The 2023 season started for me in Italy. I decided not to travel with the rest of the Swiss team to Portugal for the training camp. Reasons for this decision were the fact that the training camp will take place relatively far away from the European Championships in April, I am busy with my job and my studies, I want to reduce my air miles to a minimum and I have already been to Portugal 5 times (2x European Championships, 1x WC final, 1x World Championships, 1x TL for the World Championships, the Portuguese organise a lot!)
I was able to train a lot and well in the weeks before this weekend and was satisfied with my progress. Even though I didn’t plan a long recovery/tapering period before the competitions, I expected to be in good shape.
So, together with my father, I took the train to Sesto Calende, a small town at the southern end of Lake Maggiore. A month ago I had already spent a basic endurance training camp in this area, but at that time I was on my road bike. This weekend, first a middle distance and then the Italian championship over the long distance was on the menu.
Middle
Later on Saturday afternoon I started the middle distance, in short sleeves and in sunny, warm and dry conditions. Shortly before the start I realised that I had forgotten my SIAC in my backpack at the event centre and there was not enough time to get it. So at the start I asked one of the volunteers if they had a spare badge. The very helpful volunteers were able to lend me an (old) badge. So I was able to start my race on time, but had to stop at (almost) every control to punch. The others with a SIAC certainly had an advantage, even if the controls were only on short range. But the stupidity was my fault and I was glad to get a badge. Now I just had to go faster to compensate for my time loss at punching the controls.
No sooner said than done. By control 2, I had already gained almost half a minute on the first chaser, and all the others were already well over a minute behind. The analysis of this section surprised me. Sure, I had a lot of flow in the downhill, my new bike (more on that soon) rode perfectly and I didn’t make any mistakes, but such a big lead right at the start?
Apart from some small insecurities and 2 suboptimal chosen routes (time loss only about 15″ each) I could do an almost perfect race, and my form was obviously on top. So in the end I had a lead of almost 1.5 minutes and won the race, despite the slow badge. I was happy that my only mistake of the day happened before the start, and I was able to fix it quickly thanks to kind help. Thank you!
The full 2D-rerun can be found here: http://loggator2.worldofo.com/?idstr=logatecMiddleTainoME23
Long
The next morning, the Italian long-distance championship was on the agenda. After winning the French long-distance championship the year before, I wanted to do the same in Italy. The feeling from the day before was great and my legs were not too tired yet. This time I had my SIAC with me. I chose the wrong route to the first control, but was able to make up for the time loss there on the following controls thanks to fast sections on identical routes.
The first major route choice was after control 3. I opted for the northern variant, but hesitated on the way. Originally I wanted to go around further north than on the picture, but after a short swerve at the junction east of control 11 I changed my mind and chose the northernmost route in the picture. Despite the hesitation, which must have cost roughly 10″, I only lost 5″ to Fabiano. My route seems to have been chosen well in the end. The following sections of the controls 4-6 were only physical, the first one flat, the second one steep.
The next route choice from control 6 to 7 had the opportunity of cutting across a stream with cliffs (cutting was allowed this weekend). Luca chose this option and set the best time. For me the risk was too high, the combination of rocks, stream and no good alternative was not very tempting. I chose the route arround and eventually rode across the hill through the open forest straight to the control. The time loss of 8″ is ok, considering the significantly smaller risk.
I prepared the next route choice of control 9 to 10 for a long time. I lost some time in the preparation, but was then able to ride the route perfectly and was also right with the choice. On this section alone, I rode at least 23 seconds faster than everyone else, so the time investment in the route choice eventually paid off.
The last interesting route choice was the one from control 19 to 20. I decided to take the most direct route, which had only minimally more altitude to be climbed and the climbs better spread. I did the best split time but I think that both routes are quite equal. Nevertheless, it was an exciting challenge and it wasn’t clear to me from the first sight which way I wanted to go.
The full 2D-rerun can be found here: http://loggator2.worldofo.com/?idstr=logatecLongTainoME23
In the end, I am extremely satisfied with my weekend in Italy. The test of my new bike went very well, my form also seemed as desired and the rather small amount of MTBO training this year was fortunately (almost) not noticeable, except for the forgotten SIAC. With 3 bottles of wine and a bag of cookies (delicious!) additional in my backpack, we travelled back home. Fortunately, despite the strike of the railway staff in Italy, we still caught a moving train, albeit with some waiting time.
