That at the European Championship there would have been a risk of arriving a bit tired was in the cards. 3 consecutive XTERRAs are difficult to manage. Recovery times must be managed well, very well in fact, and there is no time to train. You finish a race on Sunday afternoon, dead, because you gave it your all. On Monday you pay for the post-race waste. On Tuesday you try to start taking a few steps slowly again to reconnect with your muscles. On Wednesday you make peace with water and on Thursday with running. On Friday you are already praying so…time is running out.

But this was not the technical lesson at XTERRA Germany. The technical lesson was mountain bike maintenance. It is not easy, it is true, to do maintenance when you are on the road for three weeks without ever entering a workshop. It is not easy but it would be appropriate to organize yourself to do it. So on Saturday at 11.33 my European championship starts. The water says... good, but not very good. I swim in 28 minutes and 48 seconds, too much but it was not easy. Lots of people in the water and very little pace. The best is yet to come. As soon as I jump on my mountain bike, this time also mounted on FIR Fusion Lite front and rear, I feel in my legs the relaxation of someone who sees a road block with a beer in hand. Stiff. You don't even go to die. I decide to grit my teeth anyway and try to get to the end maintaining a decent pace. Providence takes care of getting me out of this embarrassment. First "broken" descent, off with the right gear lever. I lose both screws that hold it to the handlebars and find it dangling in the middle of the front rim. I retreat, no chance of putting it back, not even with the help of the firefighters who were nearby and who really wanted to get me going again. Nothing.
Moral: a tightening per month saves the race and the expenses.