2009 Season Review

My 2009 racing season started in the third week of March with the HuangShan mountain bike race. I finished 29th in the Elite Category, much to the delight of the ChangZhou Cycling Club, whose sponsor Bridgestone was quite pleased considering that there were over 150 starters in the Elite Category of this year.







Eight days later, I raced in ShangHai and placed 6th in a 60Km road race. It seemed that my season had been prepared well, despite minor setbacks here and there.







With hindsight, the climax of the 2009 came on 12th April 2009 when I rode a superb time-trial and finished 2nd, much to my surprise and the delight of the onlookers. That day I even placed 4th in the mountain bike race that followed the road time-trial race.






One by one, what had to be races in which I expected to do well in, resulted in embarrassing race performances. First there was the mid-week race at TianMu Lake, where a late arrival to the race as well as stress, compromised my race performance.







Then there was the NanJing Shimano Bikers Festival in May, whereby no matter how hard I tried, I just could not match the pace of the fast race leaders. Whilst racing in the top 10 after two hours, a severe leg cramp in the third and final hour, sent me reeling down the classification.







Things seemed to be going well during a criterium race at ShangHai’s AnTing. I was in a breakaway towards the end of a 72Km race, when I suffered a mysterious front puncture. Mysterious because despite most body weight being placed on my rear tyre, the rear tyre was clean as new whilst I suffered a puncture in my front tyre calling it an end to my race. The next day, I raced in TaiCang, where a crash caused cancellation of that race.






In June I returned to Malta for a holiday. The time spent off the bike cost me dearly. Despite racing in NanJing and ChangZhou mid-August and doing relatively well considering the circumstances, it would take me another month to reach good race form.






Meanwhile, I was victim to fate once again, suffering another rear tyre failure during the second race at ShangHai’s AnTing on 5th September 2009. Eight days later, my chain broke during the 150Km Thousand Islands Lake cycling race, also forcing me to retire from the race. Six days after, I would race in WuXi still suffering from a bad cold and realising that I should take care of my health first.






The final week of September was when my season’s second climax seemed to appear. I was racing quite well for 5th position at NanJing’s Purple Mountain when a mysterious rear puncture also ruined my race!






On 2nd October 2009, I was due to race at TaiCang but I was given the incorrect race start. The stress and waiting cost me dearly and I would not feel my race legs during the race. Three days later, I realize the day of my season has arrived. I power to the front of the HongZe Lake road race and try to go for the win several times, only to be forced to do all the work in the wind at the front of the race and finally claiming a poor 7th.






After the HongZe road race, things were not the same. My race form along with the weather temperature dropped considerably. I raced at SuZhou’s YangCheng lake on 17th October 2009 only to realize I had just caught a bad cold. I treated the cold for some days, rested and raced again in HuaXi’s mountain bike race. The race circuit was very hilly, and just like the days before, I could not do anything special except finish the race.






On November 1st 2009, I turned up at SuZhou’s YangCheng lake’s traditional end of season ‘big’ elite race. The race was shortened to 112Km from 140Km just before the race, probably due to the cold and possibly wet weather. Still having the effects of a week-long antibiotics medicine to fight my prolonged cold and chest infection, I tried my best to keep myself in the race. The ex-professional racers as well as unofficial professional racers rode like motorcycles, with us full-time employees trying to stick to their buttocks. With 21Km to go, I attacked into the headwind, dragged two racers behind me, but they were not really willing to work for our breakaway. A kilometer later, my legs froze with sudden painful muscle cramps, probably due from the medicine effect on my muscles. I had no option but to stop, ask for medical massage aid and then rode slowly to the finish area and retired from the long, fast, cold and windy race.






Finally, I decided to join my friends and attend the highly-contested NanJing Botanical Gardens mountain bike race on Saturday November 7th. The 33Km race was contested over 12 laps of highly-technical, yet fast rocky and slippery circuit. Right from the start, my legs felt like I left them in ChangZhou. Even worse was the fact that I tackled most corners in the wrong manner and was rather inflexible on the bike. Eventually, I finished 19th from 35 race starters. The circuit was not suited to my physical characteristics since light and agile physiques would have an advantage, albeit my race form was also not good either.






All in all, I feel I wasted so many opportunities to achieve very good race results had it not been for punctures, mechanical failures, lack of team work and still being sick. Frankly, for all the efforts I put into planning the races, going to the races and actually racing, I am very disappointed. I hope I can achieve better results next time around!