Oli at the BMC Swiss Cup

Hello

In order to prepare for the upcoming important races, the 4th Round of the World Cup and 3rd National Race, I felt I needed a kick up the arse so headed off on a 5 day road trip for some hard training and a
top level race.

To try and get ahead of the game I headed to La Bresse in the Alsace region of France for 3 days of hard training. This is the venue of the 4th World Cup that is so important to me as this is the last chance of Olympic Qualification, as well as been a great location for training i was able to get in several practice laps of the course.

I then headed over the border to take part in the 3rd round of the BMC Swiss Cup. The Swiss are the top MTB nation in the world and the series is the toughest national series attracting not only Swiss riders but a load of foreigners as well. The events generally feel like mini World Cup races in the start list and also the atmosphere and organisation. This one in Solothurn even more so as it was combined with the Swiss Bike shows so an estimated 15,000 people watched the racing.

The race was going to a real mix up with a long road section at the start and finish with a muddy mountain to climb and descend every lap. I got a poor start and was in the 30s but the climbing legs were good and i moved quickly up through the field. On the last lap i was racing for 12th with a 5 man group but started to tie up and ended up a solid 15th.

It was a significant race, as it was the first time i felt like my old (pre injury) self and had been great for my moral and can now look forward to the coming weeks,

May 13th- Lincoln Gp National road race
May 20th- World Cup Rd 4
May 27th- National Series Rd 3
June 2nd- Tweedlove Festival, 7hr pairs enduro.

During a 4hr wait at Basel airport I also wrote a large blog about the roller coaster of the last month, feel free to link too and use the photos of you wish.

http://enduramtbracing.com/Post.aspx?dept_id=7&post_id=49

Thanks for the support
Oli