Basel Report
Name of Race: Basel WIC team time trial
Date of Race: May 5, 2007
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Distance: 25km
Series: World Inline Cup, Swiss Inline Cup
Results (link): http://services.datasport.com/2007/sic/sic01/RANG091.HTM
Report: Team Time Trial -Basel, Switzerland
My first WIC 2007 race. Wow, this is it, huh? I should first mention that to make tensions even higher, my team for the team time trial of 25km was to start first, and I was the starter for the team. I would be the first pro out of the box for the start of the 2007 SIC. I knew the pace we had to skate and the rate at which to accelerate, I knew the lines to skate through the corners, and where to jump over small obstacles and curbs through the winding course. I knew where the hills were, and where the headwinds would be. I knew where the cobbles where, and where to avoid the worst sections of pavement. But there I was, first in the starting gate, jittery, and jumpy, talking last minute prep/pep chatter with my teammates; Dario Denese, Giovanni Conti, Jasper Corne, and Wayne Begg. There was a small clock with an analog face, and a digital counter displaying the time 7:13.20… we were to start at 7:15pm, and the starter would let me know when to leave the gate, though I couldn’t help but glance repeatedly and nervously at the small clock to my right. It was raining. …”I suck in the rain”. You can imagine, this isn’t the ideal state of mind to start a 25km time trial. I am beginning to understand that possibly my largest technical problem in skating is my inability to relax smaller stabilizing muscles when given the chance to. It seems that the more tired I get, the more tension I carry, and it translates through my entire body. It is important, when there are opportunities to relax, to take them. Ideally, this would happen every stride cycle, but I find that I often neglect this in my technique. The rain certainly doesn’t afford many, and thus the problem is magnified in the wet. The starter released us from the starting gate, and I got us quickly got up to speed. Up the first hill, left corner through the top of the village, then winding through the staggered ‘euro-buildings’ into the first downhill, and we were flying. If nothing else, I wanted to make damn sure that my leads in the initial stages of the race were good and strong. [Not too fast, and not too slow.] T\ I lead to the bottom of the fastest hill of the course, and into the flat, and my pull was done. I dropped to the back, and gave the “OK” to the 5’1” Giovanni once I was in a safe draft. This was it. We were on pace, and I was feeling pretty good with the speed, and happy with my first lead. Giovanni gave a good lead through his section and pulled to the back behind me. That guy is tough and fast. [He also has a Mohawk.] Things were going according to plan. After our first lap of 5km, we were expecting to hit the traffic of the other teams on their circuit. Nearing the end of our first lap, we could see team Zepto in the distance before they disappeared around their first corner.
After last night’s outing with the boys to the “Booglie Bar”, (owned and operated by Markus Booglie, out of his house. Really cool vibe, highly recommended) I am coming back to this. Big thanks to Old Kiwi Johnny for picking up the tab. That was way cool of you, bro. I will make sure I thank you in person tonight at the track. There is supposed to be a big BEE Company party there at 8pm. I think Wayne and I will be in full uniform and doing some demos.
Back to the ‘drama’:
…It was tough not to get too excited with them in front of us, but we managed to keep on pace. I was already beginning to fatigue in my shins at this pace in the wet. This normally spells the beginning of the end for me, but knowing the format of the race, it was best to invest as much as possible regardless of how far along we were. I was hoping that after sitting in through a full set of leads I would recover, but into my third lead I was having trouble not slowing us down. We were gaining on Zepto, and I just tried to hold pace with them through my lead. Going into a tight left with a tonne of paint, I dropped to the back giving Giovanni the lead, and had a slip on my way to the back. Gio picked up the pace before I could get back in, and I chased up a bit to get back behind Wayne. I did, but wasn’t feeling great. I figured that maybe I would give a good lead the next turn through, and let the boys go. We caught and passed Zepto on Wayne’s pull. He was pushing really hard. [I should mention here that there is a bit of history and tension between Zepto and Wayne, which I think was the impetus for him to surge the pace during this lead. Also, Jasper has some amount of history/tension with members of that team, so I believe there is something of a rivalry there. Hell, I think the whole thing is kind of cool.] In any event, I was having trouble keeping Wayne’s strides in this pull, and even had to double up a few times just to keep up. The longer he pulled at this pace, the weaker I would be when given my turn to lead. Wayne dropped back and I took over. I could hear him shouting at the members of Zepto to get out of our draft. I was laughing. They were drafting us, and Wayne apparently had to split them off the back of Jasper when he cycled through. I took the lead into the most dangerous section of the course, an uphill 90° left, immediately followed by a flat 90° right and a downhill 90°right, the last being the most dangerous turn of the course, requiring us to slow down. It lead into a downhill headwind, and I tried as hard as I could to accelerate back to speed, but my form was almost gone, and I was almost in a full sprint trying to get back up there. I was doing disservice by leading at a pace that was slower than the speed we needed to average while leading on this section of the course. With other uphill sections, we would need to be over our average here to make it up. In these conditions, (downhill, good pavement, slight head/crosswind, wet and slippery) it is technique and form that gives you speed. Period. Not power, or stride rate, or wheel size, or ceramic bearings. I wasn’t going to be able to help the team at all with how I was skating, and cycled back behind Wayne after a short lead. They boys could tell what was going on, and we decided that I would sit out a set to recover, and see what happened after that. Gio picked up the pace through an uphill, and I was struggling to even keep up in the draft. To say the very least, I was frustrated…
After a full set of leads, I wasn’t doing any better, I was worse. Gapped out of a corner or two, I had to close up in full armswing. Up a hill and the same. Through some paint, and I had enough of a gap that I had to ask them to hold up. I closed, but this was going to be about it. I stayed on a bit longer, but gapped out of the next corner, I had to let them go. “I’m out.” I said. It was a really shitty feeling having to say those two words, and I felt like I was letting them down, still with about half the race remaining. Out of the draft, I could barely skate. Hell, I could barely stand on the damn things. I had no balance. I had actually switched back down to a 12.8” 4×100 from a 13.2” 4×110 for this very reason. While I love the bigger setup when I’m feeling good, my response to the same amount of fatigue on them is simply far worse, and debilitates my form. The guys said they noticed I was far better on the track on the smaller setup, and for the time trial it would probably be best for me to stay on the 100’s. On my own, I hobbled around hoping that the pain in my shins, feet, and back would go away. It didn’t. Zepto came by me. I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way, or disqualify the team, so I kind of just stayed out of the way. A bunch of other teams came by me. Big names. I finished the 25 km in much of this fashion. Our team finished 9th overall, and Giovanni crashed in one of the last corners, after letting Jasper go, and we lost some time there. We were 10 seconds back from 5th place, with three teams between there. We beat out some big teams, and big names, though I might not have had as much to do with it as I would have liked. You can find the TTT results here: http://services.datasport.com/2007/sic/sic01/RANG091.HTM
I came in to find Giovanni at first aid cleaning his wounds.
I think it was a really cool event, like no other I’ve ever been to, and I look forward to Rennes this weekend, though it looks like rain yet again.
Hope you enjoyed the brief report,
Aaron Richard Arndt