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Zurich Six-Day
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! Here is my look back at this year’s under-23 Zurich Six-Day. Nobody likes to read a long race report, so I will keep it brief and more personal as the results speak for themselves. My partner and I arrived in Zurich on Monday with the racing beginning Tuesday night. The track was a non-permanent velodrome, so it was not finished being built until about an hour before our race began. Fortunately the Dutch guys were kind enough to let us borrow their rollers on Tuesday morning to spin the legs out. I was pleasantly surprised to find my legs feeling pretty good. The first night averaged over 53 kph for 30km and it was a baptism-by-fire of sorts for us. We had some close calls and yo-yo’ed a bit early on, but held it together. We finished with the peloton of 6 teams on the same lap so that was good. The track was coated in sawdust so there were a lot of crashes but we steered clear although I had trouble seeing for the first 50 laps. The second night went about the same way, staying on even laps. We made a move and got a little over half a lap gap mid-way through, but then some other teams caught us and shut it down. The third night I had great legs but we were a bit too far back when the move went very early. We came close but not close enough, however we did move up a spot on GC to 7th overall. Photo courtesy Petter Mettler The fourth night didn’t go well; the race was from the gun and we were trying to move into 5th or 6th place. Those teams got dropped so I went a bloc to try and get the lap but again we were too far back initially. I ended up cracking really badly so it was a bad night. Afterwards we had a points race 4 hours later so we had dinner and I felt a lot better and the points race ended up going very well. So I think I made a small (but ultimately very big) error in my nutrition by showing up to the track a bit hungry to begin with. Blood tests have shown me to be somewhat hypoglycemic so that is something I need to be better about. The fifth night went much better; I got my legs back and we were back in the race. The final 24 hours were tough as we had the Madison at 6:30, then a points race at 1 AM, followed by the final day’s Madison at noon. So we ended up getting about 3 hours sleep the final night…and after 5 nights of racing too! The final day I had a lot of motivation since it was my birthday too. All the riders and officials wished me a happy birthday which was really nice, plus the announcer told the audience during rider introductions as well which was pretty cool. I felt great in the race and a lot of the other teams cracked. Everyone was exhausted but instead of fighting it I just relaxed my body and focused on pedaling fast. In the end we went with the 1st-placed Australians and 2nd-placed Swiss team and stayed away to end on a high note. Afterwards we watched the pro finale and I enjoyed some flan that one of the Swiss guys gave me for my birthday. Then we packed up and spent the night at the home of one of the Swiss riders. It was a quintessential Swiss home tucked away in the hills about 20km from the city – really cool. We were also treated to a traditional Swiss meal of Raclette and celebrated St. Nicholas Day with the family. It was a really cool way to end what was an amazing week in Switzerland.Thanks to all of my sponsors for being with me on this huge opportunity, especially to PowerBar for giving me the fuel I needed to compete with the best in the world!
Pennsylvania, United States
Cycling, Athletes/Active Lifestyle
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