In a moment of madness a week before the start I agreed to join Josh Ibbett (Torq Performance Team) to race as a mixed pair in a new 6 day mountain bike race in the sunny south of Spain. Based between Córdoba and Jaen, the Andalucía Bike Race covered over 500km and 12,000m of climbing, and attracted a world class field of participants including World Champion Jose Hermida Ramos and Julian Absalon.
Day 1
Today it was important for Josh and I to figure out how best to ride together as a team, where our strengths and weaknesses are and how to manage them. A few pointers from more experienced team riders at breakfast proved very helpful. As the female I quickly had to accept that I was slower and Josh used his extra strength to give me a push on the climbs. If he led on the descents I could push myself to go faster and hold onto his wheel. It didn´t take long to get a good system going and it worked very well.The race course was absolutely brilliant, a real mixture of terrain and scenery. Tight, twisty singletrack through dusty ground covered in herb plants. Swooping fast trails with fun bombholes and kicker climbs. Tough, technical rocky climbs. Steep, rocky descents with big drops. We went hardish on the climbs but descending was the real place to gain time. The crowds cheering us on were amazing too, I was wearing my Irish national champ jersey so got loads of ´champion, champion´ cheers, and in general they were particularly enthusiastic when a girl went past.
I enjoyed it all until the last climb which was pretty hellish. Every time you thought it had to be the top it would kick up steeply with loads of technical rocks to negotiate, I was pretty destroyed by the end. We finished the 75km in 4 hours 33 taking first place in the mixed pairs category and beating all but one of the women´s teams. Standing on the podium alongside world champ Jose Hermida was pretty cool and riding in the leaders jersey tomorrow saves washing kit in the sink. Absolutely shattered but very happy!
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