Mtb race of @raulcycling

MY FIRST MTB RACE

My first mtb race was in Aldeaseca de la Frontera (Salamanca, Spain) with 55km and +350m. When I decided race this event I thought with that distance will be an easy ride in a beautiful Sunday… however, since three weeks ago before the race, the weather was being very rainy (very very very rainy), so you can imagine how the tracks were. Mud, mud and more mud.

After thinking if start the race or not, I went to pick up my race number, number 1, great… my favorite (I hate it since I was playing futsal).

The first kilometers were very good, I was in the first group, during a shorts moments, leading the race (amazing feeling) and the sun wanted appear. When we were in the half way to the finish we had the first feed zone and I was in the leading group (we decided take a break and eat some donuts).

After eat the donuts, the group went into the second part of the race, more technical but nothing difficult, and the rain decided appear with cats and dogs. Since this moment of rain and with 20km to the finish I lost the leading group and I began to lost time, my chain went out and I lost my new glasses. The track was impossible to ride and, to have more problems, the wind appeared with a lot of power. This is the moments when my mind say “go home”, when I can’t ride with speed and I have to go with a lot of cadence and slow speed. However I finished my first mtb race, happy with my first part of race and angry with the f****** mud (sorry, I come from the roadbike and I hate the mud).

These are my race datas:

• Race time: 2h 57min

• Avg speed: 18.9km/h

• Kcal lost: 1843kcal

• Avg bpm – max bpm: 181bpm (my anaerobic threshold is 184bpm… so you can imagine how I finished) – 197 bpm