Trek Bike Attack: the most fun on a bike!

YEAH! Bike Attack is my new favorite event! It’s on my for-sure list for next year and I’ll tell you why. The Trek Bike Attack is a 20km enduro downhill race with 2000 meters of descending and 140 meters of climbing. Starting at 2861 mtr  at the Rothorn and arriving at Churwalden at 1240 mtr.

Profile of the Trek Bike Attack race

On Saturday is a qualifying race, the result places you in the grid for the race on Sunday. If you don’t qualify  (eighter not participate or not finish) you have to start from sector 0, with about 600 people in front of you. Oh, and the qualifier finishes at the ‘tallstation’ of the Rothornbahn (1500 mtr) and is about 8km’s long.

Goodbye, my beloved Conti’s

My friend and I did a few training runs in the morning before having to qualify in the afternoon. Ilja had a total of 4 flats during these training-runs and I felt blessed I was spared the inconvenience. But oh… I should have known better…

Ilja bought brand spanking new Nokian DH type tyres, because the Mountain Kings weren’t keeping up with the pace. The Nokians kept perfectly btw! He finished the qualifier in 26 minutes and placed himself in the 6th sector on the grid.

http://www.sportograf.de/bestof/607/index.html

My qualifying race was terrible! All the flat’s Ilja suffered that morning, I had to catch up on in the race… unfortunately. I had 2 inners with me, but a 3rd flat was enough to prevent me from finishing. I walked back to the middle station and took the lift down. There I also bought new Nokians, only to discover I had shredded my beloved Mountain Kings to pieces… If I had listened to myself (in the review I stated: “not suitable for downhill”) and or checked the tires for wear and tear before the qualifier, I might have found myself in a better sector. I now had to close the line in the final sector. But yeah… I wasn’t there to win, or was I. I was stoked for Sunday though. Race day here we come!

Race day

Like the Megavalanche, the Trek Bike Attack is well organised and racers are invited on top of the Rothorn in stages. They all kept to the schedule and the mountain was filled well in time. This meant however having to wait a long long time. We took the post-bus to Rothornbahn and arrived at the middle station around 9:30. Way too early, so we chilled in the alpine meadow and arrived at the Rothorngiphel around 11:00. Again, way to early, because the race starts at 13:00 so we just bored and waited and waited.

12:45 all racers reported in the right sectors and after the briefing the starting-signal sounded promptly at 13:00. The poor sods in sector 7 took the time to see Wildhaber sprint away and disappear before we even took one step forwards. Finally there was movement in the crowd and we slowly moved foreward. We actually had to walk as far as the tiny bit of snow we had to cross and what I noticed that the spirit was “gemütlich”. No elbows, no shouting and most people smiling and making fun of the situation: having to walk down the hill. Past the snow we could get some pedal-strokes in, but had to get back in line on the next singletracks.

http://www.sportograf.de/bestof/607/index.html

Arriving at ‘the gallery’ I could seriously get into gear (praise the “Joplin”) and I actually got competitive passing people and not being to polite about it. I found that being polite doesn’t get you anywhere. They eighter don’t hear you or don’t care and in the worst case care a lot of being passed by a woman. So I continued shouting “left!!!” and was on my way. You would find ‘traffic’ at every ‘technical’ piece or singletrack, the biggest traffic jam was is the nice rocky singletrail near the middle station. It was going really well until there, I passed quite a few people and even caught up with my friend Ilja. We walked the singletrail together and moved on separately from there. He eventually crashed and lost an contact lens, having to continue with one lens.

I made it past the middlestation at about 25 minutes, which got me stoked even more. Rushed through the very nice berms towards the ‘tallstation’ and discovering what 140 mtr of climbing actually feld like… like blowing up!

140 mtr uphill is nasty!

It was hot, bloody hot. Did I say the forecast was awful? Couldn’t have been more wrong, sun sun sun and about 30º walking up because you blew yourself up in the first half. But I didn’t care, this first half is the most fun you could have on a bike and I was very happy with my riding there (and the Nokians did splendidly, not as grippy as the Mountain Kings, but perfectly grounded the Remedy with their excessive weight).

I took my time in the climbs, trying to recover and save some energy for the final km’s downhill. The second half has a few km’s through the woods, with roots and singletrail, and ends with a very nice steep downhill. I gave the Remedy full control and it rushed down like a maniac. With it’s owner smiling like a maniac. Pushed the final km on the pedals towards the finish and crossed the line 29th in the women’s-class at 1.13 hrs.

Give me more!

Giving the fact I started at the end of the line, this made me feel like a million bucks. I passed a fair amount of people, and finished in a decent time if you ask me. Next time I’m back with a hunger to finish the qually in say 30 to 25 minutes and having to start in a proper sector on the grid. Yes, I am competitive, but just as long as my passion for riding goes. I want to do as well as I am capable of, and I have a strong feeling there is room for improvement.

The Trek Bike Attack is less technical then the Megavalanche, but way more challenging then the PPdS. It’s more a downhilltrack like the qually-track off the Megavalanche is. The top 8km’s are fast, soooooooo fast!! And soooo much fun. But it’s no wonder  the Mountain Kings got shredded there, the wonder was they lasted as long as they did.

The Remedy however feld right at home, even in the fast and rocky parts. It didn’t feel too ’small’ or inadequate in any way. It’s the perfect bike for the Bike Attack, and the perfect bike for me. Only the Juicy 5’s did meet their limit and Elixirs are on their way.

Tina?

Oh, the funniest thing. Our first names are printed on our number plates, very cool for the nice people who are watching to cheer you on by name. Especially when they think it says “Tina”.

(ps. Hi Bella!)

Tanja = TINA

We are heading out there tomorrow with a campervan and expect to land somewhere friday afternoon. Might do a run on the track if we have time. Or else it’s early rise for us on saturday. 2pm the quali’s start. The Bike Attack quali’s are voluntary. It might give you a good position on sunday. For me: an extra run in the Swiss Alps included, as it’s about 1.000 km’s by car to get there. Sunday is the race with a mass start, like the Megavalanche, but as far as I can tell, not on a glacier. Which is fine, because the forecasts for this weekend are AWEFULL!

» check redbullstairwaytohell.be

Visit next page to watch live footage from Fort William, broadcasting will start at 13:30.

His and mine handlebars got tangled up and he fell sideways, dragging me with him. I fell over him, with enough speed to crush my hip. At least, it felt so. I trying to push the pain away, trying to catch my breath and I got up. Couldn’t stand for long and I tryed to sit. Then my legg gave up on me, massive pain!

I got checked out by a first-aid person and then this parapenter-guy came. Oh, he wasn’t going to parapent, he was unfolding an inflateable gurney, ready to take me up to meet the helicopter… oops. This moving to the gurney was painfull, being carried up was bad too.

In the heli I had to laugh, I finally to up in a helicopter and I couldn’t see anything, but sky and sun in my eyes. Then I got moved again (augh) and had to wait for ages fot the ambulance to pick me up. I think it took them about an hour :( and I was in a bad state. Angry and somewhat scared for what was wrong with me.

The ambulance came and they stopped along the way to hassle me for money. OMG, what do you expect from me, get me to the doctor now! Then in the doctors office they had me wait some more to have my friends come with the money. Only, they didn’t know where to find me. Thank god my friend Ollie found me, his speaks perfect french and I could finally rest and calm down. I was just about to go mental on these guys.

The pictures where clean and I was told to get up and yeah… it wasn’t that painfull all the sudden, that’s weird too.

I was told I could maybe ride the Mega… but I was done, one airlift is enough for me, so me and my bashed up pinky watched the Mega from the mountain, where the top 10 men looked like they came from another planet… awesome! Wildhaber won (obviously).

» Photo’s of the Megavalanche terror-week are here
(an illustrated and elabotate report will follow this week)

In mijn Flickr set Biking staan meer foto’s van Mariska Kolk.
Moet ik dan toch maar zo’n stoer glas ook voor mijn nieuwe Oakley halen? ;-)

4e plaats iXS Winterberg

Met Hemelvaart werd er in Winterberg een groot freeride-festival georganiseerd met een downhillrace, een slopestyle contest en een fourcross race. Zelf deed ik mee aan de downhill race en werd uiteindelijk 4e.

Het parkoers was voor deze gelegenheid iets verlegd, een aantal leuke uitstapjes en het parkoers was eigenlijk nog steeds hardstikke leuk. Tijdens de training van vrijdag was ik nog best houterig en zaterdag was het én beestachtig druk én heel erg modderig. Het had die nacht hard geregend en het parkoers was flink in de prak gereden.

Door de drukte moest je soms bijna een uur in de rij van de lift staan wachten. Dus het was moeilijk om veel te trainen. Ook werd het parkoers gedomineerd door serieus snelle rijders, die weinig begrip voor andere rijders over hadden. Ik vind dat een heel opvallend en vooral onsportief gedrag.

Foto: Mariska Kolk

Op zaterdag moest ook een seedingrun gereden worden, dat is om de startvolgorde van zondag te bepalen. Het meisje dat voor mij was gestart (er zitten 30 seconden tussen rijders) ging niet zo lekker en helaas voor haar kwam ik achter haar aan op het moeilijkste stuk. En je weet het, als je met alle macht probeerd om het goed te doen… gaat het juist fout. De stress was te veel voor haar, ook al probeerde ik niet teveel te drukken en haar de ruimte te geven, we vonden het vooral lullig voor elkaar.

Mijn tijd was goed voor een 6e startplek. Het zonnetje brak door in de middag en de Rocky kreeg een goede schoonmaak beurt en zou fris aan de start staan zondag. Na mijn warming up op zondag, zag ik het wel zitten. Ik mocht vroeg starten, 11.54 al en ik kon ook niet wachten.

Ik was vlot weg, skipte helaas de dubbel, worstelde in de chicane, maar kwam goed terug op de eerste rockgarden. Voor mijn gevoel vloog ik er overheen en het volgende gedeelte ging ook aardig naar mijn zin. De tweede rockgarden ging redelijk goed, maar van kijkers hoorde ik dat het er toch niet helemaal soepel uitzag.

Toch bleef ik op de fiets en kon ik een lekker tempo volhouden, ik dook lekker de schans af het glibberigste gedeelte van het parkoers in. Moest even herstellen na de een na laatste bocht, om keihard de laatste bocht in de schieten en de laatste sprong nog even met flair te clearen. De tijd van zaterdag met ongeveer een halve minuut verbeterd en het bleek goed te zijn voor een 4e plaats, op 3 seconden afstand. Die pakken we de volgende keer mooi!

Na een regenachtige ochtend op zaterdag, was het zondag heerlijk weer en hebben we heerlijk kunnen rijden. Na het rijden tijd om te relaxen en rond te wandelen op het omvangrijke festivalterrein.

Foto: Amanda van Stralen

Er komen nog wat meer foto’s in de loop van de week, er is een schitterende foto van mij gemaakt op de startsprong. Zoals jullie kunnen zien was mijn Stappenbelt jersey nog niet klaar, maar met spoed werd er door mijn andere sponsor ADFRA deurtechniek Huizen een tshirt gemaakt met alle logo’s erop. Hulde!