Mel Spath continued her maiden World Cup season with a trip home to Germany for Round 2 in Offenburg.  Here she describes practise and the race day itself.  Over to Mel…

Last weekend I took part in my 2^nd World Cup, in Offenburg, Germany. This one is regarded to be one of the classic ones, attracting all of the world’s best riders and huge numbers of visitors (about 15000). Also, it’s supposed to be one of the most technical trails in a World Cup (in contrast to South Africa, which I didn’t find very technical at all, just steep).

Practise

Well, I did a lap round and all my expectations were fulfilled. It’s such an amazing course, I think it may actually become my new favourite course! There are no super steep climbs (wohoo!), but there is still a good bit of climbing in the course. Most of it is very flowy, twisty singletrack through the trees. The flow is one of the best I’ve ever experienced in a course. But then of course, there are the 5 highlights of the course (the REALLY technical bits):

1. The Dual Speed (a choice of two separate singletrack lines with several drops in a row)
2. The Northshore (an amazingly flowy bermed singletrack descent + drop, suuuper fun!)
3. The Worldclass drop (3m straight down drop from a corner into a corner)
4. The Wolfsdrop (a rooty trail towards an even rootier 3m drop – the hardest in the race)
5. The Snake Pit (a labyrinth of roots with deep holes in-between followed by a drop)

My first thought at any of these drops was “OH MY GOD!!!”. Apart from the Dual Speed and the Snake Pit I didn’t ride any of the drops. At each section I waited for some riders to go by to watch them go down, but I was too scared to go down. So I finished my first lap and then chatted to Githa Michiels (Belgium national champ) who had just finished her pre-ride, to see how she is able to go down those drops. After a bit of confidence talk from her, I decided that in my next lap I’ll do ALL of the drops. I came to the doubletrack and managed that allright. Then I went off and I was so surprised by the drop after the bermed singletrack (I forgot that there was one) that I had no chance to stop and had to ride it down. Well, that wasn’t too bad! Then on to the Worldclass drop I stopped to see how other people rode it. This was the only drop that had a chicken run, but the chicken run was so longwinded and tricky enough as well, so that you would lose about 10secs if you didn’t do the drop. So I waited and waited and watched and considered and looked and waited and gathered all my confidence and went up to it and (this feels like jumping off a 10m board or out of an airplane)…. – I made it down!!!

Wow, the adrenaline hit was amazing. I actually can’t believe I made myself ride it down. I am really scared of steep descents and this one was way longer than the one in Cyprus that I didn’t dare to go down. Anyway, I went on to the next one, the Wolfsdrop and again stopped to watch which line people took and how they went down it. And again I gathered all my confidence (it didn’t take me that long this time round) and made it down safely. And because it was so much fun I did it again! The rest of the course I rode without problem. Now, to see if it wasn’t just a freak moment, I rode the course another two times, this time without stopping at any of the drops. Wohoo! I was so happy that I could do all the drops!

Photo Alan Donnelly

Race day.

On race day the visitors were awarded with sunny, blue skies and the riders with a bone dry course. Of course all the big names where there. Offenburg has been awarded the “Best World Cup 2009”, so it’s a favorite among many racers.

105 Elite/U23 women lined up in my race. The men’s field was even crazier, with about 240 Elite/U23 men signed up. The race was a start loop + 6 laps of a 5.1km technically very challenging course. I was really nervous, my heart rate was at 105 (it would usually be in the low 60s standing around). The gun went and the speed that those girls went off was crazy. I had a pretty good grid position in 4^th row due to my 35^th place in the previous World Cup. But I started losing positions straight from the start. It was like going straight into a sprint, a real shock to the system. I was able to keep with the group around me in the first lap, but I was riding in the red zone all the time. I was still going hard into my second lap, but felt that I would not be able to keep up this crazy speed for much longer. And so the suffering began. I started losing positions as the girls behind me overtook me and I wasn’t able to keep up. After the second lap I was suffering so badly, I had to slow right down and the loss of positions continued straight through the 3^rd lap. At that stage I was getting really frustrated with myself and was wondering why I was doing this to myself. This didn’t feel like fun at all. I had gone out way over my capacity in the beginning and paid for it now. At the start of the 4^th lap I had been pushed back as far as 67^th place. So I just rode the around the course in my own speed. In the 5^th lap I was sure I was going to be pulled, but it turned out I was inside the time limit and had to do my 6^th lap. In the end I finished in 65^th position, after 2h8m33s of racing – a long race.

Right after the race I wasn’t really happy with my result, I had hoped for a top 60. But after talking to another few people, I have come to the realization, that it’s not so bad after all for my first time in Offenburg. I have learned a lot in this race, and know where my weaknesses lie. But I’m also a little bit proud of myself: the course is said to be one of the most technically challenging and I managed to overcome my fear of riding the super steep drops. In the race there was no time to be afraid anyway and I rode every technical section without any issues (although I washed out on a non-technical section….). I wouldn’t want to ride the course in the wet though

The next World Cup takes place next weekend in Houffalize, Belgium, another hugely popular and even bigger event than Offenburg. However, I have been racing almost non-stop every weekend since February, and even though I would love to race in Houffalize, I had to take the difficult decision to stay home and do some training instead. It is very easy to run yourself out of steam early with weekend after weekend of racing and traveling, so I had to understand that I need to take it a bit easier with the racing now to be able to keep going until the end of the season. My next race will be Round 2 of the UK NPS in Dalby. With world class rider Rosara Joseph, and Australian stars Kate Potter and Katherine O’Shea, the racing in the UK has just been added some very exciting competition.

Thanks to my sponsors Cycleways, TorQ, KCNC and Trinity College Dublin for their ongoing support.

Ryan Sherlock was racing the Shay Elliot Memorial race in Wicklow, finishing a credible 9th among a top class field.

The UCI rankings were updated today and Mel Spath is now ranked 48th in the World!  Congratulations to her in her first season in the top flight.