Took 90 mins to go up, came down at 52MPH.
Trofej Kuci – Montenegro – 2 day stage race 1st and 2nd June
Away for a week as only 1 direct flight there and back each week!
Course: big hills, more like mountains; in fact who am I kidding, they were mountains
Riders: 80
We flew in on the prior Wednesday as a team of 5. We were collected by the organiser of the race at the airport, already 2 hours late thanks to Ryanair. As we walked out of the airport the heat immediately hit us. It was 31 degrees Celsius. Apparently this was a mild day! We looked at each other… this was going to be a hot one.
The first issue to overcome was loading the bike boxes into cars. One of our guest riders had a different style of bike box that happened to be about 50% longer than the other bike boxes and so didn’t fit into any of the transport cars that had been provided. His bike box ended up being taped to the roof of a car for the 100 mile transfer between the airport and the start of the first stage. The bike survived. Lucky for him.
We spent 2 days preparing, building bikes and gathering ourselves for the race ahead. Part of this was to take a ride with Dave (el Capitan) in which we thought we would go for a spin with some intervals……………..we ended up going up and up and up for about 12 miles straight. That’s when we began to realise we were in for a shock. The day later we went on a pre-race spin which ended up being cut short because we had cycled to the Croatian Boarder and had to turn around. All a bit random, but life gets that way sometimes.
No chance of being that settled on the accommodation either. We would be using 3 hotels and our first hotel change was before the race and this made us feel quite weird. We were very much in the hands of a very capable which Dave had arranged and this did help but it was still strange to move into a hotel with lots of other riders knowing that everyone was going to move to the next hotel together and then move out of that hotel again.
The following day the race started. We rolled over to the start line in the searing heat. This Stage 1 was set to follow the coast line for about 24 miles before going uphill for 18 miles! Then downhill for 25 miles on a sweeping, smooth, closed road descents. We didn’t know what the standard would be as we took to the start line it could be anything from the lowest race we had ever done to the highest race we had ever done. The plan was to act confident, give the race a few attacks at the start see what happens and then reassess. This is what we did, thinning the group from about 70 riders down to about 40 or so, by the foot of the climb, much better.
As we hit the climb I went to the front in a hope to keep the pace steady, I was feeling good. The climb was set to take about 1 and half hours (yep ninety long minutes) so I went to pace myself at about 340 watts. The group quickly dropped down to about fourteen riders and with four TBW23 riders in it. I fell off the pace at one of the major attacks – bugger! being left on my own to continue up the climb. I was concerned about pacing on my own for what was such a long climb. I dropped off rather than follow, blow up and not finish the stage. I rode the rest of the climb alone being caught by a small chase group at the top of the climb. Now in a group of 7 we flew down the descent touching around 52 MPH at points! (Amazing feeling). I rolled in for 21st after being boxed out in a sprint, sixteen minutes down on the winner (not an amazing feeling). On the day the team had done pretty well taking the places 7th/11th/12th/35th. What a shock. Definitely needed to reassess for the following day.
The hotel that night was amazing - a business type hotel with rooms bigger than the kitchen and living room combined in my house! We were to unpack, relax, eat, reassess and go again. The plan the following day was to protect Daniel, Cam, and Dave as they sat in 8th,11th and 12th on the GC. With Lewis and myself being the domestics, looking after them, making sure they had bottles and didn’t have to chase down any attacks. We also knew that there were now 2 or 3 big GC teams who would want to set the pace and would do most of the work.
The next day we learned what happens when the best laid plans meet up with a bike race. The race started fast, as the flat early section was covered with potholes and the bigger GC teams wanted to neutralise any attack from the bunch as well as keep their leader up the front with a clear sight of the road to avoid any misfortune. This high pace and road surface saw the group of 51 riders drop down to 17 by the foot of the first climb. Unfortunately Dave had gone back for bottles only to be passed by the whole convoy who thought he was simply dropping off the pace! He chased back on until the finish line, solo….grim day. Cam was laid with misfortune as well, hitting a pot hole really hard just before the climb, causing two instant punctures and for both water bottles to be thrown out of the bike; lucky not to come down or take anyone else down. Later we found out that the only vehicle to stop for him was the broom wagon and simply told him to get in - no spare wheels for him, race over (Back at the hotel that evening we realised he had hit the pot hole so hard he had written of he had cracked the rear wheel, and heavily scratched the front wheel!).
Back to the race, we were down to a team of 3 - Daniel, Lewis and I. I decide to go back for a bottle for the boys, after all it was about 32 degrees. I was able to get one and get it back to Daniel and Lewis. Then we hit the first climb. The pace soared. Unlike the day before I am more confident in my 20min – 30min power and knew that I stood a good chance getting up this one with a main group. In the early part the group dropped from a group of 17 down to 11, with Lewis being one of the unlucky few to slip. The group continued to fragment. I ended up giving Daniel a shove to get him back into the group after he chose the wrong gear into one of the corners, but he was struggling and couldn’t follow one of the changes in pace which left 3 up the road, a group of 5 with me in it, and then a group of 3 slightly further down with Daniel in it.
The front 2 groups re-joined after the top of the climb. The 3 GC leaders sat in the first group and the second group (with me) had a fair few of their team mates who had been dedicated to set the pace. The groups merged and the teammates of the GC leader went to the front with the aim of keeping the group to only 8 riders. They set the pace for the next 37 mile in between the climbs. I was able to win one of the intermediate sprints! Apart from that I simply sat back and waited for the onslaught of the second and final climb.
The second climb was about 30 mins long. All of 10 mins in and the GC leader attacked, completely ripping the group apart. In one go he had taken the group from a group of about 11 riders (a few had joined back on, on the descent and run into the climb) to small fragments of ones and twos. Everyone left in his dust. I paced the climb with everything I had left. In the heat I was able to hold about 293W average power. For reference the winner on the stage and the GC leader put out 291W average power, to beat me by 4 mins, in just 7km! I suppose that’s the joy of weighing 51kg not 69kg! Very impressive. I fought my way up to roll in for 8th place and ended up taking 11th Overall. Quite a difference to the day before. Daniel and Lewis rolled in a while later. Dan was able to maintain a top 10 spot on the GC, taking 10th Overall. Dave took 19th on GC, so 3 in the top 20 overall. And four top 15 stage finishes in the most mountainous race we had ever done. Not bad really.
