KCC has been coaching a number of ‘foreign athletes’ for the past few years.  One of these is Youcef Cummings, Australian born and now living in Oman, United Arab Emirates.  Youcef is in the Masters 45-49 years ‘young’ bracket.  KCC also coaches his nephew James, part of the Essendon SKODA cycling team. Youcef recently returned from Italy where he represented Australia and competed in a team relay criterium and the road race.

Race report by Youcef Cummings:

Race Report – UWCT World Championship Road Race – Trento Italy 2013.

Wow, what a journey, this one was hard! In September last year when we began the preparation for the Worlds nothing could have prepared me for the experience that would greet me in Italy. It’s been a long journey, getting through the preparation for qualification in February, the stress of that race and ensuring we crossed the line in the right place to qualify or risk going back to the drawing board was enough! So, after the February race, I commented I needed a higher Functional Threshold Power (FTP) ( 320 watts / 60 mins)  to ensure I got over 2 climbs with the group on the way to the massive Monte Bondone was definitely the target for the next 6 months. Well I can tell you that the 6 months of 4am starts, the 600km weeks, endless AT sessions sure did pay off and still are! We got 309 watts FTP in Italy! I needed it, but still need more for Slovenia next year.

I set off to Italy on Wednesday 18^th September, expecting a few days acclimatization for the road race on the 22^nd and some recovery from the week of sore throats, runny nose and coughing that I had, wasn’t to be.  As I sat in the airport in Rome I was contacted by the UCI to participate in the Australian Team for the Relay Criterium to be held as a nocturne in the Trento city centre 6.00pm Thursday, I accepted.

Arriving in Trento only on Thursday morning to find my hotel booking was a mess I spent the morning and afternoon running around trying to sort a hotel, which wasn’t easy in a town invaded by 2000 people for the UWCT Final! I eventually found a hotel out of town 6 kms, unpacked the bike, put on my kit and headed down to the city centre. After about 5 mins I realized the gears wouldn’t engage and I couldn’t get a 16 or lower, the 12 wasn’t engaging also….not good when I have to race in 2 hours! I headed back to the hotel, assuming it was an adjustment problem I tried everything, but couldn’t fix it, the gears were electronic Dura Ace Di2 and there is really only electronic adjustment, the result was either the top 5 gears or the bottom 5. I opted for the 16 and higher given it was a crit.

So I headed to the town square, rushed down to admin and met a line of about 200 people lining up for the TT numbers for the next day!! Managed to blag my way into the door, got my numbers for the crit, rushed up the street to meet my team who I had never met before! The team were a great group of folks, the rules for the relay were that each team had to represent each age group and have 1 female rider the first rider from each team would mass start then ride 5 laps, pull into a change over zone and the next rider would pull out. Basically this was just a parade for the spectators of which there were a great many! The course was pretty typical of a European nocturne, I was surprised to see that there weren’t any rear kitchen doors opening onto the course or dogs and kids playing on the street, it had everything else! See the attached picture of the cobbled streets, there was only tarmac for about 100 meters of the 1.2 kms, thank God it wasn’t raining. I deflated my tyres to about 80 and headed out for the start. Gun goes and away we go, flat out from cold with 2 Slovenians and guy from Poland just giving it out of the gate, I follow get tailed off by some guy who didn’t like the corners, spend the next 6 mins in the 14 swapping turns with another Aussie lad much younger that me, finish my piece with our team in 5^th. Horrible stuff! Eventually the team finished about 9^th I think with the Italians overtaking the Slovenians in some back street that wasn’t part of the course….I wont ever do that race again! Madness, but the crown loved it.

So…onto the road race.

After a few days spent fixing my bike which turned out to be a bent hanger from the flight which resulted in some pretty advanced engineering on my part including removing screws from the bike box locks to replce the broken hanger screws, belting the hanger on a brick outside with a plumbers hammer borrowed from the hotel maintenance guy I eventually had all 10 gears and most importantly a 39 x 28 which I would spend quote a few hours riding in on the Sunday!!

8.00 am on Sunday 1600 cyclists descend on the Piazza Duomo in Trento, my group of 160 riders of the age group 45-49 head out at 8.12 am, following the ladies and the older age groups above us in 2 minute intervals. The day is superb, cold and crisp, no sign of rain and no wind, perfect day.

The race was meant to be neutral until the first climb at 7kms, it wasn’t and with 160 guys all trying to get to the front before the first climb it was on from the gun, not ballistic but a good steady pace with a lot of pushing to hold position. We turned on the first climb and I was right at the front about wheel 6. An FTP of 309 wasn’t going to cut it, I rode the first 10 mins and 370 watts, crested onto a small flat section with still another 300 meters to climb and 10 mins on the rivet, I was seeing stars and we had only been at it 30 mins in a 4 hour race!  I needed to recover or it was all going to end there, I backed the pace off just a little for the next 10 mins, trying to ride at 330, a whole bunch of rider slipped past, about 50 in my estimation!

After looking at the data of the first climb it appears my age group climbed about 2 mins faster than the 35-39 group! Go figure. As I crested the climb I was blowing bubbles and did everything I could to hang onto the 7 guys I was with, fantastic a recovery…..then there was the sonic descent!

The first decent of the day was nothing short of very scary, I was just out of skin going down so fast, I was getting tailed out as we negotiated about 30 twisty turns, on the way down I passed several very bad accidents from the groups in front and the riders who had passed me from behind, a particularly bad crash happen in front of me and just behind me. At one point I passed a crash at about 70kmhr entering a hard turn, I could smell brake blocks and carbon as I headed down this section, there were 7 bodies on the right, 2 on the left and a guy in the middle of the road. As I was passing by, a guy on my right who I couldn’t see, hit the back of the ambulance breaking his back in 4 places, another guy compound fractured his arm, it was frightening. A little further on there was a bike stuck in a wall with the rider lying in the culvert!

Once down we chased a large group ahead, we had about 40 kms on the flat before the climb of the Lago di cie an 1100 meter high mountain. Eventually after chasing in a large group of about 50 in which I didn’t do a turn, in fact I couldn’t do a turn cause it was hard to get to the front because we were cruising at about 48/50 kmhr all the time we caught 3 other large groups. The peleton I was in was about 150/200 riders and was really trucking along, having passed the timing chip at the end of this section in position 154 overall after cresting at position 347 gives you some idea of the sheer size of the groups.

We were caught by 3 riders from the younger group and there was a Kiwi rider ( David Rowlands) who was just driving like crazy trying to stay away from his group chasing behind, again like in Austria 2 years before I needed a 54 front ring in the valley because it was fast. Once we hit the Lago di Cie I just put the watt meter at 300 and climbed for about an hour, I was passed all the time by riders in my category and riders in the same category as me, I had turned onto this climb at the front again, having free wheeled to answer the call of nature about 10 mins before the base, I rode hard to the front and was rewarded by being able to pace myself with some guys at my level.

Once again over the top in a small group of about 30, including the eventual winner of the female 30-34 category who was descending far better than I was, having to sprint out of the corners to keep contact with her, we eventually were tailed off the main group we were in, but knowing what was behind it was no problem with another small valley of about 10 kms before the mutha of a mountain Monte Bondone.

More bodies on the road side on the way to the turn of Monte Bondone, more rushing to the front a large regroup to ensure a good climbing position. This climb was the biggest mountain I have ever raced over, at 1600 meter it was an hour and 40 mins to the top and I was suffering at the base, close to the top as the air grew thinner it was all I could do to push 220 watts, still I was getting passed, by 160 riders in total, I went onto the climb 256 overall and died many times on the way to the top. I rode with 3 other Australian guys, I don’t know what age group, frankly I cant recall, I was dismayed to see the 10 km to go sign because I was absolutely ready to get off the bike! Hanging onto to the end was an experience, I could feel the chamois eating into my skin, it was a nice feeling cause it took my mind off the pain in my legs, with 3 kms to go a guy handed me a coke, I could have kissed him!

I finished 82^nd in my age group of 160 starters and 134 finishers, 7^th from 19 Aussies to start in my age and 544^th overall from the massive starting grid. So, now we need an FTP greater than 309 because in Slovenia there is a large climb, only 1 climb but it’s a monster and like my commitment 3 years ago in Austria, I am going to get over that mountain with the front group, no matter what it takes!

I have had a break and am ready for more of those horrible 15 sec seated max efforts!!

Thanks again.