Victories that haven’t been
expected taste the sweetest. There is no denying that pressure makes me
sometimes choke - admittedly. Thus, races are tackled very much process
oriented, meaning I don’t pay as much attention t the outcome, hence results.
They will come automatically, if you give your utmost within your power.
This race stood pretty high in the ranking on
my ‘most-desired’ list. And, albeit, slowly but surely, the fatigue after 30
grueling marathons and stage races this season, have been creeping in, I meant
to be there and start, as long as feasible, within reason.
The day greeted us with welcoming
sunshine and the forecast called for as high as 32-33 degree Celsius. That’s
music to my ears, and plays into my cards big time. I can sustain high
temperatures much easier, what’s more after this season’s gloomy
weather-epidemic I’m just happy ‘dealing’ spiking heats, regardless how high.
My incredible fondness for the
race is to be chalked up to a degree to the exciting competitive field. The
race is well known for a tremendous large Italian armada of racers they mostly
occupy the first ranks. This year besides being promoted as UEC Masters
Marathon Championship, it is also a part of the UCI Marathon World series. I signed up for the open category after not
applying for UCI license this year.
8am and we are off to a hectic
start, all pushing high cadence in the km up to the initial knee-breaker 28
grade steep pave crest – basically the playground to make up positions, and to enter first into the narrow path where overhauling
is next-to not possible.
My sluggishly elevating HR made
me wonder whether 6 days of recuperation after the last stage race was
sufficient to be fresh and up to the task. But I don’t want to listen to the
‘flesh’ [which screams at me to back off] as long as the spirits are so high
and longing for more and more.
I was quick to make out my
opponents I thought could play their card in the top 15. That is namely the
realm I thought I could slip in. Yes, high, and probably unrealistic ambitions,
but I had such a firm state of mind and was so confident, it could be my day
and end up very high, by my standard.
Remarkably, the teams that want
to be a factor in the race, brought their whole ‘gregario’ stuff, and I had
really got the notion that there were one, two captains on the team and the
rest is working for them. Great ‘theatre’ to watch this well-oiled machine,
mind you, not so great being in the mix of this battle. I have fallen victim to
this gambling, and have to state, that it’s not always sporting and fair the
way some of them conduct: just to keep their captain out trouble. All the same,
I kept concentrating on my game plane and didn’t let to get it to me.
Feed zones were well distributed,
including all tech support and area for support crews, for UCI teams as well as
those who meant it business. Much to my regret I put myself automatically into
a drawback for not having an entourage team by me. That’s OK, however, I can
handle that easily. It is just more complex if the race is nervous and hectic
like this. Bottles were handed out by fly, food not at all. And obviously none
of us is ‘fool’ enough to stop for a split of 10sec, knowing the speed-wagon won’t
wait for your fueling needs.
I just kept hoping I won’t be
affected that much due to my nasty retroactive hypoglycemia-stuff, which is so
unpredictable by me.
Funnily, you can certainly figure
out those roadies that are pushing the envelope on rather flattish transition
pave sections and then blow up big time once we hit a little bit challenging
singletracks. Now, those attacks came in this stage of the race big time, and
they managed to put me in the red zone when I was hanging on for my dear life.
I hoped to see them later struggling
to keep pace after having burned so much matches that early.
The race dynamic got more serious
once we hit the long standing gravely uphills so remarkable for alpine terrain.
And then it happened, just
managed to drop my chain in trickery downhill and while trying to get that back
on the big chainring, I bent one chainlink. When we hit the valley floor I saw
my chances, to be a factor in the race, plummeting. The chain sprung back and
forth. I have got to make up my mind to go for one of 2 options: cease the race
and ask for remedy at the next feedstation, or take chances and ride on until
the breaking point. I intuitively opted for the latter, as my desire to
accomplish My Day was so high.
Obviously I had to be very
prudent in pushing gears and shifting as I could only use a certain range of
gears. My opponents sensed my troubling moments, so I assume they would like to
think, my mechanical gets more serious and I have to wrap up the race
altogether.
While struggling with my chain I
lost one crucial group and a gap of 400m was created. Sadly none in my group
was willing to play echelon and it’s been only me pulling big turns on the
front.
What I didn’t savvy in doing so,
was the setting in tempo of my opponents. Albeit they didn’t drop the tempo, it
was me having got a second wind and was totally up to push the intensity. My
hesitant mind kept reminding me “Hold on!” versus my body asking for “Let me
go, let me go”! If I was mindful I waited for the ultimate crest up to Schockl,
where I meant to attack and squeeze myself out either way. At least I had to
wait till the penultimate uphill. I did, however up the ante, in pure intuitive
manner. Didn’t look back, just elevated the tempo and waited for the reaction.
No noises behind me, the gap was there. That’s been my game plane anyway, to
play it out of intuition and not calculating as much
I thought, if I’m able to keep
that to the last uphill of truth, I would be able to create a fatter time
margin for good measure.
From that point on I was just in my
bubble, and myself being there and hurting a great deal. It felt well though as
my legs responded greatly, and I was certain I can sustain this intensity for
the approximate rest of 1.5 hour. In
case, they catch me, it’s them to take the due victory. There were just 2
apprehensions boggled my mind on and off:
does my chain take the beating? And what about my fuel stores I was
about to run out entirely. Right, the latter bothered me, frankly, much deeper,
as I in this frantic race I neglected to refuel the tank in due time. I
constant “Oh Lord, just grant me this triumph I’m craving after so badly”
helped tangibly, as always. Thus, I did just this, and trusted for a successful
outcome.
The last burden, the Schockl
pass, in fact the highest point of the route showcases the best bit of the race
and there is, besides the rhythm-friendly uphill, something awesome about it.
It's a simple blueprint — you are confronted with some of the most gorgeous
views you get to see in the area, and then you descend it partially at break
neck, partially at hiking pace. Schockl is relentless to those that aren’t
playing by its rules. Yes, as odd as may sound, this decent requires a certain
rhythm too, and if you enter it for the very first time, you better follow
someone being savvy at down-hilling in general or Schoeckl-descent-savvy in
particular.
It is way taxing and the corners
are way too unpredictable. In case you over-shoot one you will be lost. Hence
it never is a good thing to tackle the downhill cross-eyed after the stressing
uphill. Easier said than done, though, as once I reached the peak, I was fairly
light headed, partly due to fallen blood sugar level as well as agonizing
exhaustion while cresting. I grabbed the last smallish piece of banana, which
by the way, amounted up to the total energy intake of 2 bananas and one single
day for the entirely intense race period of 5hour 29min. Naturally, I was
constantly sucking on my bottle filled with totally diluted iso-drink [some
2%], but still, it was far cry to be suffice.
As good luck would have it, I was
in great flow in the rock-garden-like downhill, where track experience paid
off. I also managed to join forces with Paolo Rossola, the famous Italian coach,
also known as Paola Pezzo’s [2x XC Olympic winner] husband. I dropped him 2
times in the subsequent uphills, however he was able to catch up and lead me in
the treacherous downhill. This man rocks, and I leveraged his riding skill to
gain more time on my opponents.
Its incredulous, how far I was
able to push my body to do more, despite being on the verge of collapse from
exhaustion and lack of ‘firewood’. Mind you, knowing, the win is to be grabbed
and I’m so close to nail it down, gave me unknown boost.
It’s done – crossing the finish line is unreal
and illusive. I was speechless and running out of words of praise, even though
God knows how grateful I am for this.
I took a laid-back attitude right
after I had concluded my 25th marathon/race this season, and kept
stating: Anything else follows this amount of achievements this year, is just a
bonus”
So, basically, I would have been
superbly happy with ‘just’ finished-races as well. Therefore, I categorize this
win as my personal over-achievement.
Thanks for reading this far –
please keep signed in for more to come.
Yours
Rob
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