Right after I came back from Christmas holidays I joined Qatar Chain Reaction (QCR) cycling group, more precisely the mountain bike division. I shortly met few bikers, Davy, Greg and Dave during one Friday ride to the Firing range and jumped straight into one of several races organized by QCR during the year, the 2nd Duhail MTB race on 4th of February.
There were 3 laps of 6 kilometers and it seemed to be just over small hills and humps. After some bike training I did for Abu Dhabi Challenge I felt strong and stood in the front line at the start with expectation not smaller than podium J
3-2-1-GO!! I bolted forward and was immediately in the lead rushing through flat sandy road and outrunning the others. But after around 1.5 kilometer I heard “Heeeeyyyy…” from the back. I missed the turn, because I was not familiar with the route, markings and terrain and because I saw wrong flag on the other hill. I got back to the race only thanks to Davy shouting at me J But for the price that about half of the field overtook me again.
I started to make my way back to the front and then it came. The rest of the track was much more difficult and technical than I was expecting. Running steep up and down, turning sharp right and left over small and big stones and sandy patches. That was definitely not my kind of playground and for the rest of the race no matter how much I tried, and I could try much less that I thought I would be able, I was slowly losing on the leading group, unable to catch them.
I was happy that those three rounds were over and that I finished. 3rd place in Open category and 6th overall with time 59:29 and 4 minutes after the overall winner was quite a surprise. “Maybe I was not that bad” I thought and together with the schedule for couple of more MTB races in the near future I went home with a battle plan…”3 time a week bike training and maybe I’ll have a chance here” J
1 comment:
Nice pictures! Never seen these before...
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