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world cup round 5,val di sol italy
val di sol was the venue for the 2008 world championships.it wa here that i first medaled at a world championship race getting the silver in the u/23 section.christoph won the elite men here and secured his first xc world champs jersey.
the course was similar to the past ,but had a few key changes mostly in the form of leg crushingly steep ascents.in the days leading up to the race i enjoyed riding the track and i was hoping for a big result.
we kicked of at our regular 2 30pm start time with temeratures soaring to as high as 33c on the track.i had a steady start coming round the first lap in around 7th just 4 sec off the lead group.i chased hard on the second lap to close to the leaders but caught them and hit the wall almost simultaneously.i started sliding back alitlle and was soon riding with jaroslav kulhavy for a couple of laps.with around two laps to go i had to let go and then it was my team mate christoph and german rider moritz milats who joined me for awhile before attacking me halfway round the penultimate climb.i was having a mediaocre day on a course where you were looking for your best.
i suffered on as best i could,in fact i dont think ive dug that deep in a couple of years!i came in ,in 10th 4min down which was satisfactory and i was pretty happy to make the pain stop.the bike worked great again this weekend.the boys at specialized are doing a stellar job at looking after us.
im looking forward to some better recovery this week.last week i did some mileage for marathon worlds coming up this sunday.maybe not the best thing to focus on between world cup races.
till next week
cheers
burrry