February 07, 2014

2014 Iceman off-road duathlon

Race 3 of the Human race off road series was the Iceman. Held on January 25th 2014, I was expecting a lot colder conditions than at the previous races, but it was in fact quite mild, and instead of ice… we had mud.

Iceman: Done!
(photo Marsha El-Hage)

I was slightly disappointed that the Mudman was in fact the “Hillman”, and there was barely any mud to contend with. Not that my MTB skills at the time could have coped, but I wanted to get dirty.

It has now been done! Coming out of the iceman, I was properly covered in sticky black stuff, and grinning from ear to ear from having tamed a proper slippery course. 4th proper mountain bike ride at speed, and finally some deep mud!

As the weather was so horrendous for the few weeks before the race with flooding everywhere, I elected to steal Ellen’s wheels, since they had Contis Mountain King on them, which, even if not proper mud tyres, would work better than my shallower studded ones. I had a chuckle looking at them with their reflectors and chain guard, but that would prove the point that the machine doesn’t play a massive role in having a great race. At more than 13Kg, I have a heavy entry level bike complete with reflectors and bell. It’s obviously no match for full carbon bikes like John’s Rose Psycho Path that weighs the best part of 6Kg less than mine (!), but I’m having fun :-)

On the morning of the race, I wasn’t feeling that well rested after a week of hard training, but the weather helped a lot in feeling better. This time, it wasn’t windy or too cold, and the sun was making an appearance, so there would only be a lot of mud to contend with.

After waving the RGActive peeps good luck for their trail run, I started the first run conservatively and not too close from the front of the pack. That was intentional so I wouldn’t get too carried away on the first lap. I felt tired on that first leg, and I my left ankle was getting a little twitchy again, so I wanted to be in control of my run. It was pretty hard to start with, with a lot of people around making it difficult to look where to land my feet. But after the first lap I settled into a nice rhythm, including the hills which I mostly walked to make sure I didn’t cramp later on in the race. There was a lot of mud and deep puddles that I initially mostly managed to avoid before being inevitably being covered in mud and not caring any-more. Compared to the Mudman, the course this time had a nicer mix of short very steep hills and long flat-ish portions on which it was possible to recuperate a little bit.

I took my time in T1 as usual. I’m in those races for the fun of it, and I was feeling al-right after the run “warm-up”. Strangely however the bike started with my legs screaming. I’m not sure why, maybe the lack of brick practice or the week of training, but it took me a little time to settle in any kind of pace. The going went easier and easier each lap and it was fantastic to be greeted every time by the ever cheerful RGActive crew. No D3 friends this time, but those guys more than make up for it! There were some deep mud and water sections on/in which I had never ridden before, so I had a few hairy moments where my front or back wheel would slide away from under the bike, but I clung on and didn’t fall off this time. It was, on the whole, more technical than the previous races, but like the run, had short steep climbs and longer rolling sections. Being less relentless than the Mudman, but having great terrain variety and still keeping a nice forest feel throughout the course, that is so far ma favourite ride of the series.

I only had to un-clip once on one of the steep hills as I was in the wrong gear when someone stopped dead in front of me. But that was almost at the top of the climb so that didn’t hinder my progress too much. With the winter turbo training, I have now a lot more power in my legs than when the series started, and I can really feel it since I can power up hills rather than having to push the bike.

The only issue I had (again) on the ride was that I was almost unable to take my bottle out of it’s cage. I really need to change that one for racing, but I don’t want to lose a bottle. Any suggestions?

On the 3rd lap, although sometimes caught up in the midst of people one lap down, I kept picking up places regularly, and was feeling better and better. T2 was a welcome short break before heading out on the final run lap, but I was quite surprised at the low number of bikes in there. There were about 25 bikes in the whole transition area when I arrived, so I wasn’t far off the front!

If I felt tired on first run and couldn’t settle initially because of the amount of people around, it was a stark contrast on the last leg, and I was happy to be almost alone for the whole of the second one. Legs were now feeling fine (well, aside the normal race tightness at this stage), and I powered through that last leg, picking up everyone I had in sight. In fact, I picked up 7 places between T2 and the finish, feeling good in the process, so it proves that the strategy to start easy is paying off well!

I’m glad it’s over, but I enjoyed this one a lot more than the Mudman which was a little too hard for comfort at the time.

There’s now only one race left in the series, and after increasing my ranking every time through the first three races, I’m looking forward to see how far up the series leader boards I can go! I’m now 17th overall, 5th in my age group, so it’s not too bad for a first dab into off-road racing so far!