Over to Barrie to let you know exactly what happened…
A 05.20 alarm, a quick shower and a coffee then into the van to pick the guys up around Zurich. Some quality man-packing and we were off.
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| Man packing at it’s best. (someone get one of these boys a girlfriend!) |
350 km later after some good banter and witnessing some rather interesting driving, we arrived in Pogno for our first superenduro race of the season. We met up with another couple of SAA regulars, Andrew and Nadin, ready to get some practice in.
Italy at the end of April, sun, high clouds and rolling hills, well one out of three isn’t bad!
We shuttle up to the top and everyone is beginning to look a little concerned, we’d been driving for 20 minutes, all of it up and we still weren’t at the top, this was the climb we would have to make twice on Sunday. Finally we get to the parking area, unload the bikes and pedal to the start of stage 1.
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| The trail to nowhere. |
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| You go first…. no, you go first. |
Stage 1 quickly became very interesting, the trails were newly cut in, predominantly off-camber and very slippery. The ride down to the end of stage 1 resulted in bodies and bikes everywhere, a lot of laughter and a bit of head scratching wondering how 250 ish riders will get down without first corner carnage. Quick note: My new freeride backpack with integrated back protector works well! 🙂
We rode onto Stage 2, the shortest of the 3 races stages. There was still some interesting corners to negotiate in the mud, but the trail was much more flowy, some natural jumps and a small rock garden before a quick sprint to the end of the trail. Sweet!
We rolled back to the van to shuttle up to ride Stage 3. When we arrive at the top, the fog had really begun to roll in, but it didn’t dampen our spirits
Stage 3 started with a gentle roll in, into a sharp left into a longish pedally section, crest a small brow followed by a drop into a super flowy section of trail, natural berms, gullies, rooty sections and some tricky booters which involved navigating around trees. Some of us failed to take enough speed which resulted in doing some Billie Jean dance moves in the mud. More speed needed for Sunday! We finished the trail on a high. We knew stage 1 would be tough, but stages 2 and especially 3 would be fast and fun, rain or shine.
We rolled back into town to sign in for the race, this should’ve been nothing more than checking our race licences and bing issued with a race number. Instead it descended into chaos. Unbeknown to us and as we later found out, MTB I Gufi the event hosts, the Italian cycling federation (FCI) had changed the race rules for regional events. This basically meant that there was only a limited number of international entires, 3 (there was 6 of us) and everyone else was on a day licence. Oddly, four of us got signed in OK, but when Andrew went to sign in around an hour later after riding some trails with Nadin, he ended up having a huge argument with an FCI official which was only resolved when someone from MTB I Gufi paid for his day licence. With Ian not coming down until late, things were not looking promising.
Race day – Weather overcast, but so far dry.
Ian met us for breakfast and went to over to sign in where the chaos continued. On arrival he was told they had run out of day licences and could only start after the whole field, some 240 or so other riders had started in front of him. This licence issue didn’t only affect us, a few French riders were told the same regarding the international licences and some Italian riders were also told there was no day licences left, all this after assurances from Superenduro that having registered and paid for the event, we only need turn up with a UCI accredited licence and regardless of registration time, we could all ride together, hmm…
Our fears about the climb were soon calmed as although it was quite long, it wasn’t particularly steep. After winding our way uphill for about 1 hour we arrived at the top to the welcome site of a refreshments van. A quick break then on to the start. We had learned overnight that the sketchy off-camber top section had been taken out and the stage was to start lower down the trail. Stage 1 was pretty tough even for the faster ones amongst us. The mud was heavy and very sticky. Keeping two feet on the pedals was quite a challenge, along with avoiding trees and in my case, a ‘keen to get a great action shot’ photographer.
Even though the conditions weren’t particularly good, the number of spectators along the stage shouting encouragement and clapping us along really gave everyone a lift. Stage 1 was completed without any major setbacks which as a relief and it also left us buzzing for stage 2. We had around 30 minutes before Paul was out of the gate first for us on stage 2.
The stage itself was over in no time, the muddy and slippery corners from Saturday were now well rutted, almost forming perfect berms, so the speed was constant. Just the rock garden to pick a line through, then a sprint to the finish. That line was high and left, most of us took it, two of us didn’t, resulting in one of us stalling and one of us taking a close inspection of the undergrowth, we live and learn!
Stage 2 complete, we had about 1 hour 40 to get back to town, eat, hose the bikes down and roll through the start line for the climb back up and the start of stage 3. Ian by this time had rolled out and begun his climb up for stages 1 and 2.
Back in town we took advantage of the refreshments van then lined up at the start line. We rolled out of town and begun the climb up to stage 3. It felt like someone had extended the road, in the last few kms, the top never seemed to get any closer. Finally we spotted the wondrous site of the refreshments van, we took some sugar and drink down and headed for the start gate.
This was the stage everybody was really looking forward to. Paul got his countdown and took off like a scalded cat, hunting down his 20 second gap rider after the first pedally section. Next to go was Matt, still smarting from jumping into the bushes on sage 2. He was followed by Andrew, Derek then myself. the trail today was more slippery than practice, but still flowy and fast. We all negotiated the booters around the trees without having to do the moonwalk, round the 8 really tight turns, through the stream and with legs burning with lactic, the final 80m pedally section to the finish. As we rolled back into town on a high, Ian was just beginning his final climb to stage 3.
Bikes hosed down, changed and van packed, we headed for the presentation tent to get some food just as the heavens opened, the rain was bouncing a good 10cm off the road.
By this point, Ian was about three quarters of the way up the climb. As he rides the last few kms and gets to the start gate, the timer says to him ‘sorry, we can’t time you on this stage!’ I guess recently becoming a father teaches you how to become totally restrained…
An hour forty after we finished, Ian arrives, very wet and muddy, but content. Pogno done!
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| A tired and wet Ian finally gets home. |
There was a good atmosphere in the tent after the race, everyone getting some food into them, but for one of us, the thought of the drive home wasn’t so appealing…
Other than the balls up with the licences by the FCI, on behalf of us all i’d like to thank everyone involved, your hospitality, friendliness to strangers, the banter from fellow riders on the climbs, the support from all the spectators that stayed out even when the rain began made for a fantastic race and weekend.
A special thanks has to go to Simone and everyone else involved with MTB I Gufi (www.mbtgufi.it), thank you for hosting a great event, we loved your trails, your unreserved apology was not necessary, but thank you anyway and we’d definitely love to take you up on your offer and return to ride the trails again with your guys.
Next stop Madesimo, but could we perhaps order some sun…
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| Part of Team SAA smiling. |
