Join me for one lap on the race track for the first round of the mountain bike XCO World Cup in Pal Arinsal, Andorra.
Okay, we are here in Andover for the sixth round of the UCI Mountainike World Cup. Going to do a lap on the course. It’s Thursday today and we have short track Friday evening and Xio on Sunday. So, let’s see what it looked like. They changed the track a bit this year. It’s a little bit shorter. They took out one climb, made another climb a bit shorter, but we’ll see in a few minutes. First the start climb here. It’s steep and wide, so plenty of space to overtake. And it’s hot today. Instead of going down after this one, we just continue straight up to the technical section. So, it’s a bit shorter. One climb is out here and it will be a hard start. See if you can catch Vidia in front. Small flat part here before the technical part of the climb continues. And some beautiful views. Can feel the breathing in high altitude. We’re in 1,900 m above sea level, so thin air will make it some heart racing. Very short bit down before we continue up different lines. Oh, messed up the corner. And now it’s a steep and technical part coming up. Most physical part of the track I would say. Yeah. Do something cool. Do something cool on the side. Yeah. Okay, here we have two options, left or right. Right is a bit steeper but also shorter, faster. Go for that one. Then the long technical downhill is coming up. A lot of line options here. See if Alex found the good lines. All the rocks down here. Small jump. can stay completely out. Take the speed up here. Then the most iconic and downhill is coming up. So, a few different lines. We’ll go up here. Oops. Dropping down. Go through the trees. Try completely outside and cross into the next downhill. The steep down here big impacts. This downhill also made a bit shorter which also means the climb afterwards will be a bit shorter. Quite rough again. Too many line options. Let’s try the completely outside. Wow, not the best exit speed, but here on you can take all the speed and right into Alex. Super steep straight. Super steep straight climb, but a bit shorter than normal. The last corner is super off camera. Yeah, I went completely outside. That’s way easier, but a bit slower. Top line or the bottom line? Same as you. Yeah. Now we come to the easier downhill. Bit more flow where you got the chance to recover a little bit. Bit more bike touch style. Entering the BMS here. Jump. High speed out through these gravel corners. A lot of them on this track going into the grass. Here’s the seat zone. Can go in. Maybe you have to cooling water might be hot out there. And also the short track is coming here during this climb. Small grass climb. before we go into the forest again. Track is rolling super fast. I’m with the ASP ST in the back, the normal Aspen in front. Go down here. Also two options. We go for the left. Take a lot of speed. Don’t have to do much work. Getting in here. Trying to take the speed out. Jump over the roots. So downhill. Take the left one. Easy high speed. Jumping up and next small climb next to the pump track to the last part of the loop. Maybe the steepest climb of the whole track coming up over the bridge. They also took out some stones here. Made it a bit more smooth. Go over the road. A nice view. Maybe not going to see that in the race, but it’s okay. Get up to the last technical section of the track. had a nasty crash here last year, but they changed the line a bit. You can do a quite easy inside line, just a corner. Afterwards, it’s a bit hard. We will try. Stay up here. Always end up with the foot down there, the hard corner, jump over the stump. That’s basically the last technical section. There’s a small rat gun coming up down here. I have to stay focused. Some quite annoying corners, but everything is fine. Coming down to the last rock gun. Always a bit tricky to get the best line over that one. And it will change during the week with many riders riding. Now it’s basically just back up to the pump track. Give the pump track a few jumps and then back to start finish. It’s quite a short track here. They took out some climbs and made it faster. I would say even a bit easier. So, I guess it will be some fast racing, maybe some bigger groups and a bit tactical. But for sure, you have to be aware that we are in almost 2,000 m and it’s a super physical track. So, don’t overdo it. Will be a long race. Nice to attack. And the final attack back up here and into the fun pump track. Don’t want to go with too much speed in. Want to pump here. Take all the speed. You can jump in. Last small jump in the corner. Careful for the gravel roads here. Take the speed up the bridge. Roll down a small inside line here. Take all the speed. The very last bit before the finish. Have to decide where to open your sprint. Write some roots here and corner. Trip out the outside line and then just sprint to the finish line. Oh, and that’s it. One lap in the door. We race on Friday and Sunday. Tune in. Will be a good week of racing. Bye-bye. It’s quite hard when you ride through everything. Hi, Penny.
1 Comment
My first corner 🤡🙈😂