours, which is far beyond the usual European well known races. It’s useless and not appropriate to categorize either as benign or hard or whatever, as a tons of folks will prefer the new Bikechallenge  , thus its popularity among these bikers  - mostly form \Germany and Austria -  will gain on popularity. Based on the recent echo, the group of Old-school-Bikchallnege is still existent, and these followers will be adamant that the race keeps its original characteristics. Me, I am an advocate of the newest edition, as it boast a balanced mixture of those feared track sections the race has been famous of ever since, simultaneously its has a ton of relenting parts too, where there is a good opportunity for those that prefer the rather forgiving characteristics, thus comes in their favor too.

The 1 stage was just exactly this. There was plenty of demanding ups and downs but also a playground for tacticians. Earlier, it’s been rarely seen that rider’s plays echelon due to the almost nonexistent tarmac and pave sections.

I had a decent day; the virus seems to leave my body and the aches being associated with cold is diminishing. I was how I ended up, and must be really content with the outcome. I’m still in the we-will-see-how-it-goes mode so every accomplished stage, is half the battle won. It has [to be not totally healthy], obviously some positive sides as well. It teaches me [the hard way] how to back off, to ride intelligently, save as much power as even viable, and how not to get carried away with some opportunistic moments and possibilities that a race sometimes presents. 

I scored 11 in my category which is evidently far beyond I have envisaged.              

Same cheered atmosphere on the main square of Kraliky.  This and the warm temperatures, that aren’t really always true for the Bikechallenge, just made up for a great recipe. Soon Skovgaard and the BMC boys Horák and Vokrouhlík went and kept the high. And knowing that the rest of the peloton isn’t really up to the task, the remainder surrendered in the early part of the race. 3 main groups led up to the first longish uphills.  Horák and Vokrouhlík hoped for a playing their cards and jointly can drop Skovgaard. The Danish of HMTBK SRAM seemed to fire on all cylinders and didn’t even give a notion that he is willing to team up. The lion part of the stage was lonely affair for him. At the and his advantage was remarkable again: 03:49:35.4 , that’s more than 10 min on BMC-SAVO racing team, Horák and Vokrouhlík.

Jaw dropping performance on the mixed category side. The Danish pair puts up a big show with their performance : Rikke Kornvig and Lasse Brun Pedersen are putting down the hammer and keep their high place in the GC.

The Bikechallenge shows a new, alpine like facet. Rather longish uphill’s, whereby the surface is pretty rock-littered. That’s works for me big time, and in so doing I was able to up the ante and ended up higher in GC. The cold is almost fixed now, and am about to enjoy myself. I trust I can keep this position and, again, to and up like this would be huge bonus.

Tomorrow is another frontier riding, and that calls for very slow average speed, as the route is constantly interrupted with rolling stones and arm-like roots.

 

The 3^rd leg of the Challenge is in the bag and as announced, it fully lived up to its dreaded status, being the most feared one. I don’t think one has to be afraid of any race. After all its just a bike race and there is no must, hence if you don’t feel like being in physical or mental state you just let it go and don’t start or quite in the process.

Erik Skovgaard Knudsen cemented his position in the GC by clocking up another stage victory. He made this affair pretty straight and with no fuss by surging from the start away and not anybody to take away even one single victory. To demonstart his strength the second Sebastian Szraucner from Germany lost out 23min.

In the mixed cat. the HMTBK SRAM Danish pair Lasse Brun Pedersen and Rikke Kornvig paved their way to the final victory even more.

In the team cat. pair BMC-SAVO racing team [CZE] with Martin Horák, Tomáš Vokrouhlík solidified their GC ranking too. So, they don’t seemed to be jeopardized by any other team. 

Its remarkable for this polish stages, every time there is a so called borderline parcours you better prepare for an million times interrupted riding, where no rhythm can e found. The figures are rather benign, that is 60km, sounds like a walking in the park. And it was indeed a walking for the most. We must be blessed having had dry conditions. Thus we reckoned an average speed of hilarious 13kmp. The track-designer, the notoriously known Vena Hornych himself [also called evil eye] must have been full in his element while fabricating it. It was once more meant to be something outstanding, a race of attrition. However, not the one where rivals eliminate each other, by way of race intensity. It was the nature of the path that made the ‘massacre’ and had us negotiate with it the hardest way.

Knowing that, I just put myself artificially into the positive cave and anticipated an enjoyable ride. In fact it wasn’t. Minus those transition sections outside of the frontier area. That said, it’s been an invaluable experience that felt like 100km in a mundane marathon.

Clearly, the top contenders controlled the race from the beginning, though, too my astounding a bit moderately. It was partly due to the announced obstacles, however partially of looming fatigue and diminishing freshness of all. ……

I meant to find 1-2 riders that I picked up in the previous stages and that featured decent technical abilities. The race categorically began once we hit the narrowest hiking track along the Czech-Polish border. The slash-hammer ride took its beginning and didn’t break until the very end. Admittedly, we were treated with some feed-zone jeep-road transitions, just to take a breather.

I guess, the most complete rider won big time. Mentally one ought to be flexible and reframe all along. I just too often came across riders that were about to lose their temper. An obvious case of tight nerve corset.

I’m just happy having concluded it without losing my morale and my positive attitude. All the more so after making good some ground in the general classement. But most of all, the mending period is over, and I feel to be fit again. Sure, the damage is done [the race was started with influenza; hence I wasn’t able to fire on all cylinders], but how cool is that I can move on and enjoy racing.

The parcours for tomorrow pledges to be more ‘courteous’ and yielding, that being said, I wouldn’t mind if we kept the relentless course.

A classic leg of the BCH that had us negotiate through hiking trails rife with astounding vistas. Great for those that has the ‘luxury’ to slow down and enjoy all this beauty. The better part of the peloton was better off to ride mindfully and to watch out for sudden surprises the track featured today aplenty.

The general classement seems to be etched in the stone, and as long as the final stage doesn’t present any unwelcome surprise, the Dane lone wolf Erik Skovgaard Knudsen will nail it down completely. Same goes for the teams with Martin Horák, Tomáš Vokrouhlík  BMC-SAVO racing team [CZE], as well as in the mixed category - Lasse Brun Pedersen and  Rikke Kornvig where only an undesirable cause may put an end to their lead.  The battle goes on in the women classification as the time differences are still too narrow to call it a done deal.

Prudent pacing strategies pay off big time, and I’m just eternally grateful for being forced to back off in the first 1-2 stages. In doing so, my legs felt still fresh enough to respond to attacks that came today big time.  The drawback was only the material, as hardtails were on this parcours totally at the lost. Never ending bouncing on a path full of tree-branches and seriously rocky and rooty trails. There is a certain technique you have to dial in, and just ride it through. An ideal track is next-to nonexistent, so it’s futile to change sites all the time. Those hundreds and hundreds of hikers and spectators managed to spur us on awesomely. These folks just kept screaming and cheering, and brought you back from your pain cave - simply surreal.    

It didn’t, indeed, change on the fact that the frequent attacks had me make up my mind whether to burn all my matches today or leave some in the tank for the final ‘etap’.  I opted for the latter, and had to sacrifice two places, even though the distances stayed within 20 and 30 sec respectively.  

Somehow, we harbor the hope after ever y stage that the next one will be more forgiving or, say presents an altered character. And it, indeed, does. Though, it just doesn’t get easier. Different day, different route oddity that exhaust us just like as much as the previous one. It’s useless to be in the illusion, just because the next leg features 2 km additional pave, thus supposed to be less ruthless. No, the brutality will be balanced somewhere else on the parcours. The general echo among the racing folks tells, though, that this works for them, and only the negligible minority asks for more harmless racetrack characteristic. Sure thing, one story follows the next, and we are just about to licking wounds. But somehow, none of those puts blame on the track designer for being way too heartless.

“We learned the hard way, that BCH is associated with challenging route characteristics” relates Andrew from South African rider “And, let’s face it, we just came grown to love it somehow. Do any of us ask for a ‘walk in the park’, really?”

His statement is backed up greatly even among those stemming from rather flattish lands like Denmark or Netherland. This race enjoys an unbroken popularity mainly in these countries. “No, no lets just keep it how it his, otherwise we can compete in other ‘mundane’ marathons that doesn’t request a complete biker” narrates Marc from Belgium.

I close the day with top ten in the GC – something I wouldn’t envisage for a couple of days. That calls, on the other hand, to elicit all reserves I have in the stores. No I have to take all my chances and go all out, best from the very first part of tomorrow’s stage. The script is written and something whispers in my head that the very same is true for all who have ambitions to make up ground. It is all the more intriguing as there won’t be neither any lurking, nor any other ‘wait-and-see’ approaches. We must put our cards on the table and hope for some dry matches in the box.

 

The show-down kicks off, as does the poker-face shenanigan. How is everybody doing, did you pace yourself mindfully over those previous days? The last stage is sort of an in individual time trial battle. An honest race, a true full gas fight. It’s great to have a healthy cushion of, say 5-10 min, but 15 sec makes me anxious. That is the distance to guy behind me, and he is equally narrowly followed by another 30, and 42 sec respectively.  Yet, as the rule goes, as far as you bypass all misfortunes, mechanicals and wrong turns, the battle is half won, meaning it can be reshuffled again.

The gun goes off and as predicted the heat of the fight ups its grade, so does the daily temperature that reaches today as high as 31 degree. The usual suspects and protagonist of the daily attacks have played their role again, however was remarkable that only after a couple of Km the most backed off, and it was just way too obvious that it wasn’t due to their game plan [to play their forte later], rather the accumulation of fatigue and burnt reserves.

Erik Skovgaard Knudsen the Dane prodigy didn’t leave anything to chances and cemented his status as the best solo man by mind blowing performance even on the last day. His natural talent and charisma didn’t let him down and he once more showed his cannibal-like attitude by not giving any gifts. His performance is all the more shocking as his way to achieve these results are done by a unique laid-back attitude and great chilled-easy. Sebastian Szraucner of Team Focus RAPIRO Racing [GER] took second, followed by Josef Havel from Czech Republic.

In the mixed, the fabulously performing Danish team of Lasse Brun Pedersen and Rikke Kornvig [HMTBK SRAM]accomplished their exploit, and as expected went for the highest place. Second goes to the Polish pair Katarzyna Sowa, Paweł Urbańczyk Dobre Sklepy Rowerowe – Author. The podiums 3^rd took Ewelina Ortyl, Wojciech Kozłowski MURAPOL TWOMARK SPECIALIZED SUDETY MTB CHALLENGE [POL].

Man’s team was occupied from the get-go by the BMC-SAVO racing team [CZE], the seasoned long distance racers Martin Horák, Tomáš Vokrouhlík. They didn’t surrender for a second and had Piotr Bereźnicki , Darek Zasada of OKULAR MTB TEAM [POL] took second. Manuel Fernandez Gonzalez and David Ovin Vitorero of PINyPON Asturias [ESP] scored 3^rd.  

Me, I felt despite the amassed tiredness fairly ready to up the ante, and so I was up to the task not only to respond to all-pervading surges but take more initiative and animate the race. My sole concern was just how to balance my trivial minuses in very technical descents compered to my direct competitors.  I had a go on all uphillls, and built up some margin in the process. Besides that, I took much more risks in the downhills as well and hoped there are weary enough and will slow down a bit to avoid technical mistakes. No 10 sec feed-zone stops either. All those tiny things add up at the end of the day. The very last 30km were the most grueling when I dropped all of them in the small group, and I was pretty much on my own. The agony was partially unbearable. I could soft pedal and sit up a bit, knowing that my 15 sec advantage has gone, and so did my 10^th place. Mind you, it’s not over until the fat lady sings.  I meant to do my homework to the utmost within my power.  Frankly, to keep 10^th was just not viable, that said, I’m blessed with 11 to the nth degree.

Funnily, I had with all these polish stage races [and I did a lot of them] on every occasion an unfinished business. Either it’s been due to overcooking the race, mechanical, etc. It ended up with some negative connotation. This time tough, I’m really hard pressed to find any flaw or something incomplete. Admittedly, it may sound boldly to call it ‘all went to perfection’ but I really had not only the notion but, in fact the first-hand experience that it’s been just this:  a perfect race week. 

Thanks for reading all reports so far and please stay tuned to Sudety Bikechallenge racer feedback wrap up.

Rob