Kelly Cycle Coaching had 3 athletes compete in the Trans Hajar Mountain Bike race in Oman.  This was a tough 4 day mountain bike race, made harder by the extreme heat, arid terrain and the quality of the field.

Our Kelly Cycle Coaching athletes were excited to see a few ex pro European cyclists show up making it an even tougher race.  The event was ridden like a road race, with attacks, chasing, and all the other tactics employed in teams racing.  Another athlete of ours, James Powers finished in 10th position whilst oraganiser and Kelly Cycle coaching athlete, Lake Arapakis, finished in 27th position.  Lake is using this event to train for the Cape Epic (a massive mountain bike race that has 140km stages held over 8 days).

Former world triathlon champion, Rob Barrel (Australia) took out the win, with Luis Rodriquez (Spain) 2nd.  Luis is currently racing mountain bikes on the pro circuit.  The podium was rounded out by Mario Gondillo (another former pro) and current World Police Champion.  Our highest finisher was Youcef Cummings, in 7th position.  Final time 13hrs 1min.  The winning time was 12hrs 17mins.

Here is Youcef’s report on just how hard the racing was:

Day 1- Time trial. Arrived early as the dedicated banana carrier for the race, so I decided to ride early as it was getting hot quickly. I had ridden the course a couple of times before, a hard 30% climb followed by a long section of rolling hills, then onto technical single track that was basically a goat track that we decided to follow, it meandered up into walking section over open granite outcrops. Really quite stunning unless you are killing yourself. So I rode 75% just saving my legs and yet trying to pull a top 5 position.

The majority of riders arriving from abroad came later in the day so it was not until the next morning that I discovered I did ride top 5, but about 7 mins down on the top guy! The winner was Rob Barel a dutch former world champion triathlete, essentially a guy who has had a life as a professional athlete, at one time giving Mark Allen and Dave Scott a hard time in Tri and beating them. He now races MTB as a fancy….strong and smart racer. I saw from the times that James Powers was just a spot behind me and also riding smart to conserve for the following 3 days of some serious climbing. The remainder of the leader board was populated by some Spaniards, one notably Luis Perez Rodriquez, a multiple stage winner of the Vuelta and long time Pro. Also a Swiss downhill rider who proved to be an Ox on long pulls uphill. Day 2 was about to start and given the time from the TT I was puckering just a little as things were a bit faster than this old man had anticipated.

Day 2- After the TT we lined up the Top 20 riders, 2 minutes in front of the remainder of the race, given a nasty fast downhill 3 kms from the start and the possible results of some overzealous riding. So the start is on and we head full throttle straight up a serious gravel road climb, no steady, no spinning into the first serious stage, nope, flat out up the hill, at the top we are 10! The next 20 mins was about a 2% downhill over rolling hills, it was curvy and fast and you guessed it, it was ridden wildly fast, the Spanish train pulled as hard as they could, after 20mins we were 8 and I was just hanging on, like riding a motorcross bike. Just like the 7th or 8th time on a MTB this was new for me, I firstly didn’t know you could draft on a MTB and secondly I didn’t know you could ride so fast on one!

The road flattened and the Spanish guys started road attacking until we were 7, that would be me hanging on the back! Over some rolling tarmac hills they attacked 1,2,3 and I was out the back. I was caught eventually by one of the last guys to out the back and after both agreeing it was a wild ride we headed into the climbs and final 40kms together. The climbs were just plain nasty pinches one after another, about 10 or 15 hills, hard downhills and hard up hills.  We ran, rode and struggled our way out of them and into the long road back up to the climb home. I lost contact with my partner at a turn so I just rode steady ( couldn’t go harder) to the final climb. On the final long nasty climb I was caught up by my previous partner and as I saw him appraoching I could see James Powers riding up to us.  He must have had an incredible day because we had ridden so fast down and hard and he bridged all the time taken out of his group. We crossed the line at 3.30 krs about 15 mins down on the Spaniards and Rob Barel. I wasn’t looking forward to the massive 114km next day, I was hot, dehydrated and tired.

I went home drank loads of rehydration salts, ate loads and wept about the day ahead, it was already shaping up to be a sufferfest over 5 hours.

Day 3 – Suffer Fest.

There was a slightly different atmosphere at the start of Day 3, the legs were tired for everyone and the thought of 114 kms over some more horrible climbs weighed heavily on a lot of legs, mine included.

Today at the gun, the was no rush to race we rolled for 15 kms right up to the base of the 30% climb we rode in the time trial and yes, the Spaniards attacked and we were racing over the top and down a very technical descent.  We were in two groups, 5 in front and 3 in mine, we were chasing the 5 in front onto and over a rolling rough power line trail, eventually regrouping about 5 kms later.

At this point a Spaniard who had been dropped on the tough descent was attempting to get back on, everyone who wasn’t Spanish pulled to keep the group from reforming and creating another Vuelta road stage. Wasn’t to be, over a 20kms section of rolling hills the group reformed and we were 8 again. At this point the Swiss punctured, as a contender for the GC and Armada automatically attacked shelling one guy, down to seven again.

We entered some of the most horrible terrain I have ever ridden on. A 15km section of river bed, a river bed in Oman known as a Wadi – which is essentially round rocks about from 5 cms to 30cms across.  They are loose and its like riding in soft cement.  This section was just a suffer fest.  Rob Barel attacked and the race blew into bits.  There were riders in ones and twos all over this Wadi.  It stayed that way the remainder of the race.

Over a massive climb I regrouped with a Spainard who had been dropped and a really strong partner from Day 2 before, they dropped me later on a climb so I was solo again to the line.  With about 9 kms to go I was seriously shelled, the kms on the computer wouldn’t reduce and I was riding into a block headwind with nothing.

You know those days when you need to get out of the seat on the flat convincing yourself its a false flat and you are accelerating.  It was like that for the entire way home!  I groveled over the line about 9 mins behind the animals in front of me.  I had nothing left, so spent I couldn’t stand up cause I had Time Trial butt cheeks…..on an MTB!

Who the hell said MTB riding was fun! They obviously had never ridden wadi Quriyat before.  I won’t tell you what James looked like at the finish, at least he could crawl.

Day 4 – Piano….yeah right. (Piano means easy in Italian!)

I must have called Piano, Piano 10 times on the line, thankfully its the same in Spain! We went easy for the first of the 60km stage, but after 3 kms there was a walking climb, too steep to ride – the walk or jog up was not nice for stiff calves. I rode onto this little delight in the front, I dropped my chain at the base and was swamped.  I was passed by the Top 10 guys and was chasing James up the hill.

We struggled our way over the top and mounted our bikes and started to chase the 7 in front.  We were racing through a fast single track over rock gardens and granite outcrops in the reverse of the Time Trial.  I was dropped by James and another Spanish rider as they took a much neater line over some rocks.  I chased them and regrouped coming out of the single track onto the winding rolling graded roads.   A rider who was 20 seconds behind James on GC was trying hard to join us as he had aspirations of dropping James and taking the position. There was about 12 mins to the guy behind me and 10 to the guy in front.  It was clear I wouldn’t make the front guy so I just needed to ensure nobody took too much time from me and I would finish 7th.

James ensured the guy 20 seconds behind him on GC didn’t advance by pulling some nasty turns and dropping him in the rolling hills. 15 kms to go and all I can think is don’t puncture, don’t puncture!  One last walk up the reverse side of the 30% climb.  My thoughts as a tackleted this climb – “what hell this race was, who is sadistic enough to put in a profile at the end of a 4 day stage race that involved hiking up a massive climb?  They are just sick!!”

Over the top, James dropped me chasing the Spaniard.  Chase as I might I crossed the line 30 seconds down and finished the most horrible MTB experience of my life in 7th place!

Conclusion- so that’s my take on the Trans Hajar MTB race, it was tough, much tougher than expected, it took me 3 days to recover, some nice easy rolling days even hurting the legs.

I learnt a lot in the 4 days, like I said that was the end to the 10th time I had actually ridden an MTB and not actually believing you could seriously draft on a MTB as its just so hard already I was amazed at how much like a road race this race actually was and frankly it took me by surprise. I learnt a light bike really matters in MTB racing, hardx tail or not, weight is everything, especially as you get tired and you need to move that additional weight.

This race left me wanting more, I can do without the wadi beds, I love the single tracks, I liked being back racing again and it sure was value for money when you consider how many hours racing you got for your buck.

I finished day 3 with the thought that I would ever do this race again because it was so hard, if I had seen lake in the last 5 kms of day 3 I would have run him down, maybe next time I will race a little slower and not try to hang with the young guns cause it hurts too much, I must be getting old!

Thanks again for the form Helen, I was amazed at the average watts on day 3, I didn’t have a power meter, but I sure could feel the power, I was strong that was clear but the watts kept coming. Those 4min, 3 min, 2 min, 1 min efforts on AT sure mattered in the race and even though I hated doing them in training, I enjoyed using them in the race.

Thanks again for all your time and effort.

Youcef Cummings