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World Cup Finals |
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Written by Adam Craig
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Monday, 11 September 2006 |
I’m not sure if I’ve introduced you, our loyal readership, to the Australian Assessment of Struggling (AAS), as introduced to us by our esteemed Aussie DH teammate Jared Rando. In any case it’s a scale everyone needs to know about and how to apply to their current situation. You see, it’s funny actually, it’s based on quality of eggs, yup, the better the eggs, the stronger the struggle (or maybe weaker if you’ve given up by then…). So, for example, when I finally found Hotel Hartweger (not to be confused with Gasthaus Hartweger or Apartments Hartweger, both in the same small village of Weissbach, Austria, and both with “lights” and “signs”) after a good bit of driving around in the seven-speed diesel Audi A4 I’d rented earlier that evening in Munich, it would only be rated, Grade A Medium Brown struggling, when factoring in the transatlantic flight starting point of course.
However, when I called the extremely dark, locked up, no Giant Racing Team cars anywhere to be found Hotel front desk and only heard the unattended phone ringing inside the door, the struggling would upgrade to Grade A Large white struggling. When I assessed my options, the remainder of which included trying to reach Susan Leonard (specialized team director) who I had driven down from Munich with to see if I could crash with her (her phone was off), trying to find an open hotel, or walking around and seeing if I could struggle my way inside somehow, the Struggle held steady at Grade A Large. I definitely pushed it up a notch to Grade AA Large Brown Free Range Struggling when I spotted a window on the third story with a TV flickering in the window and hatched (I love bad puns) a plan to rouse the occupant. My attention getting tools included a my vocal cords, quickly exhausted, a cell phone, ineffective already, and three quarters. The first two were clean misses but the last was a direct hit. Definitely roused the occupant, who ended up letting me in and showing me where the room keys were. Nice guy, his son was racing as well and he was fired up to meet another Giant team rider.
Now, it might seem that the struggling should be over for the time being but this is obviously not the case on my two day trip to Europe… My luggage didn’t show up. Sweet. This meant lying around all day on Friday waiting to get a bike to borrow from the Giant Racing Team boys, this bike didn’t arrive until about two hours before dark. At least I was awake at that point, and the bike had wheels that went round and round so it fell into the category of something I was elated to see at that point. I got in a lap of the extremely short, extremely steep course before dark and somehow didn’t feel that bad, still had the runny nose and plugged sinuses I’d had since getting home from NZL, but no worries.
After many calls to Lufthansa Airlines I finally learned that they would deliver my bags by midnight, which turned into about 2am when I drove over to the Gasthaus Hartweger to meet the taxi and collect my stuff… Built the bike in the room immediately to make sure it wasn’t destroyed and went to bed, struggling index lowering to a manageable Grade A Medium.
Ten AM Saturday came all too soon for breakfast and hotel checkout. I figured I had plenty of time to get to the venue and swap on some fresh Michelins before actually loosening up on my own bike. Turns out things take a long time when the struggling index is on the rise again. At least it was a beautiful fall day in the Austrain Alps, it could easily have been snowing like every other time I’ve been in Austria in September… With about twenty minutes of warmup time left I set off to ride the section of the course that runs through the village of Schladming, and stop at Tara’s apartment to use the toiletten… At about the farthest point I was headed from the tech area I ran over some glass and got a flat tire. Sweet. The struggling index suddenly leapt (do chickens leap?) to Grade AA Extra Large Cage Free Corn Fed Organic struggling. With 15 minutes till staging I rode the flat back to the Giant truck, climbed over a fence to fetch a new tire from the car, got it mounted up and even had time to warm up for a couple minutes, which I guess is better than nothing?
Usually there’s a start loop or something where you can settle into position. Not here. We went straight up the hill via a bunch of singletrack and switchbacks… Nowhere to hide. Cold legs immediately complained aggressively about their struggling status, which was grim but manegable at Grade A Large Organic. Unfortunately, any struggle at a world cup start will be capitalized on by about three dozen guys. And it was… First lap finished about 1:30 down and around 40th or so… Sweet. Then the struggling stopped and I somehow remembered that when September hits I can do no wrong, no matter how much wrong (training) has been done all year. I started givin ‘er. It was sweet. That whole shifting into a harder gear and pedaling faster thing is the business for bike racing. I could pass anyone anywhere. With seven of NINE (that’s right, NINE) 5K loops remaining I was in the twenties and feeling solid. Over the course of the next hour or so I moved within reach of the top ten. Then my moment of Zen. I caught the two recently crowned World Champions, Julien Absalon (elite) and Nino Schurter (U23) on lap eight. I gave both of them a pat on the back and congrats on a job well done as I cruised past. Then a bit of airline related bike damage that my (lack of) pre-race check didn’t catch failed me. Struggling index rising again… Fortunately, a quick stop in the tech zone (I still hate those things) had me going again with only a couple spots lost. I immediately caught up with Absalon who elected to start riding World Champ pace again. Liam Killeen joined us and we proceeded to turn the three fastest lap times of the day. Absalon faded off in the last kilometer so he could cross the finish line with Schladminger Lager in hand to toast his overall World Cup Series win. I held off Liam in the closing chicanes for eighth place, three minutes down on the day’s winner, Christoph Sauser. Not too bad for an average struggling rating of Grade AA Large Organic Corn Fed for the weekend...
At any rate, all the struggling this year has me extremely motivated for talent maximization and general getting really fast next year. Good support, good training and respect for the situation I’m so fortunate to have is going to combine to produce another big step forward on the international stage. I’m ready. And I guess 13th overall in the world cup on an off year isn’t so bad…
Now it’s time for some of the “other” commitments us professional athletes have, it’s not just all beach time and drinks with umbrellas in the fall. Three photo shoots in the next two weeks, then Interbike, then Star-Crossed cyclocross race, then Gloucester Cyclocross, then Pan American Championships in Brazil, then hopefully a trip to La Ruta de Los Conquistadores in Costa Rica and it’ll be the middle of November and time for me to wish there was a beach in Bend suitable for drinks with straws…. |
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