Training Log Archive: nmulder

Flew back home.

Me and Jane hit one of the great MTB trails in the region, riding inland from Platja along the 'Green Route', following an old railway line. Superb MTB the whole way, past the towns of Castell, Llagostera and turning around in Cassa de la Selva. Thumped it most of the way.

My map shows the trail as far as Ripoll, a good 150km inland, and I suspect it forms part of a whole coast-to-coast route that finishes on the Atlantic. More riders out there then on the Braamfontein Spruit on a weekend.

Av 22.1
Mx 42.9

More snorkelling and diving for 'treasure'.

Found a 1c Euro piece in 2m of water. :-)

Hired a car and drove back into the Pyrennees. Great roads to get car sick on. Managed to get into France and then Andorra. Got back very late.

Gentle ride with Nathan and Jane north along the coast to grind the rust out of our chains.

Av 15.6

Raid Bimbache AR World Series - Team Cyanosis with Mac, Nathan & Jane.

Race started 6 hours late after some last minute readjustments by the race organisation (i.e. appointing a new race director at 24 hours notice). First 3 legs were slightly adjusted and compacted as well to create simpler logistics.

We started with a 35km run / trek north up the Catalan coast from Platja d'Aro, running a combination of roads, coastal tracks and some inland trails that cut off a few bends in the peninsulas. We ran fairly well and took most of the best route choices. First hour was incredibly hot and humid before we got hit by a good thunderstorm. Thereafter beautiful conditions. Came into transition 4th, just behind 2nd and 3rd place teams and about 20 min behind 1st (Team Buff), so we were happy.

Fairly decent transition onto bikes.

160km leg from the coast up into the Pyrennees.

The first 70km was reasonably 'flat' and we averaged over 20km/hr. This took us to the base of the mountains, where the course changed from undulating through to very steep. Storms continued on and off for the full duration of this leg and into the next day.

Managed to navigate reasonably well on the 1:25' maps, but still made a mistake or 2. However, the other teams also had problems. Started the mountain section in tied 3rd place with the eventual race winners, Absolut Raid (FRA) but they pulled away to start with. Quite a few CPs in the mountains and the positions changed quite a bit on route choices and wrong routes in the dark. We took about 20 mins of sleep at one stage. I had felt good most of the race, but was suffering with sleep deprevation, unusal for a 1st night for me and probably from me not being back to race fitness yet.

This section turned out to be longer than expected. Race guide said 11 hours, then revised to 12+ hours, whilst we were still expecting about 15-16. After 18 hours we got to the village of Mollo, with about 20-25km to go. Mac had been suffering from a patella injury through the night and it got significantly worse at day break. A decision was made to quit the race as Mac wasn't in any condition to continue. We had climbed 5000m on the bike already and we still had the final big climb of the stage to go. Following that would be mountain trekking, 30km with 4000m, followed by more mountain biking, and so on. It was essentially impossible for the team.

When we pulled out, Buff were still leading, but were about to be dsq'ed for missing a CP on the bike. Team Trangoworld were just leaving town as we arrived and they ordered breakfast for us, then left as the new race leaders and us essentially tied 2nd with the eventual 2nd place team. We sat in the restaurant and watched the next 8 teams pass.... :-(

So a dissapointing result - DNF. We really felt that this was our race, but a suprise injury really caught us off-guard. It was a beautiful race until we pulled out, stunning terrain, great nav and route, very steep climbs. We would have loved to continue unofficially, but we decided against it and rather save ourselves for another occassion, as the climb on the rest of the course was really going to destroy the racers.

Bike stats for Leg 2:

Tm 15.09.42
Dst 151.92
Av 11.5
Mx 46.4

Ran along the footpath below the sea cliffs with the team.

Race starts 6am tomorrow.

C • Hope it went well 1