Troupe Racing Co.

Personally, I’m not one for traveling. I always feel destroyed when I return from any sort of long distance trip – whether its for business or vacation. But, when the opportunity to travel to Italy’s Garda Fest came up a few months ago, my ears perked up.

The Garda Fest is similar to a European version of Sea Otter. Despite being in Italy, it’s predominantly attended by Germans. The main attraction is the marathon xc event that I would race. And by race, I mean participate. Not only had I been focusing on more shorter xc events this year, but the marathon has an attendance of over 2,000 riders. Yes, two thousand. Racing this event was more about participating and finishing strong and not crawling on all fours across the finish line.

I, along with my wife Michelle and our friend Amanda, arrived in Riva del Garda on the Wednesday before the Saturday race. Our first order of business was securing bikes. We pulled in to the best shop in Garda – Carpintera Bike Shop and rented our bikes: Cube Ltd hard tails. For those that don’t know, Cube is Germany’s biggest brand, and we were stoked to find some race bikes in our size in the rental fleet and not clunkers from years past. And they were even stocked with Formula RX brakes.

We check into our rooms, changed clothes and immediately hit the local paths to spin the legs for a couple hours.

The area was amazing. Olive groves and vineyards surround the lake and expo venue. Bike paths took us from one small town to another, each one a 100 years older then the last. Castles hang from one of the sheer mountains and overlook the valley below.

And then we began to climb…

We soon found ourselves going up into one of the small towns and on a very winding road through the hillside. The road was steep, narrow and was mostly cobble stones. But, the view was so amazing that we didn’t realize how steep the climbing was. We kept together and relaxed, knowing that we could turn around at any point.

At the top, we found a single track trail that would more or less bring us down to where we started up. So, we dropped in and were treated to some super technical (for hard tails) descending over some of the most slippery rocks we’ve ridden on.

Our plan for Thursday was to get some specific course recon. We set off with the intent of pre-riding the course for our chosen distance: the Piccolo, which was 54k, with over 6,000 ft of climbing. This was a chance to take in the EPIC scenery of the course, for we knew that on race day, we’d be redlined and not be seeing the sights.

The course was amazing, but we soon learned that mountain biking in Europe means something different over there. To them, it means riding up and down a mountain on either paved roads, cobbles, or dirt, and the course was made of all three of those options. Climbing was done on paved roads through villages, while downhills were mostly on trails…. and the cobbles were reserved for any trails through the olive groves. We climbed for a couple of hours all the while being thrilled with the scale of what we were doing, and a bit nervous that we were biting off more then we could chew. We rode about 75% of the course and headed back to our hotel to refuel and strategize.

A word of advice for those that travel to an event like this. Bringing your own shoes and pedals is a no-brainer. But we also brought our own fizik saddles – a critical upgrade to the rental bike. What we forgot, however, was our own stems. Luckily, we happened upon a few shorter ones and were able to swap out the 110mm stock stems that were the cause of some serious back pain.

Fast forward to race day, 7 am.

We hit the bikes to ride to the start. Riders start in waves of about 300-500 per wave, and 5 minutes apart. The “A” wave was already lined up and counting down to the start. Since each rider wears a transponder, start position doesn’t matter; your time starts when you cross the start line. We were in wave “D”, which took us quite a wile to make our way through the sea of bikes to our area. Of course, by this time, we’re at the back of the group and kept reminding ourselves that it didn’t make a difference.

Before we knew it, we were off.

The start was insane – riders where everywhere going all sorts of speeds. I quickly found a clear spot along the edge of the road and put some power the the pedals to help warm up for the impending climbing and to get past some riders that would certainly bottleneck at some of the narrow trails.

It wasn’t long before I realized was feeling good… really good. We hit the climbs and while other riders dumped it into their 22T ring to spin, I found some strength and powered through the never ending field and began to claw my way up through the ranks. The more I passed, the faster I wanted to go. I was in race mode and loving it.

Amanda had been on my wheel since the start and we decided to ride together. We were both riding a strong pace and thought we could work together.

At about mile 12, we pulled in to the first aid station. The euro aid stations are stocked a bit differently. Gone were the Powerbars, Hammer Gels and sports drinks. Here, you’re offered water and a host of different birthday cakes, cups of peanuts, or dates or prunes. Good thing we packed our own supplies. We downed a few Endurolytes, topped off our bottles and dropped into one of the best single track descents of the course. It was twisty, steep, loamy, and difficult enough to make most of the riders dismount an walk. But thanks to our home town technical trails, we let off the brakes and flew down the trail SoCal style.

Soon the trail opened up into an amazing road descent of tight switchbacks through the mountains. This was pure Tour de France style of high speed aero tuck descending. It was a bit intense going into a 180 degree turn 3 or 4 riders wide but it added to the thrill. After each turn, we grew more confident of our tires, our bikes and our skills.

The rest of the course through a few surprises at us – we hadn’t ridden this area on our pre-ride. We were forced by our lack of trail knowledge to hold back and save some for any surprising climbs – which there was.

But with all good climbs come good downhills. We wound ourselves heading back down the mountain on single track rocky trails, passing through villages that were hundreds of years old, and into more olive groves. As the course flattened out, and I could tell that we were on the roads on our way to the finish, we threw whatever we had left on the fire. It was a 6 mile ride back, and we planned to spend it all by the finish. We picked up a few other riders and before long had a pace-line of 5 or so riders. But we were determined to do all the work and pull away at the finish. Mission accomplished.

Coming in to the finish area was one of the most rewarding feelings I’ve had in a while. We were strangers in a strange land, and there were no cheering fans or friends. But the fact that we came to put in a solid ride and pulled it off was reason enough to celebrate.

In the end, I finished 3 hours, 12 minutes and in 192 place of over 400 men that raced the Piccolo. Michelle was around 60th place for open women in the Piccolo distance. Those finish are nothing amazing, but a podium finish was never the goal.

We’re keeping our eyes on airline prices for next year – this one is a must do!