Offenbourg World Cup Round 3

Kenta Gallagher

• World Cups 4 and 5
• British Championships 2010
• British Junior Road Nationals.
• Houffalize World Cup
• Dalby World Cup

Hi all,

The week after Road Nationals I stayed with fellow ODP rider Steven James leading up to the 3^rd World Cup held in Offenbourg Germany. My coach decided it was better I stayed away from home to get away from my normal life as id not been my usual self.

We set off for Germany in a car which was a 7 hour journey, this wasn’t too bad as id manage to sleep the majority of the journey. Once we arrived we where greeted by rain, we checked into the hotel and just settled in.

The next morning we went for a spin on the road, my legs not feeling the best but my head was there, I was up for the race. On the Friday before the race we went for a pre ride of the course, it was mega techy! My dream world cup course! I done one lap but I was falling off left, right and centre, this wasn’t good as I was wrecking myself and my bike so after that I decided to call it quits and left to get back to the hotel. That night all that was on my mind was that I can’t ride the course!

The next morning we went on a spin on the road to get our legs awake, I not being able to ride the course was still on the back of my mind. I warmed up and rolled to the start line, we went and it was flat out round the start loop! I couldn’t hold the wheels on the climbs and I was sketchy on the down hills, this wasn’t good so I just settled into my own pace feeling like I was going backwards. I struggled lap 2 with back cramps. I rolled across the line in 27^th knowing that my ride couldn’t have got much worse.

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I had a chat with my coach and he just said that if I can get in the top 30 with a crap ride that’s good! So I guess there was a positive. To finish the weekend off watching the elite’s race I got a nose bleed which I passed out from about 4 times, I got taken to a hospital to get it sorted.

Thanks for reading KG