A king with no crown.

Sant Josep Extreme


Sant Josep Extreme
This is third time that I've raced 'El Extrem' An annual 65km mountain bike race around the hills of San Josep in Ibiza. This time I was racing alone, as Jane hadn't got her racing licence and the rules had changed since last year. This year you had to be federated, as it was also the Balears Enduro Championship. They were running a non federated race alongside starting 15 minutes later, and Jane was racing in this. As it turned out later they'd dropped the 15 minutes later thing and Jane hadn't known and so had rocked up at the back for the start.



It didn't start well, during my warm up around the 'campo de futbol' my gears began jumping . This panicked me and suddenly everything felt wrong: my tyres felt soft, my fork didn't feel right and I wasn't sure if I'd eaten enough. The firecrackers went off on the other side of the field and we set off for a preliminary once around the campo before exiting and up the first road climb through Sant Josep. - I wanted a good start to get into the rocky singletrack descents, that I knew came immediately we turned off road. I didn't want to get held up by any weak descenders or in crashes caused by the more courage than skill guys :)- So, I went as hard as I could to hold on to as near to the front as possible. At about 25 minutes in I felt stuffed, my legs were shaking and my stomach felt a bit queasey. We hit the first 'hike-a-bike' section- a 1km long steep section of loose rocks at over 30% in parts. I struggled up this managing to overtake a couple of riders, thanks to my hiking weekends in Wales :) The next descent was another fabulous hairpin loose rockfest. I tagged onto the back of the elite female balears champion, when I felt something hit my calf and bounce off the chain stay. I thought 'my pump?' and stopped and saw that my saddle bag had unzipped and my mini tool had fallen out, luckily my tube was still hanging in there. Fifteen people passed me before I got going ....arrgh! I was beginning to hate this race. My handling was still pretty good and I caught the back of a group of riders and rode with them up the next climb. The check point at the top was water only and I grabbed a cup and missed, spilling it all down my front! It felt good so I did it again :) I set off before the others, because I knew this descent, a fast gravel fire road which then became a series of rollers all the way to the next climb. I started to feel good and found the big ring :)



At the top of the climb I poured more water over myself and set off fast. Some more fast rocky singletrack and a big stepped rocky descent followed. I was overtaking more and more riders, until I took a right turn and realised that I hadn't seen a marker for a few minutes. Damn, I turned back and 500 metres later I got back on the course. I was still feeling good and pushed on once again overtaking all of those I'd already passed before. As I approached the penultimate climb, I hooked up with a very old looking guy and guessed that he must be in my category :) I tested him on the first bit of the climb and then attacked, if attacking is the right word. Puig d'en Serra is two kilometers of 20% average, but I pulled away from him in my granny gear anyway :) Puig d'en Serra is a sort of graveyard of cyclists staring ahead walking their bikes in the sun, it felt good to pass them ;) Another great descent and 5km of rolling climbing to the foot of the last climb Sa Talaia - 2.5 km of 10% gravel track. I grabbed a coke and tipped more water into my jersey at the bottom and set off. I was still feeling good and immediately reeled in a couple of riders and set my sights on a group up ahead.



As I gained on them I noticed that one of them was wearing an Espalmador jersey from Formentera. I remembered that there were two Espalmador riders in my category. The first 2km of the last descent is a very technical singletrack with no chance of passing. As we crested the climb, I attacked hard across the short ridge to get to the descent before him. this descent is very scary and I would rather have walked most of it. At times it's a a couple of feet wide, with large roots and loose ball bearing sized stones plus a large drop to the right. Halfway down is a fallen tree.I dismounted and as I climbed over, I noticed that he was right behind me. Back on the bike and the next obstacle was a series of odd shaped rocky steps and I chanted to myself 'speed is my friend, speed is my friend' and somehow cleared them. I looked back and a couple of younger guys were on my wheel , so my rival must have walked that section. It felt better to have a buffer and I rode hard through the next singletrack opening a gap on the guys behind me. All that was left now was a 1 km downhill through the town on the road to the finish. Big ring and chain fully to the right, I was cutting corners as close to the police traffic marshalls as I dared. One last glimpse over my shoulder as I entered the campo de futbol and he was out of sight. I crossed the line at 4 hours 2 minutes. I felt a bit disappointed to go over four hours, which I felt I would have made if I hadn't taken a wrong turn :(
I showered and came back to see that the results were up and I was first in my category! I wasn't sure how it had happened, I felt that I'd had a rubbish first half of the race, but once I'd relaxed and chilled the nerves a bit, I had ridden fast. I'd pulled back eight minutes on the second placed guy from the 47 km timing point to the finish at 65km Later at the awards, he was crowned Balears master 50 champion. He's a great rider and a nice guy. I think that if he'd realised that I was so close behind on the last climb, he would have attacked and beaten me. So a bit of luck came my way and I made the top step!




Jane had two punctures and still finished first in her race and would have won the master female catagory and come third overall in the federated race :)