After 20 days, my knee was moving better and finally, last Wednesday, I received a green light for moving from the doctors… Yep, they told me to ride, but, they explained that this was riding to maintain shape, not going on steep hills etc.. But sure, I had to try and so I went straight to training and whooow, that was not going well!! After every training, I had to recover long. Somehow my left leg wasn’t working at 100% and so I overcompensated with my rightt leg putting huge stress on those muscles +  on the ones in my lower back, so , after every training, even a longer roadtraining, I felt like I had raced 5hrs L. This was causing me stress, how would I be able to race? When would I be able to perform normal?? Was I too old??? So, I found no other way then to register for a Slovakian race, the Slovensky Raj marathon to try and test and hopefully to find some peace of mind…

 I left on fridaynight in Budapest and stopped somewhere in the Slovakian mountains when it got dark. Put up my tent and relax, adventure, I love it this way! At 5.30 I woke up in the beautiful nature and I had to be fast as rain was starting… Oioi, 10degrees and rain, hmmm. But, ok, took breakfast in the car and drove the remaining kms on small mountain roads, really enjoyed it! When I arrived at the race-registration, it was only 8.00 and rain was really starting to come down. Maybe it would have disencouraged me on a normal day, but after 4 weeks of stressing, I was ready for anything. When I got back to the car, I was surprised to see a lot of Hungarian friends around! Nice!! And when I noticed Peter Szalay, I knew that I would be able to see how far behind I was getting with my handicaps…

 9.30, racetime. Not a big group of crazy people looking for a long suffering in the rain and so it was very relaxed. Well, for most of us anyway. The start was a long climb and I tried to feel my legs, slowly putting more and more power. The first guys were so fast they had even bypassed the leading car, but I couldn’t care less, this was a test. After only 5kms, I already felt the problems: my right leg had to work overtime as my left knee was hurting. Hm, this was no good but I was going to see what happened. I had to slow down a little to a pace I could hold without burning my right leg and eventually, the pain in the left side disappeared. I was now in a nice steep technical climb and thanks to my great RAM podium, I could get to 2^nd place with the nr1, Hartl Karel, in sight. Not bad, but would my leg survive? Once at the top, I stopped to fill my second 750ml bottle and Peter passed me. I jumped back and together we slowly got to Karel. As Peter has a complete different ridingstyle with lots of tempo changes, I let him play with Karel and I could always get back on the flatter parts. In the descents I was slow. Somehow, I couldn’t feel the confidence, I was scared with every little slide and in wet mtb racing, sliding is just part of the game… So, more problems for me… We stayed together till the end of the first loop (48.5km instead of 42!). In the long climb I tried to find my pace but I already knew Peter was waiting for a moment to go. Still, we stayed together till the waterpoint where I had to fill my 2 bottles with these small plastic cups. The other 2 continued without stopping?? I lost a small minute and could now really concentrate on my own pace. I had seen that Karel suffering with Peter, but that he also kept on following him in every acceleration, using a lot of energy with a possibility to overdoing it. So, somehow, I knew I had to keep going on my maximum having a chance to coming back to 2^nd place. And indeed, 8kms before the finish, in a steep climb on the open fields, I recognized his yellow helmet and that gave me the energy to close the gap. When I got to him, we immediately worked together. We both knew there was this last small steep technical climb 1km from the finish that would decide the order. And so, when arrived to this climb, Karel jumped in front. When I tried to pass, he closed the door professionally. I had to try a couple of times, but finally I could pass. I had no energy, but apparently he must have been worse as I could jump away and take 2^nd place.

 So, I raced, I lost 3.5min on a 4hr race on Peter, happy? Well, yes, because I can ride, I can race, that’s my passion and so at least I can do it! But, lots of time and work will be needed to get the balance right-left leg back. My hand, well, with a broken ligament they told me it would take months but it would improve for sure, so no worries there. For the knee, hmm, I will ask more info as I can see one of the bones is like “out of position” and it still stresses me…

 Ok, so, 2 weeks of working or resting? And then back to Slovakia for another test…

See you around,

Wouter