Mud, sweat and tears!

Mud, sweat and tears could sum up this weekend’s activity down in Lugano, Switzerland.

Early Saturday morning Stephan (the logistics manager) and I set out into the sunrise on a long drive back down to Tesserete/Lugano where I spent my training camp two weeks ago. We arrived at the rather wet race location and set up the Fischer team camp ready for the youngsters that were to race today. I didn't spend much time going over the route as we already did this in the training camp, so Eric and I abandoned the rest in the rain and headed to the 50’s  Original style Hotel in Lugano.

 Much to my surprise we noticed that the BMC Racing Team was booked into the same hotel and that the World Champion, Julian Absalon, was staying only a couple of rooms away (I didn't end up knocking on his door asking for an autograph if you were wondering). At supper and breakfast I made sure to order the exact same meal as Absalon (except for a milkshake, I wasn't sure if it was for his child or himself) in order to get the same nutritional values as the world champ for the race start at 14:00.

Everything went as planned and I was ready to pull on my one-piece racing suit and give the others a run for their money. Now before I explain the actual race there was one big factor that played a huge role in Sunday’s race: It was raining cats and dogs.... and none of the riders seemed overly motivated to head out into the wet/cold to race. Unlike the others, coming from Namibia, I embraced the rain and was really excited to finally start a race in real European weather.

On my warm up I reminded myself about the 'Absalon breakfast' I had (surely that would give me an advantage over the others) and the preparation I have done until now to get some extra motivation into the system.

Standing on the start line (in my blue Fischer kit I stand out like a sore thumb) all focused, still clean and freezing the gun went and we were off. I once again had a brilliant start and settled into a steady pace slipping, sliding and partly swimming through the really fun but muddy track.

During the first few hundred meters of muddy singletrack all my laws of mountain bike skills went into the bin together with the advantage of having practiced the route two weeks ago in absolutely stunning, dry weather. I couldn't stop myself from laughing mid race as I and several other riders just suddenly lost control, sliding down the hill into the wrong direction, it was total chaos. My vision was halved partly by all the mud shooting up into the eyes as well as the glasses that were fogged up, so in the second tech zone already I decided to abandoned them. No more than 300m after this tech zone, still on my first lap, my chain had the last word (apart from my swearing) and broke, together with my hopes of completing my first European race. Not being allowed to turn around I rolled/pushed/ran back down to the finish. On the way down Absalon also rolled past me with chain problem to quit the race, so I wasn't the only one (although I’m starting to think it had something to do with our joined breakfast).  

Even though I only did a fifth of the race, I still learnt a lot about new weather conditions and the intense, but amusing, racing in them. I think this will help me in two weeks’ time for the African Champs in Rwanda as the weather forecast looks like another cats and dogs situation. Luckily with the great support from Shimano and Fischer I've already got a new chain and fully serviced bike ready for the flight on Saturday towards Kigali, Rwanda.

Once again the support at the race was absolutely incredible. So I want to give a big thanks to all the parents and team mates that stood next to the route, at the tech zones and in this weather to support me, it makes racing so much more exciting and enjoyable.

From my side all the best and till next time,

Martin

P.S. Congrats to the Namibian team that spent the weekend in Mankele, South Africa, competing in the SA-Cup series and giving the locals a run for their money. I think it’s great that the Namibian Cycling Federation is giving the opportunity and supporting our riders to race internationally; as this is the only way we can gain real experience. Thank you NCF, and well done on those podium places. 

Buongiorno! Here is my race and training camp report.

Buongiorno from a warm and sunny Tesserete!

Close to the Italian border I am sitting high up in the mountains on a terrace overlooking the beautiful lake of Lugano.

It all started with a long drive to Schaan for the opening Swiss BMC-Cup race that was to be held over the weekend. We arrived in the Furstentums Lichtenstein on Saturday and I spent the day testing and getting familiar with the 3.6km rout. The rout didn’t really suit me as all the climbing was done in the first half of the race and all the descending in the second. But I was super excited and was really looking forward in giving a good impression to my sponsors and people that have helped me  in my first real race in Europe.

Things didn’t really turn out the way I hoped they would in the week leading up to the race, so I was a little nervous and worried. A tumble the week before caused my left leg to be quite swollen and effected my blood circulation through both legs which made recovery from my training difficult.

This race was to be my first on the awesome new Fischer bike that I received a week earlier. I struggled to find someone who could do a proper set-up with my bike so that the measurements would fit my body. This influences my power-output as well as how I felt on the bike which sadly had a negative effect on my performance on Sunday.

I was surprised with my great starting position and this gave me some extra motivation on the start line. My start was thus exceptional and I spent the first few hundred meters in a top ten position (this is quite impressive considering the line-up of world class riders).  After this my legs started feeling blocked and I dropped back places until there weren’t really many more places to drop back to. I spent the next three laps suffering through a physically challenging track. Mentally it was also a challenge as I felt quite lonely and humiliated to have shown such poor performance and being close to the last rider. Due to my incorrect bike set-up (which I only noticed then) my back was in terrible pain and I decided to throw in the towel and call it a day to be forgotten.

Straight after the race I packed my things and drove south towards Italy. The drive took us over the Alps and the scenery definitely made up for a bad day on the bike. I then spent the week in the south of Switzerland on a trainings camp with some of my Fischer team mates and others from a different team.

All in all the start to my racing season has been disappointing and started on a downward slope. I’m hoping to improve this with this week’s training camp which is in the same location as the next BMC-Cup series race. Hopefully I will have some advantage, being able to ride the rout now already and getting familiar with the surroundings.

Muchas gracias and till next time,

Martin

P.S. This picture is from one of my training rides up into the Italian mountains (I just couldn't resist riding towards the snow...).

Grüezi us dr Schwiiz!

Grüezi us dr Schwiiz!

It has been one week since I arrived in Switzerland and I am loving it more and more by the day. My “hoch Deutsch” is slowly modifying into a very beautiful dialect of the Lenzburger schwiizerdüütsch while my body and skin is adapting to the extreme weather conditions that have challenged my survival skills over the past few training rides.

I arrived in Zürich last week Tuesday and went straight to the FISCHER Zweiradsport Seon/Buchs bike shop of Roland Fischer to receive my goodies. I was generously provided with amazing products from Fischer Bikes, Shimano, cycling clothes from Fuchs-Movesa, a Met helmet and some proper Vittoria tires.

The first three day’s showed weather that I would only find in my deepest nightmares. I rushed back to Fischer to ask for some more layers and bike gear as every ride ended in a struggle to try and get the feeling back in my toes and fingers.

The Fischer bike is performing absolutely incredible. It is much lighter than my previous mountain bikes and the new XTR rims give it a very fast responsiveness. I decided to go for a 1x11 (32tooth) which has been as smooth as silk. The Vittoria Pcyotc have luckily given me some sense of confidence in the wet, slippery and unknown trails.

Over the last week I got to ride with two different club rides in their technical training. The level that the youngers are at here in Switzerland amazes me. These ‘lighties’ that are probably over two head smaller than I have balls of steel, flying down these tricky single-tracks close behind me. With only two groups I have already seen so much potential in a great number of them and finally understand how countries like Switzerland manage to produce such world class cross-country riders. I was quite surprised to see Matt Lombabi coming to one of the group rides; it was nice not being the only southern hemisphere rider battling it out amongst the Swiss. Good luck to him in Italy this weekend.

The Easter weekend was spent in Lörrach with my aunt and uncle, who were kind enough to drive me up to the Bällchen (a mountain top at 1400m) which had snow on it. Since I haven’t seen snow since my visit to Germany in 2005 I was childishly excited when I saw the tip of the Bällchen covered in it while doing one of my rides through the Schwarzwald. I couldn’t resist but to ask them if we could go up there the following day.

Other than that, my diet has hopelessly crumbled to the delight of Swiss chocolate, cheese and the ever so delicious rusks of Eric’s. Hopefully once the temperatures start to rise again I can resume my normal eating habits and return to my racing weight. The Namibian flag is also flying high in in the LCC (Lenzburg Country Club) and the weather is slowly starting to improve; I’m starting to feel at home here.

I’ll be driving to Schaan this weekend for my first race, the BMC-Cup series opener, so wish me luck and you will hear from me next week.

Adieu, and till next time,

Martin