We’ve just returned from the Bike Attack Freeride race in Lenzerheide. The event is run over two days with a qualification race on Saturday and the main race on Sunday. The qualification is an individual time trail covering a distance of approximately 9km with a descent of approximately 1400m over loose scree, single trail, fire roads, grass land and a man made freeride trail from the top of Rothorn down to the valley below. Riders are set off at 15 second intervals with the fastest rider covering the course in a time of less than 15 minutes and the slowest taking in the region of an hour.
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| Dave at the start of his quali run. |
One of our group rode an excellent quali and managed to get to the valley in 17:55 and all of us finished in under 26 minutes. Personally I had quite a disappointing quali run. Shortly after I started I got stopped on the course by a Rega helicopter which was picking up somebody that had seriously injured themselves (I hope they are ok) and then when I got going again I got held up a fair bit by slower riders. In the end I got to the valley in a time of 21:40 with the feeling I could probably have put in a time of about 1:30 to 2mins quicker. Our times from Saturdays race dictated which sector we would be allowed to start in on Sunday. The faster you went the further forward you were allowed to go in the starting area. Paul with 17:55 was allowed to be almost right at the front just behind the seeded riders where as the rest of us with times of about 20mins would be quite a bit further back.
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| 15 second start intervals in the quali means that the racing can still be quite close.. |
The mood in the finish area was brilliant though with everyone on team SAA really enjoying taking part in the event and feeling very happy with their results in the quali race. We all went for dinner that evening with big grins and looking forward to the main event on the Sunday.
Sunday dawned without a cloud in the sky and we made our way to the lift station at 06:40 to get our bikes back up to the top of Rothorn and as far forward in our starting sectors as possible. Most of us managed to get right into the front row of our respective sectors. Then it was back down to the valley for breakfast and a rest before heading back up again at about 11:00 ready for the race start at 13:00.
As the time ticked down and we got closer to the start the nerves started to build. I looked around the start line and started to feel nervous that everyone around me had chosen to go with full face helmets for the race. I had decided to use just a normal helmet and wasn’t wearing any body armour either. A crash up here without the extra protection would be at best painful without it, but I also knew that the 140m of climbing in the second half of the race would be a lot more difficult with the extra weight and restrictions from full downhill protection. My goal was simply ride safe on the top, not loose too many places and then see if I could make anything up on the second more XC part of the course.
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| 3… 2.. 1… Go! 800 bikers leave Rothorn on their way to Churwalden. |
At 13:00 the race started and we managed to push forward. I think I got a bit forward in the push and as soon as I got out of the scrum on the start line I sprinted across the first flat area trying to make up some more places before we got reduced into single trail. As everyone converged into single file I broke right and took a route where there was no trail across the loose scree. This move allowed me not to get stuck in the first bottle neck and pass a large number of people, but I knew the risk would go against me if I punctured on the sharp rocks. I kept myself as light on the bike as possible and got through without any mishaps. After that the trail got narrower with not so many possibilities to go off the beaten track. I stayed more or less in line until the valley and we started the first uphill. From the valley I just rode a steady pace on the first climb and started overtaking a number of people on downhill bikes who were off and pushing. Barrie came alongside and over took me and I followed his wheel for a few meters which gave me a short recovery and then I rode on expecting that he would stay on my wheel.
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| Ricardo in Sundays Race |
I managed to pass a number of people on the climb up to Valbella and again on the climb up to the feeding station. The next trail section was a procession again where I just manage to squeeze past a couple of people. At this point I was realising that I felt quite good on the bike and knew that I only had about 10 minutes left to the end. I kept riding and followed wheels on the single trail sections and managed to pass people on each of the climbs. I eventually arrived at the finish in a group of about 5 or 6 with a time of 51:33 which although was slower than last year I was still pretty happy with as I had started from a sector further back than I had last year and ended up being held up quite a lot.
Paul was already at the finish area when I got in and he managed to get a time of 39:27 which was good enough for 57th place. This was an amazing achievement considering he rode the last 10km of the race on a flat tyre and had a crash on the course. We waited for everyone else to get to the finish. Barrie was in the finish shortly after me and Ricardo and Derek arrived very soon after. Everyone was happy with how the day went and thoroughly enjoyed not just the race but the whole weekend.
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| Smiles all round for Team SAA after the race on Sunday |
The race itself is well known in the German speaking word with over half of the competitors coming from Germany and Austria, but there are very few English speaking participants. The course is a good mix of alpine terrain, single trail and some fire road with a bit of XC and uphill thrown in at the end. To do well on the Sunday you need to be an all-round rider and the format really is a good test of all-mountain style riding. The downhillers can do well in the quali on Saturday, but then need to be able to pedal to hold their place on Sunday and the XC riders need to be good enough on the quali to start far enough forward on the Sunday to make the most of their fitness.
Epilogue
After returning from the weekend I had a mail from Ricardo. One of the things he said which really hits with me was this “Last year when I started riding I really thought that this kind of race was way out of my scope and I’m so glad to see that I wasn’t even near to last.” We all ride our bikes for fun and anything is possible when you set your mind to it and have a positive attitude. I am looking forward to many more rides with the whole group in the near future.
