On the weekend of January 16-17, 2016, the VI edition of La Invernal de Motorland was held in Alcañiz (Teruel), a weekend of open doors of the Moto GP Circuit for athletes, cyclists, skaters, handbikers and curious people. . . There are now 4 consecutive editions with the participation of handbikers, a sport that is becoming consolidated, with a greater number of participants and level.
On Saturday the 16th, free practice or time trial was held. After an hour of riding around the circuit, the fastest lap is counted as a qualifying lap to see who will start from pole position on Sunday. The day was unpleasant, it was very windy and the thermal sensation was very high. The results of the handbikers were poor, it was impossible to improve the circuit record. If in 2015 he managed to complete the 5 km lap in 10:19, this year he did it in 10:59, 40 seconds worse. The headwind on the Motorland climb made it impossible to improve the time, however I achieved pole position.
Sunday’s test consisted of 100 minutes of handbike, the handbiker who can do the most laps in that time wins La Invernal 2016. Motorland is the first race of the year, none of the participants arrive in the best shape but it serves to cheer up a little heart after so much basic training. Personally, I approach the Motorland race as a way to see my annual progression and see how I have improved from one year to the next. In the 2015 edition I was able to cover 45 km in 100 minutes, this year my goal was to reach 50 km. To do this I had to do the 5 km laps under 11 minutes, an ambitious goal but I had to try.
The 100-minute race started at 3:00 p.m. The day was spring, the wind had disappeared and it was excessively hot for this time of year. With a grid of 14 handbikers in formation, the test began. The departure was not very fast. A leading group was formed with 6 handbikers who did the climb as a group.
When you reach the corkscrew curve, uphill and very fast, if you line poorly, it is easy to lose the wheel of the handbiker group, so enter the curve in second position, overtaking the leading handbiker on the inside. Another teammate followed me and upon exiting the curve, we opened a gap of 20-30 meters for the group that becomes unrecoverable if the pursuers do not collaborate in the chase. With Luis Miguel Marquina, we escaped alone.
Luis Miguel is bigger and heavier than me,
pressured on the descent and we flew towards the first step towards the goal, widening the distance with the pursuers. On the climb, I regained my lead and maintained it until the descent where Luis Miguel took over. And that was the tone of almost the entire race. One went up and the other went down. We function perfectly, like a good team. We did all the laps under 11 minutes, I was achieving the goal set but the minutes were passing and the end was approaching.
On the descent of the 7th lap, we both took a gel, a sign that the attacks were going to begin. Luis Miguel was the first to change the rhythm. He opened a gap of 20 meters that widened to 50 meters as he crossed the finish line. I gritted my teeth and regulated the intensity until I reached him halfway up the climb. When I reached his height, I attacked. He held the wheel for a while but ended up giving way and topped the climb first. I went full throttle on the descent where I knew I was going to lose time and crossed the finish line in first position. I looked at the time and calculated that there were 10 kilometers left to finish the 100 minutes. I could achieve my goal of doing 50 km so I maintained the intensity on the climb, carefully tracing the curves to avoid scares.
I achieved the goal, to ride 50km in 100 minutes, my time was 1:46:30, 2:30 minutes behind second place and 5:38 behind third place. The three of us were able to ride 50 km within 100 minutes, something not achieved until now and which shows the rapid improvement that exists in this sport.
My assessment is very positive, my best lap was the 8th, at the end of the race, when I attacked, doing a time of 10:22, almost 40 seconds better than the previous day’s time. Achieving these times at this point in the season is positive, the progression does not stop and that makes me optimistic about what has to come.
The goal for 2017 is already set at La Invernal de Motorland, to do 55 km in 100 minutes. Riding under 10 minutes per 5km lap, that means going at more than 30 km/h and climbing more than 600 meters of positive gradient. Ambitious but exciting goal. Wanting is power.
I thank all the attendees for their presence, they came from corners of the entire national geography Extremadura, Zamora, the Basque Country, Valencia, Catalonia, Madrid… etc.
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