Having resigned myself to the dismal fact that my form stinks and I'll never race fast ever again, I once again proved that there is no logic to sports psychologist 'think positive' theories. Out for some fun in the sun, I've managed to win a world marathon cup... perhaps the biggest win in my career! Um... logic please? OK, the race was at stupid high altitude, where I've had almost all my big successes before, but still!It's also pretty cool because its practically a local race for me, situated just 2hrs from where I live, in the ski resort of Val Thorens. The terrain suited me perfectly, with plenty of really technical rough sections; quite a change from the standard 99% gravel road marathons. Most of the race was above 2000m, with a peak of 3000m! I guess my recent 3 week altitude camp wasn't such a bad idea! Indeed I had my share of luck as well, with most of the other favourites succumbing to crashes, punctures and major course detours! I was personally most stocked that I finally managed a marathon without completely exploding at the end!
After the first 40min climb I was around 5min down on the Colombian climbing goat, Paez, but after the following long downhill I had caught him and put around 5min on the next riders! From there I rode my own tempo, letting Paez gallop ahead. This climb was around 50min, so I was fully expecting guys like Thomas Dietch and Dario Aquaroli to catch me around half way... but Dietch crashed badly and Aquaroli punctured twice, so at the top I was still comfortably in 2nd.Then started the ridicules fun traversing single track section. It reminded me of the Crater Rim in Christchurch, a small sheep track undulating with fun railing corners, rocks to jump and flowing switch backs. I hadn't pre-ridden this bit, so there were plenty of surprises and a few dismounts; my Scalpel really kicked ass here and I think I was making plenty of time up on the other hard-tailers.
With around 20km to go the moto man came up to me and told me Paez had gone off course and I was in 1st.. Nice, but this also meant it was now serious! Coming up was a sick final climb with 2 insane sections straight up steep ski slopes. I knew I had to hold together till the end, despite knowing I'd never managed it before. You could say I suffered a lot, but somehow I held a solid tempo and finally won by 6.30min, in 3hr 42min.
Now its time to kick back and have a beer. I'm here with Jon Richardson who had a good ride coming in 47th. Its been great having the kiwi lads around to keep things real.
