A Very Rocky April
Gravel Desert · Monaco UCI
Two races with two very different endings: an unexpectedly positive result, and a heartbreaking DNS.
Gravel Desert
A heinous taper
I don’t think you could purposefully engineer a course much worse for me on paper: an early 5 minute decisive climb, followed by a few easy rollers that help any gaps to become properly established, into 120km of flat, windy roads. Also, going into a 170km gravel race having ridden 5.5 hours in the last 8 days due to illness is less than ideal preparation to say the least, but I had to make the conscious decision to view it as a heinous taper. And when I said I often ride my best when no one expects it, I guess that includes me. Having no expectations about where I was physically might have been a good thing, because I didn’t stress about it and simply let instinct take over.
I made it over the 5 minute climb about 20 seconds behind the first rider, but still had gas to motor over the top. I caught and dropped a few riders on the descent, and decided to commit to trying to get across to the front 4 riders solo. I finally made it across, and settled into the front group until Gee smashed a bumpy, double track, slightly uphill section and split the group into pieces.
When I said I often ride my best when no one expects it, I guess that includes me.
I made an effort to try to make it back again, but simply didn’t have it. It then became a long, solo mission to try to stay in 4th position. It became apparent after a while, however, that holding off the group of two behind me was pretty unlikely. When they caught me 110km in, I was pretty glad for the company.
A few mistakes and unfortunately luck meant I couldn’t properly contend for 4th, but had to be happy with 6th, all things considered.
Monaco UCI
The A goal that wasn’t meant to be
Unfortunately, knee pain that popped up in the last 15km of Gravel Desert was more stubborn than I thought, and meant I had to take another few days off the bike following the race. Several physio sessions later, however, I felt in good enough shape to head to Monaco.
I put this race down as an A goal when I was putting together my calendar late last year. Contrary to Gravel Desert, it’s a great course for me: long climbs broken up by a mix of road and loose gravel descents. I was 5th there last year, and it was the race that started me on the path to gravel privateering.
I put this race down as an A goal when I was putting together my calendar late last year. It was the race that started me on the path to gravel privateering.
I was continuing the trend of suboptimal preparation, but I was still ready to give it a good whack. Unfortunately, I made the silly mistake of riding road pedals on the pre-ride (I didn’t remember the first gravel section being so loose and technical). I lost traction on an uphill section and somehow couldn’t get my foot unclipped — the most rookie move imaginable.
Besides my ego being hurt, I slammed my already injured left knee into a rock and split it open. Because it wasn’t bleeding too bad, I naively thought I could keep riding, but that hope was squashed quite quickly. A hospital visit, two stitches, and quite an uncomfortable 90 minutes of driving later (my boyfriend can’t drive and my car is manual), I had to come to terms that I wasn’t going to be able to start. I was pretty devastated, and am still trying to find the silver lining on this one.
A hospital visit, two stitches, and quite an uncomfortable 90 minutes of driving later, I had to come to terms that I wasn’t going to be able to start.
Looking Ahead
Gravel Desert proved I could perform under less-than-ideal conditions, but Monaco was a tough reminder that things can go sideways pretty quickly.
Traka is a week away, and I’m still not sure if my knee will be good in time to race. Right now, I’m just trying to keep things in perspective. It’s a long season ahead, and there’s still big goals down the road.
Supported By
