La Zeta Bike, Jura Alp Cup #1

After last weeks disappointment at the BMC Cup in Tesserete I was aiming to ride strong for the full duration for this one. The race was the first round of the Jura Alp Cup near Neuchatel and was not the same level as a BMC Swiss Cup but still a tough race with some strong riders.

The course was nice with the majority on forest roads but there was also some good single trail. A start loop and then a big loop with the longest climb and then two laps of a shorter finishing circuit were the format with a total distance of 28km.

Round the start loop I stayed out of trouble near the front and then surged a bit to take the lead as we headed out onto the big first lap. For a while I held a small lead over a group of about five riders and was considering easing off and letting them catch up as I was just dangling off the front and not really making much progress. However the race favourite Martin Fanger made a move and although I was unable to hold his wheel  no one else came up with him so I was confident that I was stronger as they would almost certainly be up there if they were fast enough. Martin slowly eased away and with so much road riding on the course I wasn’t too disappointed when I was joined by local Road/MTB racer Nicolas Luthi. We worked well together although I did most of the pace setting as I was keen to keep away from the chasing pack and was also using the day as a hard training session.

Over the last quarter of the race I attacked several times but found it hard to hold any decent gap and each time Nicolas was able to come back. Realising I wasn’t going to be able to get away and it was most likely going to end in a sprint I slowed up a bit and he had a go at attacking me. I now had his wheel and was fairly confident I would be able to match him in the finish. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, he kicked harder and I had to settle for third.

I am much more satisfied with this result. I still have a bit of work to do but I am on the right track. I am racing again next weekend at the BMC Racing Cup in Solothurn which will be a final hit out before my main target for this trip, the two World Cup rounds in May.