It felt like the week went slowly, waiting for the next race to roll around after the disappointment of the prior weekend. The track had many challenging features in it, especially on the last descent which had a lot of big, fast jumps. I enjoyed riding the track more than in Mairiporã and felt that the punchy nature of the course suited me a little better.
In the short track I had an exceptional start, going from third row, around the outside and into third wheel as we dropped off the road into the trail section.
The first few laps were carnage with crashes left and right and various pinch points on the track. I noticed halfway through that I couldn’t push the power of the others and was getting ridden off the wheel, a very similar feeling to the previous week. I finished somewhere near the back and outside the top four rows for Sunday.
In the XCO I knew it was going to be a case of damage limitation. I tried to keep a lid on things on the first lap and not dig too deep.
There was much running and carnage on the first couple of laps deep in the pack but as the race started to stretch out I could tell once again that I wasn’t at my best.
Like in Mairiporã my average and maximum heart rate were 7 or 8 beats lower than usual, which is massive when you are trying to get the most out of your body. My average power and average NP around 60-70W down on the usual too. Typical fatigue / overtraining / under-recovery symptoms so there is no other option than to rest up, get some medical checks done and reset for Nové Mĕsto.