15. August 2019

UCI MTB World Cup – Val di sole

The birds twittered, the sun shined and you smelled the flavour of strong Italian coffee. I was sitting outside and enjoyed my cappuccino and the sunny weather. At this point I did not know what will go on during the race. Young and old people went to the Worldcup area, from the little girl with the noisy Shimano bell to the old grandpa with the beer in his hand. It was time for the worldcup in Val di Sole, Italy. I prepared myself totally focused and motivated during six weeks (Swiss Championships included) for the second half of the season. Therefore I was quite excited at race day. When going to the start area I had so many positive feelings and thoughts. Training went very well, the racetrack is fun and I was full of energy.

“Riders will start anytime in the next 15 seconds”. It is just a simple sentence but let your heart beat faster every time again. Than a loud “peng” was audible. The U23 women has been started. I begun fast and held position 25. The racecourse was hard and did not have many sections to recover a bit. Then in the third lap it happened. First the chain felt of the chain ring and finally the derailleur was hanging at the chain. Our mechanic in the technical zone had to remove it. So I had to ride every uphill on the big front chain ring. Then two crashes followed due to a lack of concentration. At the end I had to run over the finish line with my bike in the right hand. This nightmare was finally over. But what happened? The screw became lose and felt of.

Now it is time to say: tight all screws and get ready for worldcup in Vall Nord, Andorra.