Mattie Dodd journal #15: back from illness – rediscovering rhythm and racing joy

Our longest-running journal contribitor, third-year under-23 Mattie Dodd rides for the UCI Continental Tirol-KTM development team, and is supported by the Rayner Foundation. In his latest post, Mattie describes his return to racing after seven months off due to Epstein-Barr virus.

Long time, no see! It’s been a while since my last piece on here. After a long seven months being completely knocked out by Epstein-Barr virus, among others, I’m back into the swing of things and racing again. I’m not going to go much further into the time I was off, mainly because it wouldn’t be great to read nor is it great to write about. So let’s focus on the positive stuff that isn’t going to put anyone to sleep – or at least I hope not.

I won’t lie, I was pretty nervous beforehand. It had been over 9 months since I last raced and I wasn’t sure how I’d react

I’m three races into the season now. I kicked off in Slovenia later than usual at the GP Adria Mobil. I won’t lie, I was pretty nervous beforehand. It had been over nine months since I last raced and I wasn’t sure how I’d react. In the end, it turned out that my legs were in a much better place than I thought with the limited base miles that they had in them. The early, longer climbs didn’t prove to make a lasting difference, with the dropped riders coming back. That meant a bunch sprint into Nove Mesto city centre that saw me give my best Mark Renshaw impression – dropping off our sprinter (an Olympic track rider no less) with a kilometre to go and getting out of the chaos.

Racing in Slovenia did give me my yearly dose of Yugoslav death tarmac though. I thought I was missing that for the year having missed the early season races in Croatia, but it found a way to haunt me. When I say this road surface is sketchy, I mean you literally can’t get out the saddle on it when it’s wet without slipping. It seems to be unique to that area of the world, and crops up when you least expect it. One minute, you trust your tyres as normal, the next half the bunch is spontaneously sliding across the road. It is entirely unfit for purpose, but I suppose adds a bit of extra entertainment for those watching.

The weekend after, I found myself undertaking my first foray into gravel. A call had gone round in early February asking if anyone wanted to do the round of the Gravel World Series in Austria as a few of our sponsors were keen for us to race. I put my hand up, foolishly thinking it would be a gentle introduction back into racing. Don’t get me wrong, it was good to do a race with less pressure and a sizeable element of novelty, but it was far from gentle. The 2024 course had been perfect on 32mm tyres, so naively we turned up with those, only to find out the changes made to the course meant 32mm tyres made things, well, interesting. Cue a mad scramble as we hunted around town to find some 35mm gravel tyres – the biggest we could fit in last year’s road bikes that we’d transformed into Frankenstein’s gravel steeds.

I had no expectations going into the race… it was a nice surprise to find out I qualified for World Champs

My second display of extreme naivety was failing to appreciate how important the start was. Being a road rider by trade, the start is less commonly an area of extreme importance, so I lined up about two-thirds of the way down the bunch. My stupidity then became quickly apparent as we hit single track after 5km and there were 80 riders ahead of me. That started two hours of chasing before I eventually found myself in the second group on the road, after the first had disappeared while I was unclipped behind a traffic jam up the narrow first climb. Losing a few positions on the final technical descent, I ended up in 24^th. To be honest, I had no expectations going into the race so I don’t really have an opinion on that result, but it was a nice surprise to find out I qualified for World Champs. Despite my previous opinions about gravel racing, I have to say I can definitely see the appeal and I may or may not find myself doing more this year…

The most recent race, yesterday as I write this, was Trofeo Citta di San Vendemiano 1.2U – a bit of a mouthful, I’m aware. The final 60km saw five ascents of the Muro di Ca’ del Poggio – Italy’s answer to the Muur-Kapelmuur. In fact, the town is twinned with the Mur de Bretagne and Geraardsbergen itself. Five ascents of 1.2km at 12.7% had the expected results on the peloton with riders all over the road going over the top. I finished in the second group of twenty or so behind a break of ten riders. Any disappointment over my result was quickly whisked away after finding out my teammate Marco had taken the win! It was a super strong ride from him and was great to be part of it. It’s not a secret that the first few races have been pretty disappointing for us as a team, so this really gave everyone a confidence boost after we’d worked well together on the day. While it may have been a brilliant ride though, his prosecco-popping skills were utterly appalling, so we may have to work on that.

More than anything though, it’s just great to be back racing and doing what I love

That’s been my start to the season then. I’m pleasantly surprised where my legs are at given the winter was far from ideal. More than anything though, it’s just great to be back racing and doing what I love. My next race is a 1.2 in Austria on May 1^st. The team is on a high after the weekend, so there’s definitely confidence to carry on that streak in our home country.