Aiming High | Part 4: James Shirley’s European Enduro Champs
RADON Factory rider James Shirley has a bit of a traveler’s life…his van is pimped to the max with double bed, worktops and all other basic requirements for a EWS rider on the road. This time, he was at the European Enduro Champs and tore up, gaining an impressive fourth place, alongside his teammate Raphaela Richter who gained a third place in the Elite Women’s category despite being classed as a Junior!
The world’s first ever European Enduro Championships were held in Kirchberg, Austria, on the weekend of the 20th and 21st of June 2015. The event was fully supported and supervised by the European Cyclists’ Federation which meant that genuine European champions could be officially crowned. This, in my opinion, is a truly memorable occasion for the sport of Enduro mountain bike racing. I therefore had this event as one of my major objectives for the season…
Miles and I arrived with the van in the beautiful little alpine village to be greeted by some really terrible weather. In my mind I had imagined (possibly hoped is a more accurate word to use) that this race would be strongly contested by the best riders in Europe (if not the world) but I honestly didn’t know if anyone else was treating it with the same level of respect and anticipation. So when we rolled through town and parked up I was pleasantly surprised to see a few top riders already floating about.
For the first time in a very long time I actually had some real accommodation to stay in. My manager Joost had booked an apartment for the team which was total luxury considering that there was fresh snow falling at the top of the stages! It was also nice to have a clean, safe shower facility to use since the dangers of van life were starting to get the better of me. Earlier in the week I had a pikey river wash only to slice a deep cut in my foot on a sharp piece of debris. It’s so stupid yet so easy to do and it’s the type of thing that could have ruined the weekend for me. Thankfully the cut was on my heel: I couldn’t walk properly but I could still ride my bike. I was also lucky to avoid any infection – there was no smell of almonds, just smelly feet.
After a filthy day of practice I knew what to expect for Sunday. It would be important to wrap up warm, stay stoked, take spare goggles, gloves, tissues and generally make sure to look after myself. The stages were guaranteed to evolve so I tried not to be strict with learning lines but just look ahead, stay relaxed and ride with a good feeling. The conditions were so bad that the organisation, much to my relief, decided to cancel the prologue that was scheduled for Saturday evening.
I rode really well in practice but it is always more difficult when the pressure is on for race runs. I didn’t give myself much of a warm up (partly because of time constraints) before stage 1 and I also didn’t remember to warm my brakes up either. I started off ok but when it came to the tricky part in the woods I was too tentative, unclipped a foot, crashed into a tree, twisted my seatpost, handlebars, brake levers and had to run down part of the course! What a disaster. Only one minute into the race, I had already fluffed it up. I went straight to the pits to fix my bike and get my head back in the game. On the way to stage 2 I even managed to get lost (as did many other riders) as the sign posting was less than adequate. I finally made it to where I had to be and focussed on the task in hand. The course had changed loads since practice with the formation of huge holes and ruts. Some of which helped to hold my line and some of which were to be avoided. I made some big errors on that run but I made some crafty improvisations and I’m really pleased to say that I took the stage victory.
To add some extra excitement, the organisation reseeded the riders in reverse order of their current position from the days racing so that the fastest rider would be the last person to leave to start gate. As with downhill racing, there was live timing for the final run so that the riders and spectators could see who had won the race as soon as everyone had crossed the finish line. The other intriguing feature about the last stage was that it counted for over 50% of the total race time which meant it was very long (15mins+ for the men and over 17mins for the women) and so required a serious amount of physical strength/endurance as well skill to be successful.
Amazingly I was the 3rd last rider to head up to the top of the hill for the final run. I modestly/jokingly suggested to the commissar that this was a mistake but he kindly pointed out that all of us were making mistakes that day. On reflection, my mistake in stage 1 wasn’t too bad and from there on in I was feeling confident and having fun. Once aboard, it was a long and lonely gondola ride. I tried my hardest to control my nerves and I honestly couldn’t decide on what to wear. I must have changed clothes 4 or 5 times on the way up: base layer on, base layer off, winter gloves, summer gloves, base layer on, neck warmer on, neck warmer off, base layer off, helmet on, goggles on… Let’s go!
I paced myself well for the physical aspects of the track and I tried to ride on the limit for the technical sections. I was totally wild in places – like a long controlled mistake from top to bottom. I think I rode as fast as I could considering how poor the visibility was but unfortunately it wasn’t quite good enough to hold off Remy Absalon who managed to claw his way into 2nd position. He finished the entire race with a final gap of just 5 seconds in front of me after 28 minutes of racing. So close. In the end I had to settle for 4th position. Despite just missing out on a medal, this is one of my proudest moments: to stand on the podium beside Remy Absalon and Jerome Clementz who took the first ever European Championship title. Congratulations sir!
I was also very happy to see my young teammate Raphaela, who is technically still a junior, receive the bronze medal on the Elite Women podium. Yet again there was a small gap to second place but she has many more Championship races to come in the years ahead. [/caption]It’s too easy to think about the ‘what ifs’. The word ‘if’ is such a big word in the world of sport and I try to use it as little as possible. I don’t like it when I ask another rider how their day was and all they can tell me about is how they lost time. The race is (hopefully) the same for everyone and we’re all human. I’m usually guilty of looking up the leader board to see how close the times are but it is amazing to see how close it is looking back down the table too. This weekend was especial challenging with so many variables and a true test for the riders. As far as I can tell it was a great success. I’m just happy to have been a part of it and I look forward to the next one…
Check out the previous parts of the series:
- Part 1: James Shirley – A Life On The Road
- Part 2: James Shirley’s Season Begins
- Part 3: James Shirley’s Trials & Tribulations
Words & Photos: James Shirley
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