che sprint !! - what a sprint !!

ENGLISH VERSION AT THE BOTTOM

dopo aver testato le acque al criterium di 15k, sabato scorso mi sono gettato in una "vera" corsa, al Shenzhen Cycling Festival, una kermesse con gare ciclistiche di ogni tipo, fiera, etc..

Premetto che in 10 anni di vita in Cina, non ho MAI (proprio MAI) visto/incontrato un ciclista su strada... so che ormai da qualche anno ci sono anche molte gare, ma in pratica personalmente

non avevo mai visto nessuno (mentre la MTB e' gia' molto piu' popolare e comune).

Per cui non avevo alcuna idea di cosa aspettarmi e del livello della gara: un branco di principianti oppure una legione di professionisti ...

tra le varie gare in programma avevo scelto la 40km, perche' la gara principale di 80km mi sembrava ancora troppo lunga peril mio livello di allenamento, visto che di solito non faccio mai piu' di 50km alla volta.

Alla partenza, noto che in effetti ci sono un sacco di corridori da Hong Kong (per forza, la gara era a 1km dal confine...) e anche molti ragazzi locali che sembravano abbastanza agguerriti e con equipaggiamento non male...

Ovviamente, essendo in Cina, l'organizzazione della gara aveva qualche punto debole: in pratica il percorso era un rettangolo molto scorrevole, ma l'arrivo era stato posto proprio dopo una rientranza della strada, con una doppia curva a 90gradi e una sezione di asflato in condizioni terribili, addirittura con un "taglio" di sterrato perche' stavano facendo dei lavori...pazzesco.

Di sicuro se fossimo arrivati ad uno sprint di gruppo, sarebbe stato un massacro, perche' era impossibile rimanere in strada sul fondo sconnesso durante lo sprint...

In ogni caso, a questo punto la mia tattica di gara era di fare la corsa dura dall'inizio per evitare di portarsi appresso troppa gente. La gara in effetti e' stata molto combattuta con attacchi a ripetizione. Per fortuna ho evitato le varie cadute e vedevo pian piano il gruppo di testa assottigliarsi. Alla fine eravamo rimasti in una ventina e mi sentivo ancora abbastanza bene, per cui ho tentato piu' volte di partire in fuga, ma cercando di andare fuori in 2 o 3 perche' il vento era abbastanza intenso e di sicuro non ho la condizione per fare 5km da solo a 45kmh...

Cosi' come accade in una gara, tenti 100 volte senza successo e poi invece di vedi sfilare sotto il naso la fuga buona... in questo caso a 5k dall'arrivo un corridore se ne va solo e noi del gruppo ci fermiamo... perdendo quei 200m che ci saranno fatali.

Nel gruppo di testa c'erano svarie squadre con piu' di un corridore, quindi non mi sembrava realmente il caso di fare io una sparata per coprire il buco... in pratica ben presto ci siamo ormair rassegnati a sprintare per il secondo posto...

E qui, succede l'incredibile per me...

A circa 2km dall'arrivo iniziamo una brusca accelerazione e io saro' all'incirca in decima posizione; per fortuna il gruppo si e' assottigliato per cui non devo sgomitare molto per tenere la posizione e a 1km dall'arrivo giriamo a destra per il rettilineo finale (controvento...).

Con il vento in faccia, cerco di stare coperto e vedo che pian piano alcuni "saltano" e anche il corridore in fuga si fa sempre piu' vicino...

a 100m dalla doppia curva, sono ormai abbastanza davanti e vedo che si apre lo spiraglio buono... non so come, ma ci piazzo uno scatto "alla Cipollini" e riesco a infilare la doppia curva per primo... il corridore in testa e' solo 20 metri avanti a me e ho una velocita' nettamente superiore...

pero' non era destino e proprio sul tratto di strada con asfalto danneggiato, mi cade la catena dal 53 al 39... (azzz....) e' stata una questione di attimi, ma ho deciso che invece che continuare lo sprint con il 39x14, forse era meglio tentare di recuperare la catenza.. aziono il manettino e per fortuna la catena risale sul 53 e posso continuare lo sprint, anche se ho perso velocita' e di sicuro non riusciro' a riprendere il primo...

alla fine della doppia curva, do una sbirciata dietro e vedo che, nonostante tutto, ho ancora 3 bici di vantaggio sul gruppo e posso quindi sprintare ancora in tranquillita' per un incredibile secondo posto...

anche a 3 giorni di distanza non mi posso capacitare di come sono riuscito a prendere 3 macchine di vantaggio in 200m...

In ogni caso, per me e' una soddisfazione enorme di essere cosi' competitivo in una gara ciclistica, anche dopo tanti anni... e di sicuro non mi ricordavo di avere uno sprint cosi'

A chiudere bene la giornata, vado a casa con 150EUR+una bici di premio...

Ecco una bella foto mentre taglio il traguardo...dove sono rimasti gli altri ??

after testing the waters at the criterium of 15k, last Saturday I dived into a "real" race at the Shenzhen Cycling Festival, a huge kermesse with races of any sort, exhibitions, etc

I must admit that in 10 years of life in mainland China, I never (really never) seen / met a cyclist on the road ... I know that for some years there have been road race races, but in practice I never met a road cyclist (while the MTB and 'already' much more 'popular and common).

So I had no idea what to expect and the level of competition: a bunch of beginner or a legion of professionals ??...
among the various races on the program I chose the 40km, because the main 80km race seemed far too long for my level of training, because usually I never train more than 50km at a time.

At the start, I notice that in fact there are a lot of runners from Hong Kong (not difficult, since the race was 1km from the border ...) and many local youngsters who seemed quite competitive, and with also good equipment ...

Obviously, being in China, the race organization had some weak point: the course was a rectangle, but the arrival was placed just after a double-S tight turn with damaged tarmac and even a roadwork.... really crazy.
Surely if we came to a bunch sprint, it would have been a carnage, because it was impossible to avoid a fall if you sprint in a turn with damaged surface...

In any case, at this point my race tactic was to make the race hard from the beginning to avoid too many people tagging along. The race was in fact hard fought with repeated attacks. Luckily I avoided the various falls and saw the lead group gradually thinning out. In the final laps we are only 20 left and I felt still good, so I tried to attack several times carrying along some other riders, because the wind was quite intense and certainly I would could not sustain a solo attack...

So as common in a cycle race, you try 100 times without success and then you see the winning strike passing under your nose... in this case a guys attack solo with 5k to go and we let him, losing a fatal 200m .

Nobody reacted strongly enough and so we had to settle for a sprint for the 2nd place...

And here, the unbelievable happens...

At about 2km from the finish, we kicked in a sharp acceleration and I am around the 10th position; fortunately, the group has thinned a lot, so I do not need too much elbowing to keep the position.

With 1k to go, we turn right for the final stretch and we meet the strong headwind.

With the headwind, I try to draft as much as possible and I can slowly see that those ahead are "Coming back" and also the runaway rider is getting closer and closer ...
100 m from the double turn, I seize the right moment and place a huge acceleration which let me enter the turns in first place and in full speed... I have the front rider in sight and I am significantly faster..

... so for a moment I also focused and getting him and try to win the race...

but was not destiny: and on damaged tarmac, my chain felt from the 53 to 39 ... (fuxxxx. ...) was a matter of moments, but I decided that rather than continue the sprint with the 39x14, maybe it was better to regain the right gear .. I pulled the handlebar shift and luckily the chain pulled back on 53 and I could continue the sprint, even though I lost speed and certainly would not be able anymore to catch the first...

the end of the double turn, I peeked back and see that, despite everything, I am still 3 bikes lenghts ahead of the group and I can still relaxed sprint further for a stunning second place ...

even today, 3 days away, I can not understand how I managed to get 30 meter advantage in 200m...

In any case, for me was an enormous satisfaction. I have been away from any road race for ages and I started again this cycling "stage" only to take care of my tendons... so it is all beyond my expectations. And never ever I would have imagined to have such a sprint...

As a side, I also won 1500 RMB (200USD) and a bike...

Up there a nice photo crossing the finish line ... where were the others?

Bike race...again

So, it did come the day.
I had promised to myself that I would have never ever made a cycling road race again (promised done in 1994 and 2005), but today I was on the starting line again....

Weather was crappy, with showers and quite chilly for our standards. Because the Transport Department did not show up to close the road, we had 1 hour delay and they had to rearrange the different races and cut short to only 15km ! So we were grouped M30 and M40 together, which in HK means probably the most competitive batch of cyclists apart from the very few full time Elites.

Before the race I had a series of progressive objectives:

1. Essential: do not crash or fall
2. Basic: do not get dropped by the peloton
3. Expected: at least "do the race", race in front and do not simply hang up on the back
4. Optimal: get into the Prizes (top 5)
5. Dream: win, if I was really lucky

Well, a 22 min race goes quite fast. The 2 race favourites got away quite easily and I was surprised that any of the largest team did not react. It was really a pity that we left them go and I tried to create some gap but there was really poor initiative from the others. At the last lap we slowed down to 30kmh so it come down to a huge bunch sprint for the podium places and it was really bad that going so slow we were all fighting for places. I norroly avoided a crash and, all of the sudden, after a turn, with 1k to go we started to sprint. I was really too far behind (maybe around 15th-20th), so I had to immedialty sprint hard to catch the train. I felt good, but I was scared to blow up too far from the line, so I did not really sprint hard until 300m to go, which is definitely too late to catch up those ahead. I closed in 7-8th and 4th Master, not even feeling exhausted.

So I can declare myself satisfied. Now I am clear with my cycling potential and I just to need to be more careful at the sprint.

Also the PT has eventually taken the right path and I feel the tendons less sore. The PT found my calves "a total mess" (her own words). She says that the tendon will be never be the same as before becuase is permanently degenerated, so if I want to resume running I will need to be hugely attentive (streching, shoes, soft surfaces, etc) because the tendons will not be able anymore to forgive me anything...
Anyway let's see...I will not give up running so easily

update November

I have been very lethargic recently with this blog, but unless I change subject or start to talk about what is to work in Dongguan, there was nothing to report on the running front.

Now I am treated by a very good PT and I feel that she is tackling the problem in the right way.

She told me that there is a lot of adesion between the tendon and the sheat and she was "horrified" by the state of my calves: a lot of micro-trauma and adesions among the fibres. So the muscles did not flex efficiently and there was too much stress on the tendons (obviously compounded by my bow-legs, etc).

It may take still several months of therapy, so I presume that I will not race anymore until the season 2010-11 (jeeezzz...)

Cycling is going well and I am not quite satisfied of my fitness. I train in a much more spontaneous way than as a runner, so no intervals or specified efforts.

I train to have fun, ride with other guys and do as many climbs as possible (I love climbs...).

Yesterday night I showed up at the Science Park: on Thursday evening, there are ALL the competitive cyclists of Hong Kong looping around at a crazy pace...

it is a great group training, well, basically it is like a race with even a final sprint. We clocked 44km @ 42kmh average, but in the final sprint I really did a beginner's mistake and got myself exposed too early... (anyway... it is only a training)

All said, I made enrolled the HK cycling Association and I will make my cycling "debut"

as a Master in a criterium race next Sunday 15th. It is a bit crazy and I do not think to really be in "competitive" shape, but I want to feel the thrill of competition again (well, a cycling criterium is a LOT of thrill)...

I will let you know how It goes. If everything goes well, there is another race in Shenzhen (just beyond the border) the following Saturday