This time I even had the added pleasure of an injury from a fall on my lower back the week before. A visit to the physio on the Thursday before the race was a painful one, but Viktor at Lunds Fysioterapi knows his stuff and in his opinion I could race on Sunday. Albeit with the help of some painkillers. What with the hay-fever (allergy) tablets I also take at this time of year, I would be rattling over all the bumps!
I decided that if my back felt ok while practising the course on Saturday, then I'd race on Sunday. So we dropped the kids off with Mormor on Saturday afternoon and drove over to Holte, just north of Copenhagen for round 1 of the Danish national XC series, or SRAM Liga as it's known.
The course used parts of a course that Malin and I had ridden in 2014, and was 99% dry and fast rolling with good grip. Some steep and relatively long climbs were rewarded with some fantastic descents on DH style trails with bermed corners, drops, jumps, rocks and roots. The Danes know how to build courses, and I've not been disappointed with a course in this series yet! The back felt ok, and didn't hurt when pedalling, which is what I was worried about. The only twinges came when changing position on the bike, or hopping off while we rode and re-rode technical sections.
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| Malin back racing! Great to see. :-) |
So, let's do it. Painkillers for breakfast and off we go bright and early on Sunday morning. Felt strange to be loading Malin's bike onto the bike-rack and getting her kit ready too. Seems like so long ago she was racing too. Have to say it's cool to see her back on the bike and enjoying herself.
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| New POC Octal X helmet. Comfortable and super light. |
I was off first, so upon arrival I got changed (we'd already picked up numbers, etc on Saturday), and headed out for a nice long warm-up to give the back the best chance possible. I found some singletrack and some nice forest trails on the other side of the main road to the race to warm-up on. Straight away during the first efforts I could feel that I the legs were pretty empty. But I also thought there was a chance that I'd feel better once the race was underway. As has happened many times before! After the warm-up I headed to the start in good time ready for gridding and passed my Void softshell to Malin. Straight away I realised how cold it actually was without the windproof layer over the top of my race jersey. First time racing in my Musette jersey, and new POC helmet today. Have to say it's going to be a fantastic lid for the warmer days, as you can really feel the venting working even at lower speeds. The sign of a good helmet, shoes and saddle, in my books, is that you don't notice them while riding. Apart from the venting this was the case, super comfy and light.
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| Had a good battle with this guy on laps 3 and 4 |
I was gridded on the second row and got a good start straight up into second place. I made a conscious decision to sit in behind another guy as I knew a steep, tricky climb was coming straight after the start straight. This proved to be wise as I realised straight away on the climb that my legs were completely dead! No power at all on the climb and I struggled to hold his wheel and then really struggled to recover on the descent afterwards. From here on in I lost positions down to 8th where I stayed until lap 4, where I was passed by 2 guys who were looking strong. I thought that I would manage to hold 10th into the finish, but really struggled on the last lap and lost one more position on the very last climb before the finish. Absolutely nothing left to respond with so I just laughed as he passed me. He even came up to me and apologised after the finish, and we had a bit of a laugh at how dead I was. So, 11th place overall wasn't really what I was hoping for, but bearing in mind I wasn't sure I'd be racing at all, I guess I should be pleased. Also checked to see how many other H30 riders were ahead, and I would have been 5th in that race, which feels a bit better than 11th. ;-)
So, the first race of the year was in other words one to forget. Or perhaps not.... Perhaps one to remember and learn from instead? Onto next week for round 2, also in Holte, only a different part of the woods!
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