Blog

Xterra Czech Adventure

18th Aug 2014

A stacked Pro field with athletes from every continent came to test themselves in Xterra Czech- and warm up ahead of ITU World Champs next week!

Transition in the central square of Prachatice

It was an adventure just getting from Prague to the race venue of Prachatice- it was my first time hiring a car, first time driving on the right, and first time in Czech Republic! The sat nav was only working intermittently- I drove 10km in the wrong direction before it even picked up a signal; next it took me on an hour’s tour of central Prague before detecting any motorways! But it was worth the ‘character building’ journey to discover this lovely, quiet and ancient town- with surprisingly great facilities for athletes- and very affordable hotels and food for us Pros travelling on a budget.
The 1000 year old buildings would provide a historical backdrop to host the madness of Xterra!

No sooner had I arrived at my hotel, I was befriended by the contingent of Xterra ambassadors from the USA. At home already! We exchanged the usual tales of bikes and bags lost by airlines, and I felt lucky to have all my luggage. But building the bike I realised my brake disc and wheel had been damaged on the flight; luckily there was a mechanic in town! He spoke no English but it's easy enough demonstrating the wheel won't spin. Between us we speak enough German to communicate the price and pickup time. Disc replaced and wheel is rideable so it will have to do.
Time to recce the course!

Only part I chickened out on in the race- just where photographer was waiting!

It's raining and pretty slippery under-wheel so for a few descents I get off & walk. There's some super steep ups too, especially 'hell climb' which I'm not sure is a typo or intentional in the course description! It's pretty accurate though- a gradient where you can only just turn the pedals while breathing out of your a**, with enough roots and rocks to demand constant concentration. One foot down and you’ll never get going again… And it seems to last at least 5 minutes! Happy to make it up and hope I can do it again at race pace!

Under coach's orders I'm on holiday until race day, so I make the most of the outdoor pool, cheap gelato and chatting with anyone from the Xterra 'family' who I happen to bump into! Some I know from previous races but it always seems easy to make new friends :-)

Swim exit ahead of Carina- my best position in the race as usual...

I could get into this relaxation, but all too soon its race day. I haven't even looked at the start list, but all the pros are announced into the lake... It takes a while! With each European race I've done the competition has got hotter and hotter...

The swim is a mass start with the age groupers, and pretty physical for the first lap which I don't enjoy. But I'm confident I'll be in a reasonable position into T1 as I never lose too much time in the water.

The bike is where most time is gained and lost, and where my inexperience always lets me down. I actually had a pretty good bike for me- most of the slippery descents had dried up so I managed to ride them all (apart from the tricky tree roots!)
...There were also fords & crate ramps to ride (which were set up in the town square to surprise us!) Cleaned ‘hell climb’ again even though everyone around me walked- result! My legs were pretty destroyed after that though, and I didn't have much left for the run...

About to tackle a technical climb 'the ridge'

T2 was frustrating since about 3 bikes had been racked on top of my shoes. I had to rack mine on a different row, then come back for the shoes, crawling under the other bikes to get them whilst trying not to trigger cramp!

Finally away and the legs felt OK on the flat, but there were some massive climbs to come…

The heavens that had been threatening all day finally opened and drenched us. Glad I was off the bike… and it was quite nice the ‘shower’ effect washing off some of the bike mud!! On my 1st lap I was passed by Jacqui on her 2nd- and on her way to 2nd place overall. An awesome performance- and she still had the energy to encourage me which was appreciated! Thankfully the rain passed- unlike previous years where I’d been warned it turned into hailstones big enough to damage cars, and force runners to abandon the race to take shelter! Just one more lap, one more uphill and one more slippery downhill to negotiate.

Epic rain on Jacqui just before she lapped me on the run...

I had no idea of my position, there were so many top athletes here I was just hoping for top 10.

3 hours and 39 minutes after starting the swim, I was simply glad to reach the finish after another long, tough course. I later found out I had scraped into the top 10 by 20 seconds!

Recovering with Brigitta. Destroyed!

It was great to see Jacqui back on form; Kathrin Mueller was again unbeatable on the day to take the win. A tough day on home soil for Helena Erbenova but she battled hard as always to take the final (and deserved!) spot on the podium.