Cyprus Sunshine Cup # 3

The ladies' start

Yesterday Round 3 of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup took place and I am in bits. Like a truck had run over me, put in the reverse gear and rolled over me again. Not because I went super hard - my legs actually feel fine, not very tired at all, but because I crashed about 5 times on the course. I have to admit, whereas previously I was always a bit skeptic about the robustness of a carbon fiber bike, I can safely say now that my S-Works Epic has been thoroughly crash tested and I would trust it blindly: while my bike didn't receive any blemish, I've added a fair amount of bruises and scratches to my body yesterday.

Coming through after the start loop

The course was just outside Limassol, at Amathous-Agios Tychon, some famous old ruins (a famous Acropolis wall, amongst them). A lap was 5.76km long going around and through these ancient ruins with 175m of climb. Ladies had a startloop + 4 laps and men had a startloop + 6 laps. But this doesn't say much about the terrain of the course. First of all it was very different from the other 2 races which contained a lot of fireroad. This course was the most technical and fun course in the Cyprus Sunshine Cup so far. Almost all of it was technical single track, either descending steep or loose rocky descents or rock steps along a cliff, climbing steep granny ring requiring hills or traversing on rocky, bumpy, jittery benchcut singletrack along the ancient Acropolis wall - a real fun full suss course. In my first pre-ride lap I thought I wouldn't be able to ride it all, but all of it (bar a loose ground steep climb that I never got) was actually rideable, you just had to keep concentrating the whole time, there was absolutely no letup. The day before the race we went up to register and ride another lap or two and also found out that the bit along the beach was actually not on the wooden walkway as we had assumed, but along the beach itself, with a killer descent down to it, jeez.....

The 3 leading ladies: Lene Byberg, Tereza Hurikova and Alexandra Engen

Not only was the course super technical and challenging, the competition was just as challenging. There was real prominence there with Olympic gold-medalist 2008 Sabine Spitz (Germany, Central Ghost Pro Team, ranked 1st in the world), Specialized World Team rider Lene Byberg from Norway, Alexandra Engen who won all the other races in the Sunshine cup so far, Elisabeth Osl (Austria, Central Ghost Pro Team, ranked 6th in UCI world ranking), Tereza Hurikova (Czech, CESKA SPORITELNA MTB, 10th in UCI world ranking) and the German national team, just to name a few. However, some of the other high competition from the first two races were gone, such as Petra Henzi, Ivonne Kraft, Arielle van Meurs, so I was hoping that I would be able to get a similar result to last week (around 8th/9th place).

Elisabeth Osl and Sabine Spitz in 4th and 5th position, respectively

On race day (super early start: 9am!) my legs felt good. I was happy also to hear that they had taken out the bit down by the sea, since the water was about half a meter high, so we went along the wooden walkway instead. We lined up at the start and I was very focused. I actually felt good and was looking forward to the course. Whistle blown and we went off along the start loop. The group divided quite quickly and I was able to bridge up to the top group and stay with them. We went down the first singletrack descent, I was able to make up a position by overtaking a girl just before the singletrack, now riding in about 6th position, descended and *WHAM!* - I was lying on the ground. There was a drop down a wall that I got fine, but I didn't follow the single track line after the drop exactly and rode into a hidden rock in the grass, endoed and was catapulted through the air. The impact was actually quite severe and I thought I had gotten a concussion. The girls behind me started yelling (eh, sorry, I didn't crash on purpose), but hey, I wouldn't be Mel if I didn't get back onto the bike quickly (it was perfect, thank god!) and rode on. This incident cost me a good few positions but I tried my best to refocus and get back on to the girls.

Still ahead of Barbara Benko, but I had to let her by later on

Then the next bit is a bit of a blur, but I saw Githa ahead of me - she's been my target in all the other races and I was happy to see her, because she's the perfect person for me to hang on, just a little faster than me (yet... - I will get her soon!!). So I followed her and she followed a German Rothaus Cube rider. There was no other girls in the near vicinity before or after us. I rode all the technical bits really well and felt good, maybe a bit dead on the steep climbs, but a few times I underestimated the loose dry ground on the "easy" straight sections and I washed out another few times, eventually loosing contact to Githa, but still ahead of the Rothaus Cube girl.

Negotiating down a steep descent

Finally, after another stupid crash and a lost chain - I had to keep telling myself to take it easier and to concentrate - I was overtaken by the Rothaus Cube girl. I stuck on to her till the end and I tried to get her in a sprint finish that I started coming out of the singletrack onto the finish straight about 10 sec behind her and I almost got her, finishing only 3 hundreds of a second behind her. Damn, but she deserves it. Instead of riding inconsistently and letting concentration slip on easy single track and paying for it by washing out and crashing she kept focused and concentrated and rode the course consistently without crashing.

The climb on the benchcut traverse, now following Barbara Benko from Rothaus Cube

My legs felt well today and I really enjoyed the course, but I still felt I couldn't tap into my high intensity potential. But my heartrate was up with an average of 167 bpm for the race, so I definitely wasn't tootling. Maybe the girls are just better and I am expecting too much in what is only my second real season as an Elite rider. I keep forgetting that all of the girls ahead of me have been cycling at a high level for years already.

The podium of Sunshine cup # 3

Anyway, I came in 10th in the end and had had a great race. And this is definitely setting me up well for fast technical riding. It's amazing what kind of jumps in technical ability you make when you throw yourself into the deep end. It's good also to race on bone dry courses like these for a change, so different from Irish muddy courses. Bone dry (not an Irish bone dry, but dusty dry) courses aren't actually as grippy as I had expected, the bit of sand and gravel on them make them real slide traps.

The men coming through after the start loop

Lene Byberg won the race, 10min 49 secs ahead of me (she's like Emil Lindgren, floating effortlessly and elegantly around the course, barely touching the ground, like an elf!), closely followed by Tereza Hurikova and Alexandra Engen. Sabine Spitz was in 4th and Elisabeth Osl came in 5th. I'm not feeling so bad now, only coming 6min behind Sabine. It's OK to get your ass kicked by an Olympic champion ;)

Elite men riding along the famous Acropolis wall

Another great thing about these races is hanging out afterwards and chatting to some really interesting people with really cool jobs from all over the world. The nice thing was that Ryan's race was on after mine, so I could wander around the course and take some great pics (as Ryan had done during my race) and get to know some nice people.

Ryan descending

As usual, thanks to Frederick from the Bike Station for doing our feed zone and tech support - we've been really taken care off since we were here (including a thorough bike service to find a creaking noise, some dirt and water had come into some joints, copious amounts of chain oil, lend of new pedals, transport, food, advice on training, riding, the mountain biking scene etc. etc.).

Ryan climbing up a tricky bit of single trail

Thanks to Cycleways, Specialized, and KCNC for making it possible for me to ride such an amazing light and well-handling but amazingly robust bike. It's great to be able to just rely on your bike. Thanks to Torq as usual for fueling us during our races. People are shocked by the amount of Torq drink and gels Ryan and I consume during our races. Thanks also to my college who gave me a sports scholarship that allows me to go to these important early season races. And the biggest thanks always goes to Ryan. I wouldn't be here without you.

Some great descending in the course

Results from this round can be found on the Cyprus Sunshine Results page and on Cyclingnews.com. The general classification from the cup after this penultimate round can be found on mtb-live.com.

Reports are up on the Cyprus Sunshine Cup website and on mtb-live.com.

Cyprus Sunshine Cup #2 (UCI S1)

Friday, race day for the time trial arrived and the weather had totally deteriorated. Supposedly Cyprus gets a week of rain every few years and we've been so lucky to be able to witness this rare week of bad weather while we are here. Cyprus has been in a water shortage for years (and you only get drinking water about every 2 days), so they are actually quite happy about a bit of rain to fill up their almost empty reservoirs. Anyway, we arrived at the venue and it was freezing cold and lashing rain. Everybody was just huddling together under umbrellas and sitting in their cars. It was raining and winding and just plain horrible. Warm-up was a disaster (a ride up the road in the freezing cold and getting wet and even colder). A turbo trainer would have been helpful.

Mel concentrated and freezing at the start line

Finally I was called up to the start - a little bit of frantic searching for my gloves, taking off my arm leg warmers and arm warmers (I should have left them on, it was FREEZING even in the race) and the clock showed 13:46, the whistle is blown and off I went. Oh, it was so cold and raining. I went up the fire road bit and before I reached the first steep single track descent I had already caught up with some girls. While the descents were still rideable yesterday, today there were just a long steep slippery slide. I tried to stay on the bike, but slid out and had to run the rest of the descent. On the next fire road section I caught a few more girls. On the next descent I fell and and hit my hand, loosing all feeling of my already numb and cold and freezing left hand. Back on the bike and onwards. I came off at another descent, but made it round the course in one piece. I knew I didn't do a great time and eventually had finished in 8th position, with a time of 29min 53sec. The winner, Russian Tereza Hurikova, currently ranked 10th in the world, did a time of 25min 28sec. But I wasn't too disappointed when I looked at the results, as I wasn't the only one having had difficulties in these conditions. I came just after German Ivonne Kraft and just before Italian Champ Elena Gaddoni and Dutch rider Arielle van Meurs. So not too bad after all :)

Climbing up the last hill in the lashing rain (Photo Courtesy of MTB-live.com)

I came away with a few bruises and scratches, but Ryan had actually taken a bad fall and cut open his knee, so an ambulance visit was on order.

After the race we had to move from our apartment to another apartment which was another 30min further away from the race venue (i.e. 1.5hours drive away in total). This was really annoying and definitely not the best recovery and preparation for next day's stage. So we were really happy when we found out that the race time for the next day was delayed by 2 hours.

Ryan changing the flat car tire...

The next day we drove towards the race and what is that sound?? Kinda like a rumble... Weird. Better stop the car. And what do we have? A flat car tire! Thank god for a real man who knows how to change a car wheel. I wouldn't have had a clue. We made it to the race start in time and it was still cold up on the mountain - there was even snow to be seen at the top, but at least it wasn't raining. Ready for the gridding and off we went with the juniors. Some people sprinted ahead and it was hard to see which position I was in with all the juniors in the group. I followed Elena Gaddoni from Italy and Githa Michiels from Belgium. The first bit was just a lot of fire road and cornering. Unfortunately I could not keep up with Githa and Elena and they pulled away one by one. Finally we reached the single track climb. It was actually a really really nice 700m climb and I enjoyed it, only I had no power left and towards the end of the climb I was just praying to make it up to the top. Then I saw that Ivonne Kraft and Maria Osl were actually behind me in the climb! I made it ahead of them into the descent, but had to let Ivonne pass fairly soon, she is such an amazing and savage descender (I found out later that she took 8min for that descent, it took me 12.5min and even Ryan about 11min!). Maria was closing in too and I had to let her by as well. I was able however to close up to Arielle van Meurs and when we reached the bottom of the descent and the last bit of fire road we caught up to Maria Osl again and the 3 of us had a bit of a battle. In the end Arielle was able to keep ahead of me into the finish, but I was able to overtake Maria Osl on the last few hundred meters to the finish (which include an evil granny gear killer climb).

Ryan waiting at the start line

I had no idea really where I came, but as soon as I was finished I was told that I was selected for anti-doping control. My first anti-doping control ever! So I got my chaperone, left a note for Ryan who was still out on the course, grabbed my recovery drink and was driven off to the anti-doping control station. 4 hours later and I was finally done. I learned a few things too: take food, a change of warm clothes, and your mobile phone with you. Do not drink too much water. Try and get in line early. It's hard to pee when somebody watches. Not the most pleasant of experiences, but it's necessary and at least it made me feel like a pro (I'm good enough to be worth testing ;)). If I ever get really good at mountain biking I have to get used to it anyway.

Self-explanatory....

Sooo, hanging around hours at doping control is not the best of recovery and preparation for the next days race either. I found out eventually that I had come in 9th. A place down, but considering that I thought I wasn't able to make it to the top I was quite happy with it. Really need to work on my aerobic power though and on my descending skills.

Final race on Sunday. 4.5 laps of the XC loop for me. All the girls take the start loop pretty easy and we stay together until the first lap proper begins. Then the pace quickens and I am trying to keep with Githa and Maria again. I'm also hoping to keep close to Arielle who is only a minute and a half behind me in the GC and who is obviously trying to make that up. It seems like its always the same people you end up having a battle with. However, I don't have the power to stay with them and have to let them go. The course is nice and dry this time round and the steep single track sections are actually fun. They are all rideable this time round, but I still loose traction and fall off my bike a few times so that I have to walk some sections. In the first lap I see Tereza Hurikova have a puncture and another girl. Later on Maria also punctures and I overtake her. The first two laps are pain and I take it easier on the last two laps. About 2km from the finish Ryan overtakes me too and I meet him when I finally finish. I really really liked the course today, even if I didn't feel very strong. I came in 8th, and Arielle and Maria had exchanged places. With Tereza having to walk to the tech zone with her puncture, I finished 8th in the general classification. That's another 55 UCI points, wohoo! It's still early in the season but these races definitely will set me up well for the season ahead.

Our nice clean bikes

Thanks to Frederik from the Bike station in Kalavasos for doing our feed and tech zone support on both races. It is so nice not having to worry about that.

Results can be found on www.cyclingnews.com or on the Cyprus Sunshine Cup website.

Pre-view of round 2 of Cyprus Sunshine Cup

The 2nd round of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup is a stage race, consisting of 3 stages on 3 consecutive days:

• First stage is a Time trial of the 7.4 km long XC loop
  
• Second stage is an XC point-to-point race of 41km for men and 32km for women elite
  
• Third stage is a normal (lapped) XC race on the 7,4km XC course, women elite was start loop+4 laps, men elite was start loop +5 laps.
  

The week before the races Ryan and I went to pre-ride the XC course and part of the point to point course (the 7km single track descent). The XC course was basically mostly easy uphill fire road connected by super steep single track descents or single track climbs and descents. I crashed on one of them and thought I may have to walk some of them in the race. For the point-to-point race, we only knew that it was fire-road in the beginning, then a huge long single track climb with 700m vertical climb, about 1km tarmac on top and then a super long singletrack descent, about 7km long and 600m down. We didn't have the time to pre-ride the whole point-to-point loop, so we decided to at least ride the descent which you could reach from the road. So we cycled up the 11km up the tarmac and did the descent. First I found it quite technical and scary, a lot of tight switchbacks - it was kind of a cross between benchcut and GC in Djouce, along the ridge of the mountains with fantastic views.

The day before the race we did another pre-ride of the XC course and Ryan gave me an uplift to the descent, and it was a lot less scary the 2nd time round, only the weather was getting a lot worse, rain and wind and hail and lightning. We took a few videos from the uplift (sorry, no bike action in these)...



Another video of us driving up the hill:



And we are still driving up the hill....



Just before I have to go:

Cyprus Sunshine Cup #1 (UCI C1)

Sooo, where to start.... There is always so many new impressions and things happening around you when you are traveling to new places. Friday morning at 4am Ryan and I left from Dublin to Cyprus after 2 hours of sleep and organizing and packing solidly for the evening before that. And Ryan had this crazy idea of building up his new 2009 Specialized S-works Epic, which had only arrived that evening. Ah well, why not make it harder for yourself if you can have it easy, right?

My cheat note marking the kms of the climbs and feed zones

Anyway, we and our bikes made it safe and sound to Cyprus (or so we thought), where we are staying in a tiny village called Kalavasos. It really is tiny, consisting of narrow alleyways and bright stone paved roads and steps and loads of stone houses and flowers. It's actually really cute and we've got a really nice little courtyard and it even has a bike rental/tour place (whose importance will come apparent later).

The last few meters sprinting - I had no idea how much time I had put onto Githa

The first race of the Cyprus Sunshine Cup starts only about 3km from here in Tochni and goes by the place in our village, ending about 200m from our front door. Yesterday we went to Tochni to sign in and to pre-ride the course. The first race of the cup is a cross country point to point race of the UCI C1 category, 48.3km long and 1787m climb for both Elite men and women. Details about the course and the profile can be found here.

And then I noticed. My handle bar had a really bad kink in it! It was so bad it's crazy we didn't notice it when we built up the bikes (but in all fairness, we only had 2hours of sleep and it was dark). It was definitely a no-go for going out on the pre-ride. So, where do you get a new handlebar in the middle of nowhere at 1:30h on a Saturday in Cyprus (I don't have a word of cyprese, or is it cypryc?) ?? Thank god for Mike, the organizer from the Cyprus Sunshine Cup. A really nice and very helpful guy. He called around and in no time he had a solution: The bike rental/tour place in Kalavasos (Cycle-in-Cyprus) kindly agreed to give me a lend of a stem and handlebar until I could organize myself a new one - no questions asked. So, we went back to Kalavasos and met the owner from Cycle-in-Cyprus who is actually from Sweden but spends most of his winter months here with his mate to run the bike guiding/rental business. A huge thanks to Cycle-in-Cyprus for their spontaneous support. So, guys, if your next trip goes to Cyprus, I can recommend this place! He also has a lot of local trail knowledge and gave us some advice about the course, since we wouldn't be able to pre-ride the whole thing.

Exhausted but happy after the race

Race day, nerve day. Bathroom 3 times. Warm-up, rain shower, bathroom again, call-up, mass start, off we go. 12 girls in my cat. I see a few girls in front and try to hang onto them. The course is very very rocky and a little dusty. Lots of climb - on loose rocky stuff. No power, this isn't fun, why are first races always so hard? Some really steep climbs, descents on loose rocky ground and lots of deep rain furrows (just like Ireland!). Scary stuff when fast. An open gate causes confusion, some people go the wrong way, we wait, somebody knows the right way. Some girls catch up. We go on. A puddle comes up and the guy in front of my splashes me from top to bottom - I'm well refreshed and all senses heightened. Still a few girls around me, some switching of positions. See Githa Michiels ahead and Petra Henzi overtakes me. Feed zone #1, calling out to Angelos (thank you!!), bottle hand-up works well. Overtaking Petra. More climb, we 3 girls are staying pretty close together (Githa Michiels, me and Petra Henzi, in that configuration for most of the ride). Still not in racing mode. Need to focus on the race. Focus! A deep (really deep!) river crossing. Feed zone 2 thanks goes to Theodores. More last technical climbing over loose rocky ground on steep furrowed switchbacks. Githa pulls away. Petra is left behind. Damn, I'm loosing her! Finally the top of the last climb, about 15km to go, and I finally (!) get my racing head on and start putting down the power - I see Githa pop up in the distance ahead of me and slowly reduce the gap. 10km to go, 5km to go. I'm getting nearer. 1km to go, she's 100m in front. 200m to go, she's 20m in front. I charge. I start sprinting, I pass her at 100m to go. Took her by surprise. Thank god I don't understand her language. Last few meters, and it's over. Relax....

Cyprus sunshine Cup #1 podium

Ryan thinks I came in 3rd or 4th. We'll see. We ride back to Tochni to pick up the car.

When we return to Kalavasos the results are up. I did come 3rd, wohoo! I was beaten by 10min by the Swedish national champion in 1st place and by 5min by the Italian national champion in 2nd place. The girl I beat in my sprint was the Belgian national champ - I put 7 seconds on her - and the other girl that was in our group of 3 was Petra Henzi, coming in 5th. Full results and cyclingnews.com report can be found here and a pic of the women's podium here.

A few more pics of the race can be found on mtb-live.com and I found one with me on it too.

Thank you as well to the Cypriot Shimano team for their tech support in the race. Oh, and my new 2009 Specialized S-works Epic rode really really well. Ryan managed to set up my shocks really nicely and it felt so natural. Amazing bike. Great for those climbs too.

Hope my racing instinct has been woken again with this race, looking forward to Sunshine Cup #2!

Bike porn

2009 Specialized S-Works Epic

We don't usually have a lot of nice weather here in Ireland, but today was just a beautiful warm and blue-skied spring day. So, finally I got the opportunity to take out my new bike, a 2009 Specialized S-Works Epic, kindly provided by Cycleways, and of course I took some pics before it's all getting mucked up. The bike is almost set up race ready, I've only exchanged a few bits with some nice and light KCNC components.

Specialized + KCNC

Bike Spec:

Frame: S-Works Epic full carbon 100mm travel frame

Fork: Specialized Future Shock e100, 100mm travel with Brain Fade

Rear Shock: Specialized AFR remote mini , BRAIN inertia valve w/ BRAIN fade

Seatpost: KCNC Pro Scandium 350mm

Front Derailleur: Shimano XTR

Rear Derailleur: Shimano XTR Shadowe

Crankset: S-Works OS carbon crank, 175mm

Brake Calipers: Custom Avid Ultimate SL Mag

Shift Levers: SL-M970 XTR, trigger

Cassette: Shimano XTR 11-34

Chain: KCNC Superlight Chain

Wheels: Roval Controle SL

Handlebar: KCNC Bones

Brake levers: Custom Avid Ultimate SL Hydraulic

Stem: KCNC SC Wing

Saddle: Specialized Phenom SL

Tires: S-Works Fast Trak LK

Pedals: CrankBrothers - Eggbeaters

Specialized + KCNC

I was only out for a short while today (not feeling too good, maybe I'm getting sick :(), but from my first impression it's easily the best bike I've ever ridden. It's also the first bike where I get this feeling that it feels just like an extension of my body. It's so amazingly light and handles really well. I expect it to be even better once I set the tires up tubeless and I can reduce the pressure. I was a bit scared in the beginning when I felt the brain turning on (at least that is what Ryan said was happening when I called him in distress from the mountain because I felt like I was bottoming out my rear shock, but I clearly wasn't), so I adjusted it to a bit of a softer setting and it was fine then. Can't wait to get out on it again.... such a nice bike... still can't actually quite believe I'm going to ride such an amazing bike this year.... :)

2009 Specialized S-Works Epic

I've put some more pics online here.

Racing preps

It's only one week now before my first race this season. Ryan and I are going to take part in the Cyprus Sunshine Cup, a series of UCI points races (2 C1, 1 C2 and 1 S1) spread around the centre of Cyprus. I'm really excited to see how my winter training over the last few months has helped me improve and get faster. My training this year was quite different from that last year. Last year I just did a lot of short, high intensity exercises early in the morning - I remember getting out before breakfast at darkness, just to be able to get my training done before work. This year I am a lot more flexible with my time and I was able to do a lot more long endurance rides after having had breakfast - something I could only do at weekends last year. And of course, this year I spent 2 weeks in Gran Canaria in January for base training where I was able to put in lots of long miles in beautiful weather. So my race preparation has been quite different this year. Only last week I started doing some high intensity VO2max and anaerobic capacity drills (boo!) and this year I already feel sooo much stronger than last year this time. Hopefully that's a good sign for the coming season.

Another profile of pain - last weeks anaerobic capacity drills

However, racing prep is not just on the bike, it's also off the bike and sometimes even takes more time than riding. Off-bike racing preps involve things like choosing your races for the next season, cultivating and creating sponsor relationships, sourcing gear and bike bits (all processes that have started at the end of last year), finding airports, finding and booking cheap flights, finding and booking cheap accommodation with broadband Internet (both Ryan and I have a full-time job/PhD), finding and booking a cheap car, prepping the bike (bike fitting, exchange bits and pieces, testride, adjust things here and there, prepare tires etc.), go to the physio to get your knots untied etc, etc. And then it's the actual bike and gear packing for the journey itself! It seems like we are never finished doing bike stuff outside the riding itself. Unfortunately it's not just riding the bike!

Guess my new bike! ;)

However, it is nice to see when it all comes together and I am really happy about the help that we are receiving from our main supporters Cycleways/Specialized, Torq and KCNC this year. I can't wait to ride my new shiny amazing bike wearing my new shiny cool looking gear! :)

Snow snow snow =====> Turbo turbo turbo....

Hmm, I must have complained too much about Irish winters always being so dull and grey and not having any snow, because it has been snowing, sleeting, slushing for the last few days! Traffic is chaotic, my commute painful in the sleet.


Nonetheless, on the first day of snow, Ryan and I ventured out up on our local training ground 3Rock to check out the scenery and if it would be possible to do some off-road riding. But there was even snow on the single trails within the forests! We had to stick mostly to fire roads for safety reasons and gave up about an hour and half into the ride. I've never seen so much snow in Ireland, ever!


It's really really beautiful, but it means I'm bound to the turbo trainer in the meantime, sigh....