directions_bikeSkoda XCM Horal 10/27

Commitment! That’s what helped me finish this race today.
From the start I felt there’s no power in my legs but I said to myself “let’s wait few km, it might change”. 3, 5, 10 kms passed and the struggle became harder and harder to bear. My body said there’s no point to continue after the first 50km (1st lap out of two). I continued to try to follow wheels, to motivate myself, to look for reasons but I felt like shit.
And then, right after the top of the first very long climb it hit me: “I cannot just abandon!” I committed to this entire Skoda series from the spring. The plan was to race the entire series and to choose the longest track every event had on offer. This was the last race from that series, so I had to do anything possible to finish it.
The weather was gorgeous (couldn’t have asked for more), the view of High Tatras, the organization of this race, everything was super ok … well, everything but my legs.
Anyway, I decided to drop the effort as much as is needed to make sure I can finish the race. Lots of guys abandoned or they suffered technical issues. The last thing I needed was an issue with the bike. Considering the amount of water and mud which we went through, I’m surprised the bike made it to the line - it started to “scream” after km40.
So, the new plan (which worked) was to ignore any rider that might pass me and ride at a steady/low effort all the way to the line.
Finished 1hr later than I initially planned to but considering the lack of power in my legs, I take the 10th place in cat and 27 overall like a small win.
Now it’s time to find out what’s wrong with me, rest, race l’Etape and put this bad 2023 racing year behind.
Michal Balko ˣᴾᴺᴰᴮᴸˢ - now you have the story before the photos. I hope the photos are nice, I suffered big for them 😂