Racing Qatar – Ambassador’s XC MTB race

         At the beginning of the season sometime in October there have been rumors that the Filipinos are organizing a huge MTB racing championship of 6 races of different styles and disciplines, with huge prize money, hundreds of racers from all around Middle East, brand new dedicated bike track with hills and amazing support.

          First tentative schedules were presented and people started to get really excited. Including me of course! But as is always here where local authorities are involved, in this case Qatar Cycling Federation, some local sponsor from Wakrah and Lusail city development, it started slowly to drag. December 13 became December 27 and then January 10. Although they say it is fixed now, there is still not much relevant information posted and carved in stone!

          Well…for me it was actually much better like this, because slowly all the pieces were coming together as I got more time to train properly, because I’m out of cycling shape and I got time to bring a new more race like bike! So this race under patronage of the Filipino ambassador to Doha was their kind of rehearsal for the real championship and my examination how much I will have to do to be competitive.

          The race itself was almost the same as our well known Duhail track only with few new twists. 34k of fast biking in the most technical terrain available in Qatar!

          And for me the race started and finished already on Thursday evening when I kind of mentally conceded and prepared just to ride and try to have fun. I was more looking forward to go to see the new Hobbit movie and almost preferred to sleep a bit extra than to go fight in the wasteland! No motivation, no hunger, no drive…and when you are thinking like this, you can’t do anything…and I knew that.

          I had to borrow bike from Denrei, because mine was sold within 10 minutes I put the advertisement on Facebook. It was a nice full suspension 29er, but one size smaller and with a very short handlebar and a bit out of alignment shifting. I pumped the tires too much because I didn’t know the bike was tubeless, so for all the above reasons the ride was a bit cramped and bumpy.

          I lost a way twice, because I was not familiar with the new track layout. I fell down twice while I got cornered when overtaking and once my shoe got caught under the rear bracket. I tried to push on the flats and sometimes I even thought I was going fast, I was not! My hopes to see Ondrej ahead of me sometimes other than the start went null and I finished 5 minutes behind on second place!

          The only difference so far between the small hobby QCR races in Duhail organized by Davy and 100k dollar professional MTB project was a big tent, couches, music and bigger trophies. But let’s hope that all the promises will come true, UMBC will become one of the biggest bike events in Middle East and we will all be part of it!