The Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge

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Stage 2 – International Track Tussles

Cory Wallace / 21.10.2011

The UCI sanctioned XC race of the LIMBC took place in a forest reserve 10 km outside of the town of Kuah. Being close to town the majority of riders rode out to the race site as their warm-up. My teammate Kris and I had 4 Philippine riders and 2 Hungarians following us out. The only problem was that we really didn’t know where we were going. Nonetheless we kept riding, probably the round about way, but eventually rolled up to the race site to find ourselves in the midst of the Jungle again.

The course itself was a rad 4.7 km loop which had one 8 minute climb in it followed by a windy single-track descent with some pretty good chutes in it. A lot of the riders were raving that it was a World Cup caliber course and I would have to agree it was one of the better all round courses I have ridden on.

The race started with 140 of us sprinting down a paved road for 400 m before we hit the trails. I started around 50th in call up, but found an outside line and somehow ended up in 6th before we hit the jungle. From there it was chaos as riders sprinted through the forest and scrambled up the first climb to fight for a good position before the descent. Half way up the climb it felt like I was pedaling backwards as riders ripped by. Most of them I would see again as it seemed like riders once again forgot that they were racing in an energy-sucking sauna.

Midway through the 6 lap race a large black cloud rolled in and started spitting an afternoon shower down on the dirt track. In a matter of minutes the once tacky surface was turning into a luge run. Just as it seemed like things were going to get gongshowish, the rain eased up and things returned to normal.

With the tight competition here, it makes for some hardcore racing. Going into the last lap my teammate Kris Sneddon and I caught 2 riders with blown engines, and had another two in sight. We chased these riders all the way up the climb, with myself catching up to the Polish rider just 200 m from the top. As I went to pass he swerved over and elbowed me into the bush.

With UCI points and $ on the line it was somewhat understandable. Having bigger legs then biceps I opted for the non confrontational retaliation and pulled a old hockey move, faking left, faking right and then going left around the anguished rider who was swerving all over the track trying to stop any progress. He was left tangled up in his spandex. See All Event Posts