Saturday has arrived and I was up early this morning, watching replays from the start of last year’s race with a mix of fear and excitement. Today is the day for race qualifications.
You can ride twice if you want to and the best time of the two will become your start place in tomorrow’s race, but I’ve already decided that one will be enough, plus I need to go and buy my ticket for the train to Machu Pichu.
So many bikers arrived in town last night, there were trailers loaded with bikes everywhere you looked. The course is going to be super busy with all these extra riders which is gonna be tough. Plus I don’t want to overdo it and tire out my arms and hands any more than I need to with two runs. 14km is a long enough run to do in one go anyway!
The women’s race has all of us lumped in together, no matter what the age, whilst the men’s race has around 6 different categories from cadets to juniors, masters etc. There’s also a category for hardtail bikes – I think you’d have to be pretty brave to ride one of those over the rocks on this trail!
When we registered last night there were only 4 women signed up. There were two hours left of registrations when we left, so who knows how many more women or girls may have bitten the bullet and joined in?? Nicole told us there were 5 podiums last year, so come tomorrow we may automatically get a podium place, but we’ll have to wait and see.
The weather is getting cloudier each morning, and we’re praying it doesn’t rain. Sections of the track are already small rivers, and I would want to ride the steep section in the wet.. let’s hope the sun burns off the cloud again like yesterday and the course keeps nice and dry…
MTBgirl808 