RACING THE VARIABLES

The wait is finally over, the World Cup season has begun! The best riders in the world are back between the tape battling it out to call themselves the best of the best. For fans and riders alike, the off season has felt like an eternity with speculation regarding each rider’s form building to a crescendo at the first round at Nove Mesto. At the moment, it’s the mid-season for World Cup XCO racers, which means it’s time to rest, recharge and bask in the glory - or wonder what on earth went wrong at the opening rounds! The race season can be a whirlwind of emotions and no wonder with such a large build-up of fitness, form and expectations. Have you done what’s needed to be fast enough, or have you done even more to be the fastest? So many questions, all answered within 1.5 hours. These questions remained unanswered for a lot of riders after the first round in Nove Mesto. The feverish build up to the season all came crashing down just metres from the start when a rogue snapped chain caused a huge pile-up that affected most of the field just as they were reaching top speed during the initial sprint. With so much adrenalin and so little time to get going again, there was no spare moment to pose those ‘what could have been’ questions. Everything was geared towards getting up and getting back in the race! I spoke of sport being the best unscripted drama in the world in my last column, and the Nove Mesto crash brought this fact to light. How could you plan for something like that? For myself, if I can, I try to line up on the ‘optimal’ side of the bunch in a race - taking into account the riders ahead and the opening corners of the race. Do I want to be outside or inside going into the first or second corner? If there is going to be a bottleneck, how can I avoid it? At Nove Mesto, I was going to line up on the right but there was a gap on the left and I snuck in and made some places up. Happy days, or so I thought. Little did I know I was smack bang behind the rider whose chain broke! Albeit a fair few rows behind. Ultimately, I piled into his bike and a few dozen other riders - and then a few more joined and fell in on top of me. So, after the fact, what could I have done differently? Well, I could have lined up on the right. But then I would have been behind Dan McConnell’s unfortunate race-ending crash and been no better off. In a sport with so many variables, sometimes you just need to do what you feel is best and hope the links in the chain stay together. My predicament for now is a paltry ‘which side of the field to line up on?’ But what about those vying for that number one spot? A question that must surely be being asked by many of these riders is what more can be done? In the elite men’s race, no rider has won a World Cup apart from Jaroslav Kuhlhavy, Nino Schurter and Julien Absalon since a Dan McConnell victory way back in 2013. In a sport with so many variables, that’s impressive. Now, if you watch the livestreams on Redbull TV you probably already know all of this, but imagine how it would be to be a rider. To be fourth or fifth, but always looking at the back of Nino or Julien’s wheel as they ride away nearly every single race, for over three years. Then imagine, post-Olympic year, preparing yourself all winter to come out and try to challenge for the top step, only for Nino to add yet another two World Cup wins to his name at Nove Mesto and Albstadt. Then to have Mathieu van der Poel come over from cyclocross and almost immediately take it to Nino in the most spectacular fashion at Albstadt (and even then not claim victory). How can those 4th, 5th and 6th placed riders come back year after year with renewed vigour at every race in the hope of taking the crown. It’s because a start line is placed in front of a racer. And where there’s a start line, there’s a finish line. And where there’s a finish line there’s hope. Hope that today is their day, and that maybe all that effort when no one was looking is finally enough for their name to be called out as the number one. The first half of the season is over. Let’s see what next half has in store!