Race Report by Ruth Mordaunt
XC Women 35-39
After a win at Round 4 of the British NPS in Shropshire I was looking forward to the World Masters MTB Championships in Pra Loup. The day after the British NPS XC event, James (my partner) and I, started the long journey to Pra Loup, which is based in the southern French Alpes. The journey from Dunkerque is approximately 15 hours including a few stops. However, to break up this long road trip we stopped at the top of Alpe d Huez for a well earned rest and recovery ride! "Alpe d Huez" and "well-earned rest" do not usually go together, but on last year's journey we stumbled across a free campervan park with amazing views, together with good weather and various VTT routes to play on. We passed on the famous VTT route called the Avalanche (one of the world's longest downhill rides at 33km) and the famous 21 hairpin road climb, but still stopped here for a couple of nights as the skies were blue and we just wanted to do a couple of easy off-road rides.
Pic above is Ruth (right) with fellow GB rider Theresa Jackson.
On Wednesday we made a move to the race venue, Pra Loup, and arrived late afternoon. The majority of the other XC racers from GB were arriving this afternoon too, but they were staying in Pra Loup itself, whereas we opted for a quiet campsite in the valley near the town of Barcelonette.
The 8km course was similar to last year's course, but in reverse. It had a mixture of sections through open meadows, flowing single track through the forest, open fire roads and a couple of tricky climbs. The course started in the main arena and then took a sharp right turn to head down a short grassy descent, into a sketchy gravel track and then the first steady climb began. During the practice lap on Thursday, I noticed my heart rate was exceptionally high whilst climbing and figured the effects of high altitude were kicking in. Pra Loup is based at 1600m and during each lap we would climb to approximately 1850m, and total climbing per lap was approximately 800m. The tech
nical descents were predominately down steep grassy mountain sides, which soon developed into dusty rutted tracks from the number of riders practising and braking hard before the corner. The first half of the course was down which meant only one thing, the latter half was going to be up! The climbing was through the shaded area of the forest where in places the terrain was slippery over muddy rocks. During the last 2km of steady climbing there were short, sharp climbing spurts over the slippery rocks. Finally just before the feed zone in the main arena there was a short strength zapping climb, which left you exhausted.
nical descents were predominately down steep grassy mountain sides, which soon developed into dusty rutted tracks from the number of riders practising and braking hard before the corner. The first half of the course was down which meant only one thing, the latter half was going to be up! The climbing was through the shaded area of the forest where in places the terrain was slippery over muddy rocks. During the last 2km of steady climbing there were short, sharp climbing spurts over the slippery rocks. Finally just before the feed zone in the main arena there was a short strength zapping climb, which left you exhausted. It was a climber's course, and my legs felt good but my heart rate on the climbs was telling me another story. Rest and keeping hydrated was needed until my race day on Saturday, August 30th.
Race day arrived with brilliant blue skies and an average temperature of approximately 30 Celsius during mid-morning. At the start line of the Women's 35-39 race, the UK and Ireland collective of myself, Caroline Goward, Theresa Jackson, Helen Findlay, and Beth McCluskey (IRL) all tried to look relaxed amongst the international field but deep down the usual race nerves were ever present. It was a small group of 14 with a strong field o
f ex-elite riders, especially from Italy. The start looked precarious at the first corner and I was advised that it would be good to get a fast start to miss any trouble at this point. I was on the front row and had a strong start leading the girls out and was unaware a crash occurred mid-pack with a couple of riders coming down hard. Check out the following you tube link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7-MV1Z9PU
Race day arrived with brilliant blue skies and an average temperature of approximately 30 Celsius during mid-morning. At the start line of the Women's 35-39 race, the UK and Ireland collective of myself, Caroline Goward, Theresa Jackson, Helen Findlay, and Beth McCluskey (IRL) all tried to look relaxed amongst the international field but deep down the usual race nerves were ever present. It was a small group of 14 with a strong field o
f ex-elite riders, especially from Italy. The start looked precarious at the first corner and I was advised that it would be good to get a fast start to miss any trouble at this point. I was on the front row and had a strong start leading the girls out and was unaware a crash occurred mid-pack with a couple of riders coming down hard. Check out the following you tube link: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7-MV1Z9PU During the first climb I was surprised only three riders passed me, as I thought more would come by. I kept at a steady pace aware of my heart rate and not wanting to dip into oxygen debt early on in the race. The climb split up the group further. After the descending I was placed 4th until Beth McCluskey made her move during the first section of single track in the forest. This was fine, as I stayed on her wheel until we approached a small kick of a climb mid-lap where I placed too much pressure on my gearing and the chain sprung off my rear cassette and had to get off my bike to sort out. At this point a further small pack of four riders powered on by and my small mechanical seemed to take forever to fix, although I'm sure it was only a minute or so.
I caught the chasing group back but by then we had started climbing and I was just not recovering between efforts. I just had to ride and pace myself and by the end of lap one I could see I was losing sight of the girls in front. Being such a hot and dusty day, together with racing at altitude, my lungs felt like they were only half working, and I decided not to panic but to take on fluid and fuel to see if my stamina would kick in during lap two and three.
Despite the unforgettable cheers along the course and especially on the climbs I just felt like I was recovering during lap two from lap one's efforts. On the final lap, I felt strong and had a power surge during the last 2km of the course where I over took Maniago (ITA). Unfortunately, she then made her move just before the last strength zapping technical climb up to the feed zone. Maniago had approximately 20 seconds on me as she went through the feed zone and it was a sprint finish to the end, where she placed 8th, just one second in front of me.
Congratulations to Beth McCluskey who took bronze in this race, and Nina Davies who took silver in the Women 30-34 category. Also, congratulations to Caroline and Helen and commiserations to Theresa who had a mechanical with no rear brake and had to retire from the race.
Upon reflection, although I was initially disappointed with my 9th position I realised that the standard of the competition in the World Masters MTB Championships is another league. There were some big ex-hitters on the line up, who have ridden elite internationally in the past and still ride and compete full time, e.g. Cindy Pieters (BEL), (who is Jeannie Longo's lead out woman), Claudia Marisilo (ITA), and Jorg Margrit (SUI). Claudia Marisilo, 2008 World Champion in the 35-39 category, raced approximately three minutes per lap faster than me. This is comparable to racing against the top elite UK women. I have learnt so much during this international race and where and what I need to do to improve on my position for next year, especially with the help of my Coach Andy Patterson and team mate Jenn O'Connor. It's going to be hard work, but I'm looking forward to the challenge.
Cross-Country Women 35-39
1st MARSILIO Claudia ITA
2nd VERONESI Daniela SMR
3rd MCCLUSKEY Beth IRL
4th CARRER Eva SUI
5th DUSINA Cristina ITA
Other GB
9th MORDAUNT Ruth GBR
10th GOWARD Caroline GBR
12th FINDLAY Helen GBR
DNF JACKSON Theresa GBR
Finally, congratulations to the GB Master Men who raced on the Friday and the Sunday. It was so exciting to watch. All the top twenty results can be found on the British Cycling website http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/mtb/EventReports2008/20080901_mtb_masters.asp.
Full results, plus links to images etc are available on the official event website http://www.praloup.com/ete_GB_uci-world-championships.html.
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