Photo: Michal Cerveny Specialized
Mt. Sainte Anne is a classic on the world cup circuit. Actually this place has been on the world cup calendar almost every single year, since the birth of the Mountain Bike World Cup. Pretty impressive! This year they once again launched a stellar event, with a race worthy course and an amazing atmosphere.
In the team we had a great week leading up to the race with training on the course and good meals together. With Lea coming back from her hip injury, this time we were the complete xc team here and actually the female riders (Lea, Tereza, Kate and me) outnumbered the male riders (Jaroslav, Howie and Kohei).
At the race I ended up in 8th position. No doubt about, that I had aimed for higher. I had a stellar start and was at the front of the chasing group behind Jolanda Neff and Catharine Pendrel, but midway in the race I didn’t have much power left and had to just survive my way through. Not the best feeling to have in a race, not being able to put the hammer down and attack, but now there’s e week time to reload the gun and get ready to the World Cup in Windham
The entrance to the key feature, the rocky descent “La Beatrice” (Photo: Michal Cerveny Specialized)
“La Beatice” descent (Photo: Michal Cerveny Specialized)
The course in Mt. Sainte Anne is full of rocks and roots (Photo: Michal Cerveny Specialized)
My teammate Lea returning from hip injury with a baaam! 4th position for her (Photo: Michal Cerveny Specialized)
Hi Annika, congratulations on your 8th place finish at MSA yesterday. Was wondering if you are riding the new SWorks Era, and what fork do you have on it ? It doesn’t look like the RS-1. Also I’m wondering what travel you have on that front fork. Thanks and good luck for the upcoming race at Windham. Laura
Hi Laura! Nice when a girl asks for specs! Here are the details: The bike is the brand new S-works Era 29’er. The one I’m riding is one of the first editions, that’s why the frame is all black. (Specialized always launch new products under the name “project black”). The fork is Custom RockShox SID World Cup 29 fork with Specialized Brain inertia-valve damping has 95mm of air-sprung travel, a carbon steerer tube, and 15mm thru-axle to create the most efficient and supple cross-country fork available.
Both my fork and my rear suspension has the “Brain technology”, which means that I don’t myself has to open or lock the suspension. It opens automatically, whenever the brain unit detects any bumps in the terrain. That’s pretty smart!
For this race I was riding the royal wheels with the tires S-works Fast Track 2.2 front and S-works Renegade 1.95 Control rear. My bike is equipped with SRAM XX1 and I was choosing a 30 chain blade since I needed low gears for those steep climbs. In Danish terrain I normally ride a 32 chain blade.
Nerds…. 🙂
Great, thanks for the details ! Good luck in the races ahead. L
Hi Annika, being more of an endurance rider myself, I was wondering what type of gearing you use for races such as Marathon Worlds? I wanna go to the XX1 platform, but am scared of making the wrong front ring selection.. Also, congrats on your Worlds win.. Bringing my family Wyndham to ck out the races and hope to meet you..
Hi Ross, drop by any time at our tent at the venue in Windham. I will be hanging out there in the days leading up to the race.
For the marathon worlds I rode with a 32 front ring. Personally I think this size is pretty all-round, but it’s VERY individual since it depends on, how strong you are and what cadence you normally ride. I change the front ring depending on the steepness of the climbs. So my advice would be, that you have 2 different sizes of rings and then change them depending on the terrain. Start riding one ring, and then you’ll soon find out whether you tend to run out of smaller or bigger gears and would be more comfortable with another ring size.