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Log inMore Race News From China - Ishmael Muscat
More Race News From China - Ishmael Muscat
by Dermot on Mon Jun 02, 2008 10:28 am
Dear fellow athletes and friends,
As per curiosity's sake of a few of you, here is some information about the what I have been up to race-wise.
Living in China means that my racing season starts three months later than it used to do in Europe because the first races only start in April and end around October or November, unlike in Europe when I used to start racing in the middle of January and race until September.
My early season was characterised by 4 tough races in a space of 4 weeks- an international half ironman race in HaiKou, a fast road criterium in ShangHai and two international endurance mountain bike races in HuangShan and NanJing.
Whilst my half ironman race performance was quite good (I finished in 88th position overall), the latter three races reflected a very frustrating weakness - I am overweight and with limited time to train this weakness is a significant limiter to my race performance.
The race in TianMa racing circuit in ShangHai was a good test of my anaerobic capacity. I was pleased to finish with the main group, albeit struggling to carry my excess body weight during the tough parts of the race.
In HuangShan, things did not go as I expected. I was sick with a cold a few days before the race, China's largest international mountain bike race. We drove eight hours to HuangShan the day before the race and besides the beautiful scenery, the weather was cold and rainy. Moreover, due to specific HuangShan government regulations governing the safety of foreign participants in the race, I was forced to change hotel accomodation the night before the race, resulting in a major disruption to my sleep.
The day of the race was nice weather but the effects of the cold medicine I had taken days before the race, the cold itself, the hassle during the night before the race and the muddy sections of the race made my legs feel empty whilst climbing the long hills of the race. I finished the 50Km endurance race in 55th position overall from about 500 participants, half of them foreigners.
Last Sunday, I got up at 3.30am to race in NanJing - 2008 Shimano Mountain Bike Festival- 1,200 competitors. We left ChangZhou at 5am and drove to the race venue. The 2 hours one man endurance race was scheduled to start at 10:45am. At 8am it started raining heavier and heavier. To make things even more complicated, we waited 45 minutes in the rain until our race eventually got started!
The amount of rain coupled with the terrain of the race course made some hilly sections so muddy that most riders had to get off and push their mountain bike up and down the hills. There was a moment half way during the race when the rain stopped and the mud dried up a little, thus making the hills ride-able. However, the rain started again after 20 minutes and made us suffer like soldiers in a war.
To add to the mess, just after an hour of racing, one of my front disc brake pads got loose and fell somewhere in the race course, probably due to the heavy amount of mud that accumulated around the braking area of my mountain bike. That meant that my front brake was not working until the end of the race. I finished the 2 hours one man endurance race in 33rd position overall from about 200 participants in the same race, partly pleased because 500 metres before the finish, I realised I had a front puncture and was lucky it did not happen earlier in the race. Needless to mention, the rain stopped immediately after the race ended!
I am scheduled to resume racing in the middle of June. Right now, I am undergoing intense training aiming to reduce my body weight as well as improve my race endurance and race performance.
Enjoy the (muddy) photos! ^_^
Happy Racing!
As per curiosity's sake of a few of you, here is some information about the what I have been up to race-wise.
Living in China means that my racing season starts three months later than it used to do in Europe because the first races only start in April and end around October or November, unlike in Europe when I used to start racing in the middle of January and race until September.
My early season was characterised by 4 tough races in a space of 4 weeks- an international half ironman race in HaiKou, a fast road criterium in ShangHai and two international endurance mountain bike races in HuangShan and NanJing.
Whilst my half ironman race performance was quite good (I finished in 88th position overall), the latter three races reflected a very frustrating weakness - I am overweight and with limited time to train this weakness is a significant limiter to my race performance.
The race in TianMa racing circuit in ShangHai was a good test of my anaerobic capacity. I was pleased to finish with the main group, albeit struggling to carry my excess body weight during the tough parts of the race.
In HuangShan, things did not go as I expected. I was sick with a cold a few days before the race, China's largest international mountain bike race. We drove eight hours to HuangShan the day before the race and besides the beautiful scenery, the weather was cold and rainy. Moreover, due to specific HuangShan government regulations governing the safety of foreign participants in the race, I was forced to change hotel accomodation the night before the race, resulting in a major disruption to my sleep.
The day of the race was nice weather but the effects of the cold medicine I had taken days before the race, the cold itself, the hassle during the night before the race and the muddy sections of the race made my legs feel empty whilst climbing the long hills of the race. I finished the 50Km endurance race in 55th position overall from about 500 participants, half of them foreigners.
Last Sunday, I got up at 3.30am to race in NanJing - 2008 Shimano Mountain Bike Festival- 1,200 competitors. We left ChangZhou at 5am and drove to the race venue. The 2 hours one man endurance race was scheduled to start at 10:45am. At 8am it started raining heavier and heavier. To make things even more complicated, we waited 45 minutes in the rain until our race eventually got started!
The amount of rain coupled with the terrain of the race course made some hilly sections so muddy that most riders had to get off and push their mountain bike up and down the hills. There was a moment half way during the race when the rain stopped and the mud dried up a little, thus making the hills ride-able. However, the rain started again after 20 minutes and made us suffer like soldiers in a war.
To add to the mess, just after an hour of racing, one of my front disc brake pads got loose and fell somewhere in the race course, probably due to the heavy amount of mud that accumulated around the braking area of my mountain bike. That meant that my front brake was not working until the end of the race. I finished the 2 hours one man endurance race in 33rd position overall from about 200 participants in the same race, partly pleased because 500 metres before the finish, I realised I had a front puncture and was lucky it did not happen earlier in the race. Needless to mention, the rain stopped immediately after the race ended!
I am scheduled to resume racing in the middle of June. Right now, I am undergoing intense training aiming to reduce my body weight as well as improve my race endurance and race performance.
Enjoy the (muddy) photos! ^_^
Happy Racing!
Dermot- Number of posts: 20
Registration date: 2008-04-21 
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