Epic Racing around the World

Sue Butler and Mitchell Peterson are hitting the Euro World Cups this month - Sue raced Belgium solo style then met up with Mitchell for the German and Spanish rounds.

Sunny. I know. I didn’t believe it was Europe, either. They’ve written on the road as they travel south to one of my favorite cities…Madrid, España.

Sue…tell me about racing as a salt of the earth athlete racing without handlers, teammates, or most importantly…a call-up:

In the starting block, no one was behind me. No one. Its a low stress environment on the last row. There’s none of the tension of pushing on the pedals while holding your brakes…twinging muscles flexed and ready to pounce…that’s a front row thing. From the back, there’s no hurry. No one is going anywhere. You don’t see much of the race from the nosebleeds, just a herd of girls taking off in front of you and the rest wishing they were. It is an angry mess.

The course was fast, tight, intense and full of what everyone is always talking about…Euro Chutes. Short, Steep, Bumpy, and initiated by a left hand 90 degree turn and completed with a bottom-of-the-chute 90 degree turn…no run in/no run out.

My confidence had been shattered with my apparent lack of ability in riding drops. Friday and Saturday’s pre-rides both resulted in crashes.

I rode the course’s North Shore drop because we’d always end up half way down it before I had a chance to realize it! You didn’t have a choice. The 2nd Euro Chute wasn’t as kind…two crashed in pre-ride had left me with a face plant. In the race, I am sure I would have been fine, but why take chances? It is a long season and I like my bones in one piece. Each lap I took the cheater route which was a great pre-season downhill cyclocross effort. Better to be heckled on my feet than cheered for on my face.

From the back the pace is no easier than the front, merely more stressful and dangerous..so with one to go, I got pulled, even though I wasn’t even close to getting lapped. But on a 5k course, they want the leaders to have their room. Its a battle between the desire to finish and put in the hard work, and have the pain taken away, chating please, please, please pull me…So dumb. But they made us climb the steep climb before they pulled us. The irony was thick. It was a rough go. Another world cup experience down, they only get better from here. They key is paying your dues, picking up a point here and there, and moving up in the start chute. Its the racing version of working your way up the corporate ladder…everyone has to sort mail at some point.

Mitchell - from the freeways and wide open spaces of Sea Otter’s 19mile loop the the Euro-chaos of a 5k circuit in the Black Forest, what went on out there?

To really start this trip off right went out on the town the night before I flew from Utah to Germany. Because of this and my 6 am flight in the morning I only got about 2.5 hours of sleep. Be the hammer, not the anvil when it comes to jet-lag, right?

I did manage to weasel my way into business class to Frankfurt, so I got some sleep on the flight. I actually felt ok and could stretch out my legs a bit during the trans-ocean flight.

From the plane I headed over to the venue to get a lap in and that scared me back into reality. I came into the first triple arrow section (read DANGER) with speed. Having only ridden the mtb at NMBS races and Sea Otter, I was expecting there to be a rock, maybe two if it was really hairy… however they really meant it DANGER. I launched off the first drop, then the second, third, and finally hucked it off 5 ft drop into the bottom of the chute before stuffing it around an immovable tree at the bottom and into a 90 degree turn. I thought I was dead with each drop but the Scalpel sucked it up and I survived.

Note to self - slow down for the triple arrows.

The next two drops were fine, and then I met the Wolf Drop. This 35 ft almost vertical drop down these slippery root ledges, and instead of landing on mud, bushes, dirt or anything soft, it drops straight down onto an asphalt section.

Note to self: Ignore the triple arrows and just ride.

When Sunday arrived, I felt tired warming up. I was just two nights off the plane, fatigued, stressed, and anxious. With a call up in the early 200’s, I was so far back that I couldn’t even see the front row, just an endless expanse of people in front of me.

The gun went off and it took a good 10 sec before I was able to move. Thing merging onto the 405 freeway in Los Angeles on the Friday before Christmas. No one is going anywhere. I was pushing, shoving, punching, kicking, and biting my way forward, and still being passed. After crawling over 60 some-odd people and riding in about 140th (!?!) I rolled my tire flailing like a limp orangutan down the first crowded drop.

This wasn’t all bad because everybody was stopped due to traffic and I was able to catch back up to the end of the field by the end of the first lap after stopping to re-inflate the wheel. My legs felt surprisingly good and I just kept working my way forward, picking riders off and surging off the energy from the crowd. Racing in Europe is much better than the US in many ways, but the biggest is the fans, their excitement, and participation in our efforts. The course is lined with crazy spectators and they will cheer you on even when you are way off the back. The front is cheered the same as the back, or so I’ve heard.

Some people gave up during the race, but I couldn’t let all of those fans down and charged through each racer as if I was fighting for the lead. On a 5k course and starting at the back, it doesn’t take long for the World’s Best to make up time..especially with their head start. I could easily have made it another lap at my current effort…but the lead moto was sneaking up on me and it was a major letdown to know I was going to get pulled.

I’m looking forward to the race in Madrid this weekend and my goal is to stay on the leader’s lap!

There was a Bugatti Veron at the Grgon tent this weekend. The Bugatti is a 1 Million dollar + car that will go over 250 MPH. Thhis was the coolest car I have ever seen. It totally upstaged the Porsche GT3 that was at the next tent over. I didn’t have my camera because I was racing, so my rental Lambo is the best I have on film. I should challege that guy to a race!

Sue and I are on our way to Madrid as I speak…four countries today and we’re still not there. Craziness.