Champéry’s crosscountry Worldcup race was the last stage of Myriam Saugy’s «Tour de Myriam» - and although its end was dissatisfying from an athletic point of view, this tour brought unforgetable experiences and an interesting conclusion for the Onza Tires team rider.
Just one week after the «Etape du Tour», where Myriam Saugy was the third-fastest woman overall and won the under35 category, the 33 year-old had not completely recovered from the strains of that race. But the last stage was still to come: Champéry’s crosscountry Worldcup race in her Valais home region. Strong rainfalls two days prior to the race had deteriorated the course’s condition just as much as all the training laps and the junior category races. To make matters worse, Saugy had to line up for the start at the very end of a field of 120 women, on a course where passing was a true challenge.
«Right from the start, it was rather a running contest with bicycles than a bike race on this very muddy and rut-strewn course: Whenever there was a technically demanding section, there was a traffic jam so you were forced off your bike before you could get into some kind of rhythm.» Moving fast was impossible under these circumstances, as her legs were empty and she lacked the necessary liveliness. As the race leaders were steadily pulling away Myriam Saugy was stuck in traffic for the first half of her race, hardly making any progress. The result was that the rider from the Valais region placed far down in the standings at her home race, two laps down on the winner.
«At least I got the chance to enjoy my last race lap to the full: At first, the spectators did not recognize me due to the fact that I was wearing the dress of the Swiss national team, but by the time I rode my last lap they were cheering for me enthusiastically, and I also got a chance to ride all the difficult parts of the course as no competitors were standing or walking in my way anymore. On top of that, I got to witness how Nathalie Schneitter became the first Swiss rider to win a women’s crosscountry Worldcup race since 2001, and as three more compatriots made it into the top10, the mood got even better.»
That was at least some consolation for an athletically sobering result which Myriam Saugy partially attributed to the fact that she felt physically exhausted. «On the other hand, I hardly did any crosscountry-specific training – and now I have to realize that this does not work for this kind of racing. First of all, I lacked the necessary liveliness. To me, this shows that crosscountry is the ultimate in mountain biking: Specialists from this discipline can score strong results in enduro and marathon races without specific training, but that hardly works the other way round.»
Myriam Saugy is proud to have finished her ambitious «Tour de Myriam» and is already thinking about future project. She would like to thank everyone who helped her to make this plan a reality. So did Onza Tires, providing the exactly right tires from the Mégavalanche Alpe d’Huez and the Etape du Tour to Champéry’s crosscountry Worldcup race.