Race Report!

 

Sunshine Cup Afxentia Stage Race 2008 – Machaieras Mountains, Cyprus

 

Results…

 

Paul Beales		Stage 1 – Point to Point		Elite		48th
Paul Beales		Stage 2 – MTB TT		Elite		29th
Paul Beales		Stage 3 – MTB Race		Elite		43rd

 

 

It’s the beginning of March and for the third year running Paul flew out to sunny Cyprus to compete against the top Mountain Bikers in the world in the Sunshine Cup. 

 

A picture of concentration on a fast descent…

 

It has become tradition for the team to use the Sunshine cup as part of there pre-season build up and this year was no different except it was just Paul and Will who took the 4 hour flight south accompanied by Billy-Joe Whenman of team Marin UK, Luke Smith of Whyte Racing and Matt Stevens of AW Cycles.  After Will injured himself in training shortly before the trip it was just Paul who took to the start line for the three day event with Will giving him all the support he needed from the technical area.

 

The boys had time for a quick photo with the Red Bull girls before starting the race…

 

Day one saw the point to point race, a 50 kilometre course starting with a fast road start, some short ups and downs before hitting the long singletrack climb and then descending down the steep technical descent to the finish via a cheeky up hill close to the finish!  Paul started steady, climbing well and keeping things controlled bearing in mind it was the first of three tough stages.  He finished in a reasonable 48^th position in a time of 2:09:27 amongst an extremely good field of riders. 

 

Paul working hard on a steep climb…

 

The second stage saw the riders take on one lap of the Mountain bike course in a Mountain bike Time-Trial, the riders going off at one minute intervals trying to get round the tough course as quickly as possible.  The lap started with a long fire road climb, followed by a very steep, tough descent before climbing again, then descending through some more loose twists and turns into a short, steep singletrack climb before heading onto some quick fire road towards the finish area and kicking up a punishing steep climb in the final 500 metres then down over the bridge to the finish.  Time Trialling is one of Paul’s strengths and he went into the race confident and came away with a very respectable time of 23:38 placing him 29^th on the day.

 

The start was fast and furious with plenty of dust…

 

The final day was the mountain bike race and saw some extra riders fly in to join the party as 60 cyclists of all nationalities took to the start line on a hot Sunday afternoon.  The pace was set early on by Roel Paulisson and Fredrik Kessiakoff as they went powering up the first climb at a blistering speed.  But it was not to be there day as the race was eventually won by Jaroslav Kulhavy.  Paul again got off to a steady start and soon got into a fantastic rhythm passing some very good riders as he made his way through the field.  The aim beforehand was to complete all five laps plus the start loop without being lapped and he was on course until puncturing at the end of lap 3.  A quick fix and he was on his way again but was unable to get through before being lapped by the powerful Jaroslav Kulhavy.

 

A tired looking Monkey after the third stage...

 

 

 

Eventually finishing, shattered, in 43^rd position, Paul was very happy with his efforts… “It was a strong field of 60 world class riders and to beat 17 of them was a great achievement at this stage of my career”.

 

 

Our two travelling Monkey’s plus our good friends Billy-Joe Whenman, Luke Smith and Matt Steven

 

It was then into the hills as the boys took to the hills for a weeks training.  It proved to be a valuable trip which could be crucial in the preparation of both riders as they look to there domestic targets for 2008.