A few Edinburgh folk and I headed out for MTB Challenge, a six day race through the border region of Poland and the Czech Republic.

Update: At the suggestion of Iain I’ve added Google Maps links to the Start and Finish towns for each stage. The route and directions given at these links are the direct route by road. Thankfully we didn’t take this option!

Hopefully I can add the proper distances and altitude gain at some point, once the MTB Challenge website updates the stages to reflect the true length of them, rather than being 20km shorter each day.

Day One

On the flight out the pilot appears to forget where we are going, his announcement goes like:

“Welcome to this Ryanair flight from Glasgow Prestwick to” … * passengers nervously laugh * … “Wroclaw.”

Sandy felt a little ill, then fell unconscious, hanging over his armrest into the isle. Must have been the amazing breakfast at 0430 in the airport. We were scared, then he woke up and we could laugh at him again.

More vomiting from Sandy in the bus to Duszniki Zdroj, not helped by the driver’s maniac driving.

Very warm, nice pizza in the italian, bikes built.

Day Two

Took a bus trip to a larger town to buy camping mats, as I’d forgotten to bring one, while Ollie and Tom hadn’t brought any sleeping equipment.

Had another italian meal, then were chased down the street by the waiter who thought we hadn’t paid. Muppet.

Went for an evening spin, which turned into a 50k loop, finishing in the dark. Amazing rocky descending, thought the near-vertical hike-a-bike at the start was a little less enjoyable.

Day Three

Quick swap of hotels, seems the Polish work out the inclusiveness of hotel dates differently from everyone else. Owner of new hotel is very keen and helpful. Offers us a ‘liquid meal’, but we settle for some pork and rice.

Race signup and briefing goes smoothly.

Stage One

Up at 6am for breakfast. Bags on the truck by 9am, on the startline for a 10am start.

Once the 1km initial road section is over, it’s onto a steep farm track, then some singletrack. Lots of swearing at people walking and mincing, this is to be the theme for the week.

First 50k goes well, despite the amount of tarmac. I discover Tom hasn’t eaten anything since we started, so make him eat. He bonks, so we have to go a bit slower to the finish.

Stage Two

This was the stage with the most climbing, about 2400m in just two main climbs. Tom and I cruised past loads of people on the first climb, dropped a few places when I ripped a tyre on a descent, then cruised back up the field on the next climb.

At the last feedstation, a volunteer said “Go for super downhill!”, something special was sure to come. It was immense, a sort of rocky gully, where you could switch lines by going from side to side. We went into the top behind about 10 guys, I passed all of them by choosing many sketchy lines, and avoiding those on the ground. Tom crashed, so I had to wait for a bit at the bottom.

Stage Three

Today we came pretty close to beating the ERC ’s Lawrence and Ken. We had yo-yoed around them for a while, and got caught again on the last section. Tom punctured on the very last descent, so we lost out at the finish.

(Can you tell I’m getting bored of writing this?)

Stage Four

Since we started the day at 30th overall, we get to be in the front coral at the start, woo!

Today was supposed to be the most technical stage, and thus the hardest. Apart from a few steep climbs, one of which was very rocky, it was just a series of small ramps along the border.

Tom crashed pretty hard in the first 10km, hitting something in the bottom of a puddle. It took him about 30km to get it back together, and we started to make up places again.

We took a trip through a mine, only for about 500m, but it was worth it for the 10C air inside, as opposed to the 30C air outside.

Despite out early setback, we still finished well, and made up another place on GC.

Stage Five

This looked to be a tough stage from the route profile, which despite a similar amount of climbing to other stages, had around twice the number of summits compared to others.

It was tough, starting with a brutal climb (Where Tom and I were in the top 10), then a brutal hike-a-bike up a near vertical slope. Then you had to go down a near vertical slope too. Tom punctured at the bottom of this, but we only lost a few places.

We used this to our advantage, and despite Tom suffering a lot near the end, we put in our best performance of the race.

Stage Six

The last stage was another brutal start, with 3km of easy climbing, before another long hike-a-bike. We then went along a tiny bit of singletrack (Reminiscent of home) along the border. Tonnes of mincers on this section, many of which I managed to pass by using my cyclo-cross skills when it came to crossign fallen trees.

We got lost for a section with other riders, so wasted about 5 minutes. Turns out one of the signs had been turned the wrong way. No worries, has only lost us a few places.

The last climb was up a steep road, and Tom was really suffering here. A good amount of encouragement got him up it without losing too many places. The last section was a 3km time-trial into the finish, I just burned everything I had left in my legs, making sure not to drop Tom.

Another good result, meaning we finished 21st overall, and 20th in the Male Senior category.

Would I Go Again?

Yes, definitely. Was one of the most fun bike races I’ve done in a long time. Cheap (< £600 for the race, flights, transfers and food) too.

I’ll need to see how it fits in with other races, I want to try out things like the Cristalp.

Other Stuff

Photos can be found from myself, Sandy, Tom, Ken, and on the official website, linked at the top.

Results can be found on the official site, linked at the top.

See the full loop on Google Maps.