First Race of the Year
The first race for some of the team’s 2015 campaign was to be
a marathon event in Denmark. The race is called ‘FitnessDK MTB Marathon’ and is
held in Slagelse in Denmark. Malin and myself have both raced 4 times and have
always enjoyed the event and course. This year we managed to fool Jessica into
coming with us with the promise of dry trails and a fun course. J
After some illness Malin decided not to take part, and
instead would be cheering us on with the help of our daughter Hilda, friend
Helen, and her daughter Isabel. Both Jessica and I would be competing in the
57km (3 lap) event, a more fun training event for me (the men’s full race event
being 78km – 4 laps), but the full distance race event for Jessica and the
other female competitors. Strange that the female category is shorter, as most
other marathon events the women ride the same distance as the men. Our new race
bikes having only just arrived were not ready for the race, so I was on my 29”
steel training bike, and Jessica on her 27,5” Wilier 401XB from 2014. We had
lots of Swedish company at the race this year, from the Fridhems Cykel crew,
Jonas Nilsson plus Benny and Carina. Always nice to see some familiar faces
before the start!
In the days leading up the race, the weather had been
abysmal, and the forecast for race day equally depressing. Plenty of rain
leading up, and then during the event would mean for a greasy course, regardless
of the fast draining soil in the area. On the journey from Lund we were not so
hopeful as the rain pounded the van, but to our surprise the weather did start
to brighten up a little and by the time we were stood on the start line just
before 10, there was no rain, just a little mist in the air.
I had a late toilet trip due to the queues which meant I
started quite far back in the 57km group. After the gun I passed lots of people
moving up to the lead group of roughly 6-8 riders by the end of the 4km gravel
tracks before entering the first singletrack. The pace wasn’t so high, and I
decided to sit in to start knowing that lasting the distance would be the
problem for me having trained mainly for XC distance races again this year. The
group stayed together apart from one guy who was keen to lead out alone at a
high pace, and he duly disappeared from sight.
The course had been changed in a few places since last year,
but was still a fun blend of fast, open gravel tracks, tight, twisty
singletrack and more open, fast singletrack. The course was quite muddy, but I
thought had held up well considering how many wheels were now rolling over it,
and how much water had fallen in the past 5-6 days.
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| Slippy, slidey, muddy fun |
Near the end of the lap comes several short sharp climbs, and
going into the singletrack before this on the first lap I found myself at the
front of the group. I decided to ride the windy trails at my own pace, and then
try to keep my pulse as low as possible on the steep ups. By the end of the lap
I had inadvertently pulled a good gap back to the group, and went through the
start/finish in 2nd place, not knowing how close my nearest rival
was. The plan from now was to try to hold a steady pace that I thought I could
keep up for what I was expecting to be 3 hours of racing. To me this feels
painfully slow when you know that you can go faster if you just push a little
harder on the pedals. Malin was not at the normal feed zone, and I could not
see our bottles, so I was forced to start the second lap with the same 750ml
bottle of Zipvit electrolyte that I started with.
The majority of the second lap was spent overtaking people in
the 4 lap event, and not really knowing who people were. Malin found me by the
second feed zone about halfway through, and I now had a new bottle of Zipvit
energy drink , plus a couple of Zipvit gels to keep me going. Just after the
feed I was caught and passed by a very young looking chap at quite a pace
making think that perhaps he was competing in the 2 lap event, so I let him go
without chase. It soon dawned on me when nobody else caught me that he could
have been in my race. A realisation that was confirmed at the end of the second
lap when the commentator announced that I had now dropped a position to 3rd
place!
Beginning the third and final lap I thought I would have to
forget my original planned pacing, and try to push and catch the young rider
again. No bottles were in view again, so I continued with the same one. Upping
the pace and missing a feed soon paid its toll, and after about 8km of the last
lap I started to feel cramp in my hamstrings. First in the right leg, and then
in the left. The long open fire-roads would then be taken at a somewhat reduced
pace, and I longed for the singletrack to start so that I could change position
on the bike and stretch out.
During the second lap I had caught and passed Benny Andersson
who was competing in the 4 lap event, he then caught up to me again as we
approached the steep climbs for the last time (for me at least!). We rode
together for some time, yo-yoing a little in the technical and/or pedally
sections. Me passing him where grip was scarce, him coming back where power was
needed. We then rode together to the finish line where I pulled off, and poor
Benny continued not realising that I was to finish this lap.
I crossed the line in 3rd, relieved that I had
managed to hold out with the cramps to the finish. Race time was 02:50 for me,
so not far off of my 3 hour guess. Altogether I was pleased considering that
this distance is not my strength, and in the XC time realms I felt like I could
push harder if I wanted to. I am now looking forward to building up the race
bike, and then competing in my first XC race to see how the form really has
built over the winter.
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| Podium mens 57km (3 laps) |
A big thank you to all our sponsors!
Bikeitaly
Wilier
SRAM
BONT
PRINTLOGIC
ZIPVIT
STAN'S NoTubes
Borgwarner
Moogio
Lundabyggdens Eltjänst
Vittoria
