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Written by Andrew Freye
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Tuesday, 12 September 2006 |
 The eve of the world championships brought cold weather and rain. Being from Maine and having better mud handling skills then most racers this brought a big smile to my face as I went to bed before the biggest race of my life. When I woke up in the morning the rain had let up and the skies were cloudy with patches of sun. I must say that I was pretty stoked that it had rained all night. I figured that it would make the course nice and soupy muddy. Well let’s just say that the soil in New Zealand is slightly different than the soil I am used to in New England. The rain turned the volcanic soil into this crappy peanut butter mush that made riding in a straight line almost impossible. It would have been better if it kept raining through out the race, but that wasn’t the case.
My stomach was not feeling to good warming up before the race. The butterflies in my stomach were so bad. Lining up at the start line I just wanted to throw up. I think I would have been better off if I did. When the gun went off it was like any other race with the pack going like hell except 10 times faster and harder. It was the hardest start I have ever experienced. I got caught up behind a crash within the first 70 meters, which cost me some spots. After maneuvering around the crash it was back to hammering and going harder than my body could handle. This going so hard is probably what caused my asthma attack. When the pack hit the long climb it was a lot of pushing, shoving, taking elbows to the ribs, listening to cursing in other languages, and oh some slow forward movement. By the time I made it to the top of the climb my lungs were burning and I couldn’t breathe too well. I took some puffs off my magic inhaler and it was back to racing down the mountain!
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The downhill was pretty sweet, kinda sorta. The first two laps it was pretty much impossible to go in a straight line through the mud. I was doing fine going through the gully, then out of know where I had moved 90 degrees and was riding through the tape. After breaking through the course tape I decided the best thing to do was get back onto the course and the fastest way was to ride through the tape again. The Shimano course tape is surprisingly strong and quite hard to break through. After successfully breaking through the tape (while riding) to get back onto the course I was ready to go. I had a sweet long section of tape flying from my bike, kind of like those streamers you had on your bike when you were a kid. The rest of the downhill consisted of running. I stayed off my bike and ran down the majority of the downhill. Normally I don’t do this, but when you are passing people it doesn’t really matter how you get by them.
Once my lungs freeze up, they pretty much stay frozen. This caused quite the problem when climbing. My legs felt like a million bucks but at the same time I couldn’t breathe which is more than just a minor problem. Despite burning lungs I tried my best and pushed on the pedals as hard as I possibly could. I was pulled from the race with one lap to go due to the 80% rule. After getting pulled from the race I pretty much fell off my bike and lied in the grass for several minutes. I had finished in 50th place out of about 80 riders and was the 3rd finisher for America.
Even though I had higher hopes and goals for the World Championships, I am happy with my result. I was very nervous going into the race and was not sure what to expect. I knew before I went to New Zealand that even if I finished dead last I could be happy with myself because I gave it everything I had leading up to the event. The race and experience of competing at the World Championships is an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. Thank you everyone who donated and helped make it possible for me to attend the event. Also thank you to all my sponsors for providing me with the best support and equipment. With out everyone’s support I would not have been able to make it this far. Thank you.
A
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