Open EnduroAstur 5ª Tuña - Race report

Kylläpä on hiljaista pidellyt täällä blogissa. No eipä ole kyllä paljon kisoissakaan käyty. SM-sarjan kolmannet kisat Levillä ajoin ja raporttikin tuli aloitettua, mutta keskenhän se jäi. Vetoan kiireisiin, jotka aiheutuivat vaimon espanjankielen opinnoista, joiden perässä lähdimme vuodeksi Espanjan Asturian itsehallintoalueen pääkaupunkiin Oviedoon. Nokkelimmat varmaan nyt jo päättelivätkin, että Open EnduroAstur on Asturian enduro cup ja Tuña on paikka, jossa kisailtiin sarjan viidennet kisat. Pidemmittä löpinöittä itse raportiin, joka julkaistaan poikeuksellisesti englanniksi tapailtuna.

Tuña. Photo: Eini Lemmelä

Last weekend I finally had the opportunity to race enduro here in Asturias! I couldn't attend the last two races because I had some trouble with getting a license. Nothing could stop me this time. Not even the fact that I broke the fork of my bike just a week before the race and couldn't get it fixed in time. Luckily the trusty old Niner Rip 9 is still in the family and my wife was kind enough to let me borrow it.

The race format here is a bit different than in Finland. In Finland there is 3-6 stages and they are ridden multiple times so the total sums up to 8-12 stages. Tuña had only three stages each of which was ridden only once. I think there aren't usually more than five stages per race here in Asturias. In Finland most of the venues have ski lifts which are used for about half or more of the liaison stages – depenging on track locations, lift capacity etc. None of the venues in Open EnduroAstur had lift assisted liaison stages this year.

Common for both series is that the start list of riders is ordered by some kind of speed rank and the fastest start first. But whereas in Finland it's ok to change places during the race, here the timing system doesn't allow that; every rider has a fixed start time for each stage, and thus a time limit for the liaison stage. It allows for easy pace – unless something breaks. Then you might have to hurry it up.

In Finland the tracks are usually published only one day before the race, so you have only one day to practice the tracks and have to balance between practice and empty legs. Here the tracks are published a week before the race. You aren't allowed to use shuttling during the practice, so it's wise to do most of your practice as soon as you can after the tracks are published.

But lets cut to the action! On the wednesday before the race a local guy, Borja, gave me a lift to the venue. Unfortunately our timetable didn't quite hold, so we only had enough time to check the first of the three stages. The stage was generally quite fast and had a couple of nasty rock gardens on the way. With the 72 cm handlebar and quite narrow platform pedals my wife had on the Niner, I felt like I was a tightrope walker holding a conductors baton. So I switched the stem, handlebar and pedals before the weekend and the bike felt a lot better. Still a bit weird but better.

As I didn't have the change to check out all of the stages during the week before the race, I had to ride the tracks two and three on saturday. That ment about thousand meters of climbing according to my Garmin. Stage two was quite easy, long and pedally track. The third was more technical with a jump there, loose and tight corners here, steep sections and a few hundred meters of concrete streets before the finish line.

The crowd going wild. Photo: Eini Lemmelä

There would have been an urban race in the town on saturday evening but we - my wife, doughter and I - were too hungry to stay, so we head to our hotel in Tineo. A nice dinner and a good nights sleep and the race day came. The hotel was nice and cheap which ment that the breakfast wasn't too good. Not that I had any appetite anyway. I nippled on some toast and realized that I was nervous! It didn't help that it had rained during the night; I kept wondering how it had affected the tracks.

TC.1 – Palancas

Photo: Lauri Vince

The first climb had about 700 meters of elevation gain over on about 11 km. I tried to keep a very easy pace on the climb. A guy who I had met a few weeks earlier (Hola Carlos!) had his start time close to mine so I didn't need to pedal in complete silence the whole way. I arrived to the top a few minutes before my start time. I had just enough time to put on kneepads, switch to fullface helmet and watch a few riders go on their way but not enough to cool down too much.

On the start line I felt very nervous. I had ridden the track only once so I felt like I didn't remember much of it. First part of the track was quite easy. I tried to put in a few pedal strokes here and there but they weren't too effective because the chain had dropped between the chainring and bashguard. When a steeper and a bit rockier part came, my focus was in the chain, so the slippyness caught me and I came to a halt at the side of the track. Meh. Got to take it easy. Then there was a long and slippery rock garden. All you could do was to point the bike down on your line and hold on. At times I felt like I was going sideways but managed to keep the rubber side down and get through it alive. After a couple of corners there was another nasty rock garden. I survived it without too much difficulties and the worst was over. After the second rock garden I managed to get the chain back on with the help of the front derailleur and got through a fast part of the track just fine.

But then I came to a steep and tight corner where I managed to jam the front wheel against a tree and held a stable trackstand there for a few moments. I tried to hop back a bit and get going but that didn't work out and I had to abandon the bike. I had a laugh and got back on the bike. After that the stage went on nicely until I was coming down an old road paved with flat rocks that were more or less loose. I saw a promising looking rut in a corner and was aiming for it for support when suddenly, after touching the rear brake a little, I found myself going sideways. I ended up sliding down the road on my butt. Then my bike stopped to a rock, but I didn't, and I hit my most precious on the back of the saddle. I got up and rolled down the rest of the track. You know you've had a good run when afterwards you have to check in your pants to see if everything is ok! Luckily the most gentle parts were untouched but I now have a bruise in a place I'm not going to take a picture of and put in this blog post.

Photo: Defender Bikers Asturias

The first stage was 3,75 kilometers long, had 67,6 meters of ascend and 626 meters of descent. My time was 8:11.312 and that put me on the 22nd place. I'm very happy with that! Just wondering where a clean run with my own bike might have put me? 21st?

TC.2 – La Faxa 2.0

After checking the damage and catching breath, Carlos and I got on our way again. We stopped to a "fueling station" on the way for some bananas and sports drink. The second climb was about five kilometers long with a bit over 500 meters of ascend. The first half went just fine. The second half was mostly quite steep fireroad and we pushed our bikes most of the way. When the road got mellow enough to start pedaling, the thing I had anticipated and feared happened: my left inner thigh started to cramp. So the rest of the climb I just tried to look like I was ok and right before the top I managed to get rid of the cramping.

The second stage was 4,73 kilometers long with 106 meters of ascend and 594 meters of descent. The first part had long pedal sections in it, and after climbing about 1000 meters the day before and over 1200 meters on the race day, I just couldn't hammer it as I should have and put the seat up whenever I could. The end of the track was steeper and a bit more technical but my butt and lower back were hurting so much that I had to take it quite easy. My time on the track was 9:40.839 and I was 29th.

Photo: Lauri Vince

TC.3 – Cueto´s Bike

The "fueling station" was right after the finish line, so I had a banana and a sports drink while waiting for Carlos. Soon I realized that a few riders had arrived after he was supposed to have arrived and I decided not to wait any longer and hopped on my bike. And there came the cramps. Horrible, agonizing cramps on both legs. The first three kilometers of the liaison stage was going downhill and I couldn't sit down, just stand or pedal, without having huge cramps. Somehow when I started to pedal uphill the cramps subsided and it wasn't that bad. But I was going very, very slow for the about 360 meters of ascend on the last three and a half kilometers.

At about half way on the climb, Carlos catched up with me. He had had a flat tyre quite early on the second stage. We made it on time to the start of the third track which was my favourite, altough it was the track where I missed my own bike the most. The first part of the track was a bit rocky but not too bad. There was a jump that I was a bit nervous doing with the Niner but since the chicken line would have taken a lot of speed away, I went for the jump and enjoyed it.

When the trail dived in to the woods I slowed down because I thought it would be muddy after the rains. It wasn't slippery after all and I got through it just fine. I had to take a few steep parts very easy with the Niner but still had a lot of fun. The last part of the track went on the concrete streets of Tuña. I was very nervous on the wet and a bit muddy conrete and I didn't trust my tyres at all. It didn't help that I couldn't remember the way. I must have looked like an owl my head turning around looking for the signs.

The third track was 2,42 kilometers long with 22,4 meters of ascend and 363 meters of descend. My time was 5:39.034 which took me to 30th place on that track. I'm not very happy with that but I'll take it.

Riding down a perfectly good set of stairs. Photo: Lauri Vince

Overall the whole ride was about 35,7 kilometers with 1713 meters of elevation according to my Garmin. A very hard ride I'd say. My combined time for the stages was 23:31:185 which took me to the 27th place overall. I'm very happy with that. I don't know what kind of sorcery the race organizer, Xandru, had used when he decided that I should race with the number 28. I guess I can keep my "speed rank" in the coming races. And it's nice to see if I can improve it the next spring!

Check out data and POV videos of the tracks from EnduroAsturs website. Data from my Garmin can be found from Strava: