Offenburg World Cup Report

Round 2. The Offenburg World Cup race is one of my favourites. HEAPS of singletrack, great crowds, steep hairy drops and a short 5km loop. You need fitness, strength and technical skills for this race so it seems more like old skool mountain bike racing. 

I had a decent start. Didn’t gut myself too badly and moved forward to about 15th on the two start loops. Once we hit the singletrack it was a big line up of traffic and I could hear the crowd cheering the leaders up the trail. 18,000 strong. Once the traffic thinned, I got into a rhythm. Until all hell broke loose. 

Some Colnago chick tried to pass me on the left with zero space and hooked her bars on mine and sent me full speed into a tree. Hardwood. It did not move. I smashed my head and shoulder into it before wrapping my extra long limbs around the tree. I was pretty frazzled as I hit it hard and the crowd had gone silent waiting to see if I was ok. But the Simms’ have strong bones - lots of milk growing up. It took me a second to pull myself together but when I saw her get back on her bike and take off the anger hit me. I was PISSED. I sped off to catch Suzie Colnago. The adrenaline was pumping. I caught her and yelled some obscenities at her as I passed. I am pretty sure she knew what the jist was, even if English wasn’t her first language. If not, she can get the full video footage from Newt. I really wanted to punch her in the head but even in my rage I knew that would not be cool. Not that yelling obscenities is that much better…..Allright, it wasn’t my most shining moment in sport, but she had pulled a moron move and needed to know it. Super agro passes, on lap 3, for 18th position, is not really necessary. I did not see Suzie Colnago again. Maybe I was faster or maybe she was just terrified of what I would do if I saw her again. 

After the rage subsided, I assessed the condition of my Kula Supreme. My left shifter had been smashed down quite a bit so it was hard to access and my gears were jumping. But it all worked so I decided to skip the pits. Not much Norm could do for me that wouldn’t take too much time. I just had to be careful on the descents because my brake lever was hard to access. The adrenaline lasted for a little bit but then it wore off and I was left with tired legs. I rolled in battered and bruised for 22nd place. Could have been worse I guess.

Watched the boys race against the other 248 men. All gunning to be the first into the singletrack....the Kona boys had a tough gig starting FIFTEEN rows back.

Off for some dinner in town. Schnitzel is a pretty hot item here. I wonder if they have chocolate schnitzel? (they have chocolate covered bread, its not that far off). I will have to get German fluent Sue to scan the menu. 

Next stop Madrid, Spain.

In other news. I gave up on my chocolate boycott. It wasn't helping. Perhaps even hindering my results. I think my glycogen stores were depleted without chocolate to top them off. seriously. I think I race better on chocolate.