Taking the “winter-rust” off when the racing season starts is always a bit rough.

Every rider wants to feel that the time and energy invested in the off-season training was beneficial for race day preparation – such as riding countless hours at cold weather, burning brain cells while riding indoors, taking Rick Crawford’s spin classes at DSC, skiing, snowshoeing, lifting weights and hopping boxes, kick-boxing and more…Actually the one thing I didn’t do all this winter was riding my mountain bike on the trails. Even Moab was packed down with snow.

It’s now March and there’s no better place to be now than in Israel. Spring is a great time to ride in Israel – great weather, green scenery and 4 UCI races in two weekends. This weekend started with two great races back to back up in the north of Israel. The first race on Friday in Ma’alot confirmed what I expected; there were more European riders then Israeli riders on the start line for the Men Elite. Riders from Austria, Belgium, Russian, Germany, and Holland came to try and collect some UCI points while enjoying the warm climate.

The course in Ma’alot was really rocky and had many short steep climbs, no way to recover much or stick it into “cruise-control”… it’s definitely not an easy transition into the racing season. I had a good start-loop/first lap and I positioned myself along with the Austrian champion over second/third place, while another Israeli rider is leading solo upfront. On second lap I had a leaking rear tire in the back, which happened 100 meter after the technical zone. My father (my feeder/technical at the race) could see me stopping and he couldn’t do anything about it, as I’m not allowed to ride backward to the tech zone. I shoved a Geax sealant and kept on going. I had to do the same thing again after a few miles to get it fully sealed, but it saved me a flat that’s for sure. At that point, the Austrian champ gapped me and I continued riding myself, when at the last lap I caught the fading Israeli rider that dropped from first place and I gave him the “Rotem-Bomb” and finished second place with less than a minute behind the Austrian champ.

The day after (Saturday or Shabat) was the race in Misgav – my home course, yet far away from being a climber’s race. Five laps of ~5 miles each with lots of fast and technical trails in the Segev forest. The Israeli rider, Shlomi, got a good gap of about 50 seconds from lap one and I was kinda “stuck” with 4-5 other riders that sat on my tail when I was trying to bridge over for the lead. Tactics started shaking up on the last lap, and only Ben Sonntag (“Autoban”) and I were able to nearly close the gap to a few seconds from the leader. Ben got second and I got third, all within few seconds apart.

I got some UCI points for the world ranking and some sun-tan for my soul. Now I need some rest, because starting the season with two XC races back to back is rough. The weekend in Israel is Friday-Saturday, so Sunday here is like Monday in U.S., I can’t think about the last time I had a rest day on Sunday.

Next weekend is another back to back UCI races, this time I will try to conquer the top of the podium here, not easy starting the season with all those fast European guys here, but it will surely turn out to be beneficial along the racing season.

- Rotem