Amy Dombroski blogs about overcoming injuries and pushing herself
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Print Offenburg World Cup race report
At the Dalby World Cup I crashed on my knee fairly hard. Unfortunately, the knee is wicked sensitive due to the surgeries I have had on it so the inflammation had me just trying to mend it enough to pedal this weekend for the Offenburg World Cup. On Friday the team drove to Offenburg to recon the course. The first lap I really struggled with.
Amy Dombroski has been challenging herself at Mountain Bike World Cup events.Riding scared is no fun; I was favoring my knee and nervous to scuff it at all. This in addition to a lacking in confidence from the last weekend's crashes was a recipe for jittery, over-thinking, spastic riding. My frustration on that first lap had about reached wit's end when Connie Carpenter came to me with words of wisdom. She told me about when she used to race crits with the men, their speed in the
corners scaring her. At first she was convinced she simply couldn't ride at those speeds in something technical before realizing that if they can do it, there's no reason she cannot follow their lines through the same corner...all she had to do was shut her brain off, don't think too much, and just follow and do it. Shut my head off. Shut my head off. Drew Geer of Boulder is over here helping Connie out with her camp. He basically took me by the hand and talked me through the sections. His daughter, Wesley, rode in front of me so I could follow her through sections I was previously anxious simply looking at. Chloe was also hugely helpful and although she believes coaching wouldn't suit her, I beg to differ. Her patience and advice was eye opening. And so I completed a second lap with a smile on my face because I had ridden what I was dreading. It seemed the only aspect which could be troublesome would be my knee.
Friday evening were the sprint eliminators. The weather couldn't make it's mind up varying between sun & humidity and pouring rain & dark sky. Once the racing began at about 6pm it remained dry. The rain added a bit of tackiness to the track and the grassy bumpiness became smoother, which was bomber fast on the Ibis Tranny hardtail. The format is a time trial which seeds the riders for the qualifiers and then eliminates riders until the finals. My time trial went ok, a couple bobbles but a near-perfect start. I was 17th and seeded in a qualifying round with Lea Davison. The knee became sore as I was spinning between rounds and I was eliminated the next round. The eliminators are mega and I hope to see more of that style of racing - a fun event where the seriousness in a World Cup is neglected for an evening of gritty openers.
Sunday morning was the women's world cup cross country which I raced the Ibis Mojo on. I took a lap of the course for part of my warm-up and was feeling good about the technical sections...I was amped to race it, especially considering the opportunities to move forward from DFL starting position, #86. The start lap was wide with a good hill to separate things a bit before heading into single track. Even with this there were still hold-ups through some sections, but nothing compared to last weekend's cluster. The race started fast and furious, fighting it out for every single spot before hitting the first single track. Through the woods were a couple little climbs which bogged down and I was able to move forward better by busting a 'cross move dismount and remount. Other than that it was a game of patience, biding my time before making an effort count when able to move around.
From the expo area and start/finish is a climb into the first single track, offering some rhythmic single track into the first feature named Dual Speed; two options which stairstep down and funnel into the longest climb of the circuit topping out at the second feature called Northshore. This begins with a rock drop into wicked fun switchbacking banked corners, culminating with a steep rooted drop to a heavy crowded viewing spot, a brief rolling and rooted several turns leading you to the third feature, WorldClass drop, another heavily viewed pot. About 300m of rooted trails leads you to the most-watched and most-heckled fourth feature, Wolfsdrop, a root embedded near-vertical drop down through a beer garden and tech zone. You climb for a while out of this area on double track then connect back into the forest for another wicked fun rhythm single track leading back to the Wolfsdrop arena for the fifth feature, Snake Pit, a pit of roots stemming and meandering in every direction. We flow out of that festivus and shortly run into the base of a short but looming climb and into a screaming descent into the expo area and start/finish.
I made it through the start lap and through the Northshore section, legs feeling strong, body relaxed, head on my shoulders but brain in airplane-mode. However I didn't keep patience and the first turn following Northshore I tried to pass on a rooted corner, taking a different line than I had ridden in training and careened over the bars, through the tape and down the bank to the fire road, head-over-heels. And guess what my landing pad was? My knee. I popped up quickly to get my bike straightened out and back on course. I had landed on the fire road and trying to climb back up to the trail was a challenge as it was a steep drop-off from the trail to road. With bike in one hand and the other hand grabbing at whatever little trees and roots to pull myself up, I noticed I could hardly bend that knee. By the time I had pulled me and my mojo up to the trail my leg was stiff as a tree stump and I abandoned the race.
I studied French in school so when I am immersed in the language I can almost get by. I can't understand it when it is spoken fast, but I can speak a limited amount "to get by" and can understand many signs and written words. Being at these last two races was like opening a French novel. I haven't been exposed to much technical variety on the MTB so seeing these drops and how quickly the top-end riders can manoeuvre them is like a French baker teaching me to bake a baguette. I've had some criticism about jumping into the very deep end of mountain bike racing while only having learned to doggy-paddle on the MTB. It's a steep learning curve and I had a ton of "oh no!" moments the last two weeks. But ask my old History teacher; I don't learn well or quickly by reading books and taking notes. The most history I have learned is through traveling and being in the present while imagining the past. I have a lot to learn and a lot of room to grow and that is exciting; but I believe the best way for me to do this is being at the races, through trial and error. My bruises will go away but the "Euro shoots and drops" will not. I am thankful for Crankbrothers who has granted me the freedom to choose a schedule to best suit my process goals in cycling. In the immediate future I get to see Westmeerbeek (my Belgian home in the winter) in the summer! While I mend my knee in the next couple weeks I can plan the winter around what my cycling focus currently IS: cyclocross.
To read more of Amy's blog, click here.
At the Dalby World Cup I crashed on my knee fairly hard. Unfortunately, the knee is wicked sensitive due to the surgeries I have had on it so the inflammation had me just trying to mend it enough to pedal this weekend for the Offenburg World Cup. On Friday the team drove to Offenburg to recon the course. The first lap I really struggled with.
Amy Dombroski has been challenging herself at Mountain Bike World Cup events.
corners scaring her. At first she was convinced she simply couldn't ride at those speeds in something technical before realizing that if they can do it, there's no reason she cannot follow their lines through the same corner...all she had to do was shut her brain off, don't think too much, and just follow and do it. Shut my head off. Shut my head off. Drew Geer of Boulder is over here helping Connie out with her camp. He basically took me by the hand and talked me through the sections. His daughter, Wesley, rode in front of me so I could follow her through sections I was previously anxious simply looking at. Chloe was also hugely helpful and although she believes coaching wouldn't suit her, I beg to differ. Her patience and advice was eye opening. And so I completed a second lap with a smile on my face because I had ridden what I was dreading. It seemed the only aspect which could be troublesome would be my knee.
Friday evening were the sprint eliminators. The weather couldn't make it's mind up varying between sun & humidity and pouring rain & dark sky. Once the racing began at about 6pm it remained dry. The rain added a bit of tackiness to the track and the grassy bumpiness became smoother, which was bomber fast on the Ibis Tranny hardtail. The format is a time trial which seeds the riders for the qualifiers and then eliminates riders until the finals. My time trial went ok, a couple bobbles but a near-perfect start. I was 17th and seeded in a qualifying round with Lea Davison. The knee became sore as I was spinning between rounds and I was eliminated the next round. The eliminators are mega and I hope to see more of that style of racing - a fun event where the seriousness in a World Cup is neglected for an evening of gritty openers.
Sunday morning was the women's world cup cross country which I raced the Ibis Mojo on. I took a lap of the course for part of my warm-up and was feeling good about the technical sections...I was amped to race it, especially considering the opportunities to move forward from DFL starting position, #86. The start lap was wide with a good hill to separate things a bit before heading into single track. Even with this there were still hold-ups through some sections, but nothing compared to last weekend's cluster. The race started fast and furious, fighting it out for every single spot before hitting the first single track. Through the woods were a couple little climbs which bogged down and I was able to move forward better by busting a 'cross move dismount and remount. Other than that it was a game of patience, biding my time before making an effort count when able to move around.
From the expo area and start/finish is a climb into the first single track, offering some rhythmic single track into the first feature named Dual Speed; two options which stairstep down and funnel into the longest climb of the circuit topping out at the second feature called Northshore. This begins with a rock drop into wicked fun switchbacking banked corners, culminating with a steep rooted drop to a heavy crowded viewing spot, a brief rolling and rooted several turns leading you to the third feature, WorldClass drop, another heavily viewed pot. About 300m of rooted trails leads you to the most-watched and most-heckled fourth feature, Wolfsdrop, a root embedded near-vertical drop down through a beer garden and tech zone. You climb for a while out of this area on double track then connect back into the forest for another wicked fun rhythm single track leading back to the Wolfsdrop arena for the fifth feature, Snake Pit, a pit of roots stemming and meandering in every direction. We flow out of that festivus and shortly run into the base of a short but looming climb and into a screaming descent into the expo area and start/finish.
I made it through the start lap and through the Northshore section, legs feeling strong, body relaxed, head on my shoulders but brain in airplane-mode. However I didn't keep patience and the first turn following Northshore I tried to pass on a rooted corner, taking a different line than I had ridden in training and careened over the bars, through the tape and down the bank to the fire road, head-over-heels. And guess what my landing pad was? My knee. I popped up quickly to get my bike straightened out and back on course. I had landed on the fire road and trying to climb back up to the trail was a challenge as it was a steep drop-off from the trail to road. With bike in one hand and the other hand grabbing at whatever little trees and roots to pull myself up, I noticed I could hardly bend that knee. By the time I had pulled me and my mojo up to the trail my leg was stiff as a tree stump and I abandoned the race.
I studied French in school so when I am immersed in the language I can almost get by. I can't understand it when it is spoken fast, but I can speak a limited amount "to get by" and can understand many signs and written words. Being at these last two races was like opening a French novel. I haven't been exposed to much technical variety on the MTB so seeing these drops and how quickly the top-end riders can manoeuvre them is like a French baker teaching me to bake a baguette. I've had some criticism about jumping into the very deep end of mountain bike racing while only having learned to doggy-paddle on the MTB. It's a steep learning curve and I had a ton of "oh no!" moments the last two weeks. But ask my old History teacher; I don't learn well or quickly by reading books and taking notes. The most history I have learned is through traveling and being in the present while imagining the past. I have a lot to learn and a lot of room to grow and that is exciting; but I believe the best way for me to do this is being at the races, through trial and error. My bruises will go away but the "Euro shoots and drops" will not. I am thankful for Crankbrothers who has granted me the freedom to choose a schedule to best suit my process goals in cycling. In the immediate future I get to see Westmeerbeek (my Belgian home in the winter) in the summer! While I mend my knee in the next couple weeks I can plan the winter around what my cycling focus currently IS: cyclocross.
To read more of Amy's blog, click here.
This Article Published June 2, 2011 For more information contact:
