Bronze at World Cup only came after a fight
Mountain biking
Fighting hard until the very end is certainly not a concept that Namibian mountain biker Vera Looser is unfamiliar with – but for her bronze position at Saturday’s UCI Marathon World Cup race at Megève, in France’s Haute-Savoie region, she’s had to battle harder than usual.
Looser had already won the first UCI Marathon World Cup race of the year in Czech Republic a few weeks ago. The story of her weekend’s race of nearly seven hours is best told in her own words in her post on social media.
“XCM World Cup number 2 decided to throw me some curve-balls.
“The course alone with a distance of 100 km and 4300 metres of climbing (in reality it was less than they said) was already going to be brutal and I was prepared for a long and hard day in the saddle”, Looser wrote.
“After around 32 km I punctured my rear tyre. After quickly plugging it twice and inflating it with the co2 bomb, I was good to go. I decided not to change the wheel in the next tech zone, since the air was staying in the tyre. I just had to top up with some more air and got some extra plugs and bombs.
“I was consistently riding between 2-3 min behind the two leading ladies.
“After the longest climb of the day, Adelheid Morath (the 39-year-old German, a consistent force in the series) also suffered a bad puncture and was forced to withdraw from the race.
“After six hours and still having Lejla (Njemcevic of Bosnia, another fierce rival) in my sight, I finally reached the top of the final long climb and only 13 km, with mostly downhill and only a ‘short’ climb of 200m separated me from the finish line.
“But bad luck struck again. After only 100 m of descending, a rock flicked up and broke my spoke, which poked my rim tape and gave me no chance to fix it with the tools and spares I had on me.
“Somehow, I had to get to the finish, so I rode the last 13 km on a flat rear wheel. Although it went surprisingly well, I still lost plenty of time.
“At least I was lucky once today. I saved myself a spot on the podium with only 16 seconds to spare – after six hours 50 minutes of racing.
“Of course I ask myself if I could have done something different, or if I took too many risks on the downhill. But both mechanicals were not riding mistakes and a certain amount of risk is part of racing. So I will leave this behind me and I will be proud of myself for not giving up.
“Well done @lejlamtb for a strong race today! And well done @hannah_finchamp for making your trip to France worthwhile.
“A big thank you to @konnylooser for being my feeder, mechanic, chef, cleaner, supporter and of course, best husband!”
Looser had already won the first UCI Marathon World Cup race of the year in Czech Republic a few weeks ago. The story of her weekend’s race of nearly seven hours is best told in her own words in her post on social media.
“XCM World Cup number 2 decided to throw me some curve-balls.
“The course alone with a distance of 100 km and 4300 metres of climbing (in reality it was less than they said) was already going to be brutal and I was prepared for a long and hard day in the saddle”, Looser wrote.
“After around 32 km I punctured my rear tyre. After quickly plugging it twice and inflating it with the co2 bomb, I was good to go. I decided not to change the wheel in the next tech zone, since the air was staying in the tyre. I just had to top up with some more air and got some extra plugs and bombs.
“I was consistently riding between 2-3 min behind the two leading ladies.
“After the longest climb of the day, Adelheid Morath (the 39-year-old German, a consistent force in the series) also suffered a bad puncture and was forced to withdraw from the race.
“After six hours and still having Lejla (Njemcevic of Bosnia, another fierce rival) in my sight, I finally reached the top of the final long climb and only 13 km, with mostly downhill and only a ‘short’ climb of 200m separated me from the finish line.
“But bad luck struck again. After only 100 m of descending, a rock flicked up and broke my spoke, which poked my rim tape and gave me no chance to fix it with the tools and spares I had on me.
“Somehow, I had to get to the finish, so I rode the last 13 km on a flat rear wheel. Although it went surprisingly well, I still lost plenty of time.
“At least I was lucky once today. I saved myself a spot on the podium with only 16 seconds to spare – after six hours 50 minutes of racing.
“Of course I ask myself if I could have done something different, or if I took too many risks on the downhill. But both mechanicals were not riding mistakes and a certain amount of risk is part of racing. So I will leave this behind me and I will be proud of myself for not giving up.
“Well done @lejlamtb for a strong race today! And well done @hannah_finchamp for making your trip to France worthwhile.
“A big thank you to @konnylooser for being my feeder, mechanic, chef, cleaner, supporter and of course, best husband!”
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