24-Hour Melfar – Summary – There’s something rotten in Denmark… (Shakespeare)
Fabio has raced in the 24-hour Melfar in Denmark, a race valid for the Ultracycling World Cup. Here is the story:
Click here for the photo gallery of the race
Hello everyone, I’m writing to you to let you know how the race went in Denmark: first of all it was great to go back to that area after a long time, the atmosphere is always very healthy and life is joyfully slower (at least in the smaller towns) compared to our hectic pace. Just think that during the day loop we passed by a lake a few times that I remembered having seen when I was travelling around those parts in 1985, how cool …. The organization was perfect all around. 300 cyclists at the start is truly a record number for such a hard race. The trip by camper went well and wasn’t difficult at all (as if difficulty were a problem for me), the weather was “terrible” like always: 15-16 degrees when it was sunny, cooler with clouds, rainy once in a while and tons of wind. At night during the race the temperature dropped by 5-6 degrees and there were some strong Nordic cyclists who were racing in shorts and had no gloves, while I, and I definitely don’t suffer from the cold, was dressed for winter. My Slovenian friend Fredi Virag was also at the start. At the ready-set-go he started as usual to seriously race as if it were a 70-km criterion, lap after lap (day lap 1 of 58.5 km; night lap 2 of 16 km and the final lap from 8:30 to 10:00, that is the time of end of the race, of 3.4 km), we were losing pieces on the road and unfortunately even good Fredi wasn’t able to maintain the speed, which after 10 hours was 35.6km/hr, truly remarkable if we consider the strong wind, rain, the climbs (yes, in Denmark there are hills that if you go up them against the wind for hours and hours they feel like Moritrolo). The nice thing about these places is that being more north than us, the sun set at 11 p.m. and rises at around 3:30 a.m., therefore a short night for “superficial lovers”. After about 12 hours of racing the pace-setting group was made up of Biasi and three great Danish cyclists. Biasi, even though he was still feeling tired from the race in Slovenia, was able to pedal hard. Even before starting they were already “shitting their pants” because Fredi and I were participating, in the first kilometres of the race the three who then stayed with me after he 12th hour started asking me about my races, etc. and it was like being a star (even if seen with not the same pleasure). From the 13th hour to the 18th of the race the three Danish cyclists had asked me 3 times (in three different occasions) to stop and wait for them because they had to pee. I didn’t need to but seeing the type of race, apart from the fact that we had all worked together up to that point in order to leave everyone behind, I accepted to stop and wait for them. After the third stop, when I needed to stop to change my soaking wet gloves, they told me they would have waited for me, but as soon as they turned the corned, they started pedalling like crazy to leave me behind. Imagine after about 19 hours of racing at that pace and in those climatic conditions, what 3 against 1 could mean. I didn’t give up and I continued to push alone, but slowly slowly that lead became unbeatable. Not giving up, from the 20 minutes the three of them were able to accumulate in a couple of hours, I was able to get close to the third until reaching him at about 1 minute and 30 seconds but at that point the race was over. The third arrived at about 6-7 minutes before me and the winner maintained about a 20-20 minute advantage. I finished the race in this vile way (vile for them in my opinion), covering in 23 hours and 58 minutes 751 km at an average of more than 31 km/hr in those conditions with over 3000 m of climb. Having reached the finish line, at the base of the crowded podium, I asked those three if they felt like winners in front of me, if they were satisfied of having behaved in such a mean way. They lowered their heads and said I was right, obviously I told them that could put being right you know where and added that they were dishonest and unscrupulous. The obvious result: I could have won but I arrived in 4th place. The less obvious result, but which I feel: I won. And I consolidated even more the leadership in the World Cup even if it really gets me that even here everything and anything happens. Note for Sara: if you consider that at the finishing line the Crew Chief of MacDonald (“who in 2005 stole 2nd place at the RAAM, cheating like few others”) came to say hello to me, well…I would have punched him in the mouth. Moral: I thought that Denmark was made up of special people, and maybe it really is, but not if we talk about sport the way I see it.
Kisses Biasi
