As we drove from Austria to Italy, driver Darren tasked the passengers with guessing what was growing beside the highway: grapes or olives. No one has fact checked our thoughts yet.
If someone were to ask us to describe Val di Sole this weekend in one word, I should say Fortitude would suffice.
Jon’s fortitude was first tested on Sunday night when we arrived to find all restaurants closed. We had our hearts set on Italian Pizza for dinner to start the week off; turns out the second weekend of June is at the tail end of the shoulder season, which meant pizza places weren’t open till later in the week. Jon’s introduction to Italian pizza was of the frozen variety that night.
With less than a week between Leogang race day and Val Di Sole race day, we had to “move quickly without rushing,” as Darren would say, to grocery shop, wash the van and trailer, set-up the pits, re-build bikes and mentally prepare for racing. The local organizers at Val Di Sole are pretty dialed regarding organization, and we were thankful to have received a spot on the pavement to set up our pits. The little details make a big difference.
Track Walk - 12/06/24
After rumours of thunder storms and 80% chance of rainfall for Tuesday afternoon, we chose to start track walk at our designated time of 1:00. If we haven’t mentioned it before, UCI Elite Teams track walk at 11:00am, and UCI MTB Teams as well as privateers can start track walk at 1:00pm.
1:35 minutes later, once we arrived back to the pits, Jon joined the club of men and women ready and willing to take on the ruthless Val di Sole track.
In all of Mark’s experience here in Val di Sole, he couldn’t recall a season that wasn’t dry and dusty. It was the same track, but it was safe to assume that it would be a very different feel.
Practice Day - 13/06/2024
“Coming into practice, I was preparing for the Val di Sole I’ve been to lots of times, which meant being prepared for lots of wheel work, but with how wet it was, and the ground being so saturated, it was a lot less big impacts and a lot more searching for traction and control.
This track is so physical, that we raised the front of Jon’s bike to deal with the steeper sections and bigger compressions as well as to shift his weight back off his arms. These small adjustments prove critical when Jon and Mark progress into the weekend”
This track in particular is like a really huge rich plate of carbonara pasta. It looks really good, it’s a difficult one to finish, especially with speed. Some people try to eat it all in one go, some people choke and others try to pace themselves, and those who even finish it well, are left out of breath and exhausted.
It’s a heavy duty track to savour.
Qualifying day - 14/06/2024
As Mark predicted, the challenge throughout the weekend wasn’t the hard hits from deep compressions, but the lack of grip that continued on even as the track got faster through out qualifying.
“Jon and I had similar qualifying runs. We both put down a solid run, but it didn’t feel like a proper race run where we could really push. There is a lot to go wrong on this track and we needed to ride smart to qualify, but not being able to push 100% feels frustrating.
Unfortunately in my semi finals run I hit the ground pretty hard in the first corner. It came out of no where. I hit the ground before I knew what was happening. With everything that comes after the first two turns, you don’t expect anything to happen before that. Instantly, I felt pain in my right hand, and because it was so close to the top I decided to make the call and download to the medi-clinic at the bottom.”
Qualifying
P - 28 (3:59.882 +10.464)
Semi Finals
DNF
Our priority is the health and well-being of Mark and Jon, and although we all understand and accept the risks involved in this sport; it is always crushing when injury arises. Mark certainly demonstrated fortitude this weekend, especially when he continued to support the team for Jon’s race run on Sunday. Mark is currently undergoing some more testing to make sure the swelling in his hand is just for aesthetics, and nothing more that the X-rays didn’t show.
“It always feels good to put down a solid qualifying run. I feel like I am making progress. . . or building momentum . . . and this is a really tough track in the body and the mind, so sticking to my lines and feeling really dialed with my bike set up really helped. It feels really good to have the confidence in the prototype and go into finals with full confidence in the wheels too. It also feels really good to have fun out here rather than being afraid of what could happen. I’m totally gutted for Mark because he was building pace, and he helped me out a lot on track this week.”
P - 11 (4:06.896 +10.358)
Finals - 15/06/2024
Jon raced this weekend. He really raced. He shaved 10 seconds off his qualifying run and was nudged off the podium when the last rider, Max Alran, came down. He took on the plate of carbonara with fortitude and determination. We are proud of Jon for that.
P - 4 (3:56.325 +7.095)
Jon’s results also put us on the board this weekend. The We Are One Momentum Project is now 32nd in the UCI team standings. We are moving forward, and we are building with fortitude.
We are currently in a farmhouse in Pila, Italy where Jon and Kitchen-Aed will experience life without WIFI for a week. Just bike riding, pasta, pizza, and scrabble.
You won’t hear from us till Monday July 8th after Haute-Savoie, Les Gets.
Fire away if you have any questions, or any suggestions!
Until Les Gets,
Mark, Jon, Darren and Holly