Running race 1:05:05 [4] 7.59 km (8:35 / km)
Bike-O race in France near Vesoul. Did not start the watch correctly at the beginning of the race but somewhere in-between :-(. It was very tough, and I hadn't slept well at all the night before, plus the drive there and finding it. I was exhausted at the start. It was very tough, small trails, tracks, very muddy and slippery, just not the well-groomed trails we are used to in Switzerland. Usually, I like that, but today I had no energy. After the 2nd control, a French lady caught me already and I was bummed. She talked continually and it got on my nerves. We stuck together as her map skills were not the greatest but she was a strong rider. Going to #4 up an endless hill, on a new map with another mapscale 1:20'000, I thought we caught the correct side trail, pushed the bike up the hill over thorns and branches and through mud. When we came to the top onto the T and there was no flag, I turned right, went where I thought we were, (but were not, more mud, more thorns etc) until I turned. She must have found the flag and was gone, I was left there and felt tired and miserable and did not want to return through the mud. Then, I looked at the rest of the course and decided to quit. I had a hard time getting out of the mess I was in and biked slowly back on little roads through the French Burgundy rural countryside. it would have been beautiful if it weren't such a grey almost rainy miserable day.
it turned out this French lady had the best time in 2.01 hours and the Swiss gals in my class had 2.10 and up. I should not have given up, everybody got lost with the strange trail classifications and the guesswork what is what and the mud and the single tracks. I was really sad though. I had looked forward to it, and, usually, it would have been my kind of terrain and tough riding.