WORLD CUP, MANIAGO, ITALY
After my participation in Brescia, Italy, I went to the Bergamo airport to drop off my friend and president of the Oscense Cycling Club, Miguel Bergua, his help these days was essential to compete with guarantees. I had to wait for the arrival of a very special collaborator, Merce Miranda, “the mare” who helped me so much in the Madrid London handbike challenge. Being able to have a team of people who help and collaborate with my sports project is complicated, they come using their vacations and without getting paid, without a doubt I am lucky to have such good friends. THANK YOU.
While I was waiting for Merce to arrive, I took the opportunity to ask in bicycle shops where I could repair the carbon lenticular wheel. It was complicated but luckily they recommended a factory where I could repair it and that’s where I went. Within 24 hours, he had the lenticular wheel repaired for the competition.
I picked up Merce and we headed to Maniago, almost 500 km of route to the east. Maniago is a town between Venice, the Alps and the border with Slovenia, near that route I traveled in 2008 cycling towards China.
Upon arriving in Maniago, the first thing I did was go to reconnoiter the time trial circuit. It started in an area of paves that caused vibrations throughout the handbike and even in the fillings in the teeth, I didn’t like it at all. It continued on an asphalt in acceptable conditions that sloped downwards, with some dangerous passage through roundabouts if entered at speed. 180 degree turn and turn up. The return to the finish line was uncomfortable since as the kilometers passed, the small and constant slope exhausted the strength. Without a doubt, here was the time trial kit, the place where I should give my maximum to be among the top 10 handbikers. . It was the goal of the season.
The weather was not good, it used to rain every afternoon but it was clear in the mornings so hopefully, we wouldn’t get wet on the day of the time trial. The days of waiting before the competition were spent with some nerves since I had prepared all year for this event. The best teams in the world were present, almost 40 and I wanted to have a good result.
May 12, time to compete and give everything. I start last, with the best runners, it’s raining and cold. Warm up on the roller under the motorhome awning. I put on my raincoat and head to the departure tent. I want to hit the cranks and let the pressure of these days disappear. I stand on the ramp. 3, 2, 1… GO!
The wet ground makes me take extreme caution in the curves, I don’t want it to happen like in Brescia, I can’t throw away all the effort. I have a higher watt rate than expected, I feel comfortable, it may be because of the favorable slope of the route. I reduce my speed to overcome the wet passage of the roundabout and arrive at the 180 degree turn, it is similar to the one in Brescia where I burst the lenticular tubular. I turn slowly like a turtle and start hard. The climb begins, I know I must give my all. After a while he observes how difficult it is for me to maintain the initial yards, I am losing fuel, “it can’t be” I think. I lose concentration at times. Observe the pulse and it is not high. “You can give more” I think, I push but the strength is not there. The last kilometers seem eternal. I try to empty myself with 2 kilometers left. I pass through the pavés, everything jumps, last meters and sprint. I cross the finish line. They say he finished seventh but there are still all the roosters yet to arrive, “you’re not going to be among the top 10” determined. Without a doubt, he did not end up exhausted like in other trials, I don’t know what happened but his pulse did not rise or move the yards he expected. The rain, the cold, something has happened to not perform as expected.
He finished in 13th place, with a time of 19:41 to 2:09 minutes behind the winner Victorio Podesta, World and Olympic Time Trial Champion. Too much time in a time trial of 11.4 km. I look for an answer, “maybe longer tests are more suitable for you, more than 30 minutes” but I can’t find them. My disappointment is enormous, much greater than what I reflected on social networks.
In the world of handbike you must recover quickly from disappointments since the next day is the road test. The circuit was flat, focused on high-powered cyclists and although my expectations were on the time trial, I wanted to get rid of the result achieved. I tried to position myself in the first places to do as well as possible. I started hard, the wet asphalt caused people to take the curves with caution, I stayed at the head of the pack, I was doing well.
At that moment, he notices that Podesta is trying to pass me on the right. Suddenly, a colleague is riding on the left, turns sharply to the right when I am next to him, the left lever of my handbike enters between the spokes of his right rear wheel. Metallic clicks are heard. The chain on my handbike has come off, the lever has been bent and the derailleur has come out of adjustment. I had to stop. I shout for people in the audience to give me a hand. I have to release the belt and sit up to place the chain from the sheave. I lose more than 2 minutes and the head of the street is in overdrive. The public pushes me to get back on the road. I go all out to try to catch a rival but time passes and I don’t see anyone. I begin a race alone that becomes more complicated with each step on the pavé, the chain jumps from the pulley and I have to stop to put it on. I do a few more laps of the circuit and decided to retire.
As one of my mottos says, “it can always be worse.” The mishap could have been more serious and luckily it is only something mechanical. I regret the result, after the effort made, of 4 races in Italy, I have only finished two. The economic expenditure has been important and did not achieve what was expected. Many people have been involved in my project and I feel great disappointment. These ideas come and go through my head. Without a doubt, the psychological decline is important and I must recover if I want to perform in the Spanish Championship in 2 weeks. I try but I can’t stop thinking about what happened. It didn’t take us long to pick up everything and head to Spain, we have 2 days of travel.
