This post was originally posted for Conquista Cycling Club
& can be found here...
Heading into the Volta Ciclistica do Rio Grande do Sul was a
total mystery. We had little information about the race other than how many
days it lasted and we stepped onto the plane blindly. The one thing we knew was
the weather, which decided to do a 180ᵒ turn after our first two days there.
James Glasspool had done the race in 2015 so almost every sentence he said was,
‘Last year, we….’
The day before the race was insanely hot and humid. After
arriving from Europe, this was a bit of a shock to the system. We set out for a
couple of hours on the bike to stretch the legs and try to shake some of the
jet lag, however, it did not all go according to plan. Without any phone
reception or maps, we managed to find ourselves on a section of gravel road.
When in a new country, this is generally not an uncommon occurrence. We
normally navigate our way back to the hotel and enjoy the gravel roads as they
are something different. Joonas Henttala was particularly happy as a recent
cyclocross bike purchase made him feel like he knew what he was doing. This
time however, the gravel got the better of us and after sweating it out while
fixing two punctures, we looked like someone had thrown a bucket of water on
us. One rider from an Argentinean team had decided to ride with us because he
did not know the area and I’m pretty sure he had some huge regrets about that
decision.
When we received the race bible, we were still not much
wiser about the race as the scale on the race profiles were incomprehensible.
According to the race book, the first stage appeared to have two climbs at the
end of the race. However, in reality, it was basically 1 climb of almost 30km!!
This, coupled with the hot temperatures and crazy humidity, meant that most of
the peloton suffered with cramps and there were some big time gaps throughout
the bunch. Andrea Peron suffered badly and I ended up pushing him for the final
20km. At least he owes me one now!
After a relatively flat Stage 2, the climbers were keen to
show their form on Stage 3, where the race finished with the same final climb
as Day 1. At least this time we knew what we were in for! However, five minutes
before the start of the stage, there were rumors the stage was going to be
cancelled due to a festival that was making it impossible to close the roads.
Instead, we were told that we would be doing an exact repeat of the previous
day’s stage! Since the race signage had headed out in the direction of the
original stage, we raced without any distance, sprint or KOM markers! Unlike
the climbers, I was pretty happy with the decision.
After Stage 4, we changed hotels and moved into something
that many of us had not experienced before -- all six of the riders sleeping in
one room! They managed to squeeze six single beds into one room with about 30cm
between each one. That night it felt like the set of the Brady Bunch, but I’ll
have to admit, it was probably the best team conversation we had put together
in a while. Sadly, all team bonding went out the window the next morning when
it was a race to get to the bathroom first!
Before the final stage, a strange mist had set in and visibility
was at around 50m. The race looped around for 40km before descending a long
climb, turning around and coming back up for the finish. As we approached the
start of the descent, the race was suddenly stopped and pushed to the side of
the road. The commissaires told us the descent was to be neutralized and we
went down the 20km at around 20kph the entire way. By the time we reached the
bottom, my arms were cramping from squeezing the brakes the whole time! With
the change to Stage 3 and the neutralization in Stage 5, this meant that we did
not have to descend down a mountain the entire race!
When a tour finishes, usually the riders go their separate
ways as they take different flights back home. Since we were all heading back
to Europe, we found ourselves waiting around together for the same flight the
following evening, which meant we had about eight hours to kill. Some guys like
to sleep for as long as possible. Some guys will head out to the local shops
and usually buy shoes or electronic goods that they don’t need. We decided to
walk the streets and head to the only place we could find that was open… a
Carrefour Supermarket. Exciting stuff!
