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Swiss Season Report 2007 |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Juerg Bauert
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Monday, 15 October 2007 |
End of Season Report from Switzerland 2007
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It`s been a while now since my last report. This year was not the best for racing. Too much work at my job, up to 70 hours per week. This leaves not much energy for training. And worst of all, most race dates collided with big events at our restaurant. Weddings and parties with 200 guests. And as a head chef you can not tell your guys: Have a nice weekend, see you Monday! Sometimes life gets in your way of having fun.
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On top of this my favorite 24hours got cancelled because they could not get all the permissions from the landowners. So my motivation for training was even lower. Instead I did a lot of tours with my girlfriend and enjoyed it very much, without all the pressure.
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The first race was end of July in the Prättigau Valley. It rained the whole night before the race and the course was heavy and muddy. I had a pretty good pace for the first 30 miles, but then I thought my legs have fallen off! To make things worse, the right crankbolt got loose and the gears started to shift by themselves. Luckily I rode up to my girlfriend, who started ahead of me on a shorter loop, and we finished the last part together. 50 miles and 9600 feet climbing in 6.49 hours placed me 150th out of 242. 25.
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August was the next race in the beautiful Engadin. And it was also the start of our 3 weeks vacation. The weather was nice and warm like in the previous years. The hardest part of the race is to get up at 4 am to catch the bus to my starting point. Starting time was 7.30 am and with 40 farenheit it was good to get going. I felt good from the beginning, too good, like I soon would find out. About halfway I had to fight the first cramp. A little walking helped, but not for long. It went on and off for about one hour, and then they suddenly disappeared. The last 10 miles was just a struggle beetwen my head and legs, luckily the head was stronger and I finished the 65 miles and 9600 feet in 6.58 hours, 57th out of 123.
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After relaxing on Sunday, we packed our stuff and headed to the region of Portes du Soleil in France. It combines 14 Resorts which are all connected with lifts. Over 400 miles of marked trails, 10 permanent downhill runs, 4 bikeparks and 24 lifts to use with your bike. Does this sound like mountain bike heaven or what? The lift tickets cost between 15 and 20 dollars, depending where you go. We stayed in Les Gets on a beautiful campground with lots of riders from all over Europa. The infrastructure was perfect; steamcleaner, a room to dry the clothing and even a backer which came around in the morning with fresh croissants and baguettes! We stayed till the end of their season and moved then further south to the valley of Aosta.
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The nearby resort of Pila has lots of cool downhill runs at a height of 7600 feet. But the best part is the trail back to the parking lot down in the valley. 7 miles and 5700 feet pure downhill, it can not get any better! After a great week with lots of pasta and red wine, they closed this resort as well and we drove back to Switzerland.
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Crans Montana, a trendy Skiresort, was our next destination. Expensive and crowded in winter, the mountain bikers take over in summer. They have two trails, a freeride and a challenging world cup downhill. At the bottom of the lifts they built a cool North Shore style park. We enjoyed a week with perfect riding and weather.
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Back home, my last race of the season was on the 23. September, on my birthday. Usually I race on my singlespeed, but because the lack of training I rode geared. To make things not too easy, I took the small chainring off, and had quite a good speed uphill. It was the 8th time in this race and my third best time ever. 50 miles and 7500 feet in 4.56 hours, 130 of 307.
Thats all from the other side of the world, happy trails.
Jorgie the Eurotrash
  
  
  
  
 
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