I was happy with my second chance that weekend in SBTGRVL. The legs are there, I knew that from training, so when the lungs open up I’ll be able to do a good race. I drove down the mountain from Steamboat a little sad. Feeling unbeatable and surprised by the excellent form I had. Where I was on an upward swing in may and June. With all the preparation that went into it, it was fair to say that I was disappointed. I nursed me and my bike to the finish without crashing, just being 5 minutes faster than 5 years ago. I never recovered and had to put my body into survival mode in stead of race mode. Fact is that it felt an asthma attack on the first climb. If it was the altitude, the cold start or maybe even the smoke from the California wildfires I trained in the week before, I don’t know. Somehow I was dropped from the first meters up hill after the cold 6.30 am start. I was way better prepared than in 2016 and had high hopes for Leadville the first of the two races. I went only twice for my favorite breakfast containing pancakes, eggs and bacon. On all the bbq’s they threw me in my old home towns, Santa Cruz and Truckee I tempered my appetite, I knew I had to climb a lot. I collected my mountainbike in Morgan Hill at the Specialized hq immediately on arrival in order to get used to the bike. I made sure that I was on time on altitude in Truckee. I carefully planned my travel in a luxury Sprinter Van from Storyteller Overland, quite the upgrade since UNBOUND where I drove an old beat up chevy. Counting in that I came from sea level, I didn’t rode my bike for 3 days and the day before Leadville was the first day that I stepped on a mountainbike that year, I new exactly why I sucked. All parents know that it was a challenge. And then a 2000 km trip from Santa Cruz to Leadville by car to arrive Thursday night, with 2 jet lagged kids of 1 and 4 years old on the backseats. I remember a 13 hour flight Tuesday after the Tour de France. We race on two different bikes and both mountain towns where separated 3 hrs driving apart. The challenge is pretty insane, consisting of 2 days of riding, over 400 kilometers in total, with like 7000 meters of climbing. A combined overal on a famous mountainbike race very high in the Colorado Rockie Mountains, Leadville is sitting at 3000 meters altitude, and a new fast growing gravel race, SBTGRVL, a 1000 meter lower in elevation in Steamboat Springs. Last week I gave it a shot at the #leadboat challenge. Although I won’t consider downhill mountain biking racing, and the main focus is gravel. Road, mountainbike or gravel, if it is on two wheels I am into it. I went to the USA in August to race, cause that’s what I still am at the end, a bike racer.
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