Alicia’s Worlds Race Recap

“I raced my first Worlds event on Wednesday and you could say that it was one that I will never forget. I did not race until 2:00 and by that time in the day it was about 90 degrees with lots of humidity. I have never raced in those types of conditions and when training I usually try my hardest to not ride when it is like that out. But, since I could not change the race time I just had to go with it. Warming up I stuffed an ice bag down my jersey to keep myself cool before the start, it helped some but not enough, I was still crazy hot. The call up to the start line was the coolest call up I have been in. The staging area was out of sight of the start line. They started to call riders names in about 5 second intervals, once a name was called each rider would ride down the grass to the start line. During this whole time there was really dramatic music playing, it kind of reminded me of the music that was played in Harry Potter during one of the quidich matches. I was the 5^th rider called up which was really exciting. Elke waited for me at the start where she had a cooler full of ice and cold towels which I used to try and cool myself down before the start because I was already so hot. One the gun was shot and we started the race everybody sprinted as hard as they could to the first turn of the course. The course started out fairly simple but before long we where starting the first climb which was really steep and got super clogged up. At the top of the hill it veered off into the trees and the technical section began. However, even though I rode this part in my pre-ride the trail was so congested that I had to run. About half way through the start loop I started to really over heat and I got the chills and feeling all shaky but I ignored that and kept riding. As the race progressed the field split up more and more so it was much easier to ride the course. This course was the most technical one have ever done and probably one of the most technical trails in general. On my second lap on the side of the trail was a girl passed out with heat stroke. At that point the heat was starting to really get to my also. As I was riding I was feeling very sick and light headed but every time that I got off my bike to run a section that feeling intensified by 5 so I tried my hardest to ride everything.  At that point in the race I was not trying to make up any positions because but just to maintain the pace I was going. The girl that I raced with from Chili was riding right with me and we were going back and forth the whole time I would get ahead on the climb and she would get me on the finish. However, on the last lap she never came by on the downhill. The finish of that race was one of the most relieving feelings ever. I was starting to get really light headed and dizzy on my last lap, making stupid mistakes and riding off the course a little. When I finished I tried to get off of my bike but as soon as I stood up I was overwhelmed with the feeling that I was going to pass out. So I just sat on my bike for a little while Mark was pouring bottles of cold water on me. The feeling only got worse so he called over the team doctor and the two of them helped me into a chair where I had ice and cold towels piled on me. While I was sitting the doctor informed me that I was suffering from heat stroke. I was super relaxed until my arms went numb and I could not move my fingers, after that I started to get a little bit worried. I had to lay by the finish tent a little over an hour with ice bags all over me. However, my body temperature was still extremely high. Therefore I was moved back to my hotel room and put in to the bathtub with four bags of ice. After about 45 minutes of that I was finial able to stand on my own and walk around. Even though I did not get the result I wanted I was still very pleased that I finished the race in the top 20. Now that I am done racing I can just relax for the rest of the week and watch the races.” -AliciaRose Pastore