Feeling stronger by the day

Last weekend Malin and I were up at round 2 of the Swedish National series, a UCI C1 race in Vårgårda, just north-east of Gothenburg. The race was also announced as being the 2017 Nordic Championships (Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland being Nordic countries).

With this race being a qualification round for the National Champs I'd written it in as a B-race, so coach Rob had changed the lead-up to include a good taper. This seemed to work as I was feeling stronger and stronger leading up to the race itself, and by the weekend I was feeling good, and ready to compete.

We decided to drive up on Sunday morning and check out the new bits of the course before the first races started, seeing as both Malin and I would be racing in the afternoon. The week before had promised reasonable weather, and most importantly no rain. Later in the week the forecast seemed to be changing by the hour, but by Sunday it was time to ignore the forecast, and pack the rain clothes as the weather had changed for the worse. All the journey up was through various rain showers and heavy downpours. Arriving at the venue in rain was also a bit of a disappointment, other than the fact that I knew this would help me with the pollen!

Malin lining up with a few world champions in the spitting rain

Malin's race was first, and I was standing in the feed-zone with bottles for her. A few rain showers during her race meant that all were coming by looking dirty and some had obviously had a bit of a lie-down judging by the state of them. But by all accounts, it seemed that the course was actually holding up ok.

Not much time was now left from Malin's last bottle and the start of my race. So I quickly returned to the tent, threw on my kit and out on the bike to get warmed up. I managed a total of about 20 minutes before they started calling people up for our races. That's when I learned that due to the large field of H40 riders, they would be starting one minute ahead of us! Oh, that could be interesting! I started from the back, but knew that shouldn't be a problem as long as I got a reasonable start on the first long climb. What I wasn't expecting was that even before the top of the hill, we would catch up with the stragglers in the H40 field. The start loop was a bit more technical that previous years, including the new descent of the ski-hill. Which in hindsight wasn't really the best decision by the race organisers - and perhaps the start loop would have been better ridden down a slalom on the ski-hill, as in previous years. The traffic jam with horrendous, with riders walking and falling over all around.

The loose right-hander caught a few people out, especially during the start loop!

The first two laps were therefore pretty stressful and we spent a lot of time sprinting to overtake H40 riders - not such a good strategy for the race! I had gone out from the start way too hard, and led up the first climb - producing my best ever 1 minute power in the process. Then for the whole of the first lap, due to a short warm-up and the stupid start, I was really in oxygen debt! The lungs were burning like hell and the cardio system was lagging behind my fresh feeling legs! Early on I moved down from the lead and then being passed by two more riders by the end of the second lap I was sitting in 4th place. Around about that time I started to feel good again and could push on again. In the process I caught and passed third place who looked to be struggling, then during the third lap I caught 2nd spot again and was with him by the start of the 4th. As I had seen him on the third lap I knew where I had gained time, so had already decided where I would attack on the lap. It was a short, sharp, steep climb with lots of rocks and roots which is difficult to clear without a foot down. There is a kind of B-line, which is about 10 seconds slower, which I had seen the other rider take on lap 3. So, I had to ride the climb well, and quickly, with a good strong section after too in order to make the attack stick!

It did, and out on to the tarmac that denotes the last bit of the main climb I had gained a gap of about 10 seconds. I climbed hard out of the saddle with the Fox suspension locked-out and didn't look back. The next section was some tricky descending where I knew I was faster, a sharp climb where he could probably close in again, then another tough descent, a jump, then the flat section to the finish. I rode all way to the finish without looking back as hard as I could. Only realising I had a good gap on the last straight where I could let up. Over the line, completely finished!

White men can't jump - and oh so white I am.... ;-)

Had good fun, but was a little frustrated with the silly start, and the traffic earlier in the race. Silly rookie errors shouldn't be happening when I've been racing for so many years!! Still, on to the next race, and we have a good gap in between where we have visits from England, hopefully a visit to the National Champs course, and by the looks of things, finally some half decent weather!! :-)

Finding my legs again

So round 2 of the Danish National MTB series was only a week after round 1, and was also in Holte, just 15mins away from round 1, and only an hour from home again. Not much time to recover from the physical and mental beating I was handed at round 1.

Another tough week of training, with only 1 rest day on Wednesday, I felt pretty knackered while carrying out my race prep session on Saturday afternoon. Normally we'd be at the venue testing the course the afternoon before, but the race organisers had sent a message out asking people to refrain from training on the course until Sunday in order to spare it a thrashing due to the horrendous amounts of rain that fell on Copenhagen on Friday/Saturday.

A kit explosion in the car before starting my warm-up

The course felt short, and compared to last year and a couple of really nice trails had been removed due to the weather. Some other sections of trail that are built on more sustainable ground were thrown in instead, and some of them were actually really good fun. Some other sections were still pretty wet and slippy, but for me that's just even more fun!

After a good long warm-up I stood on the start-line ready for round 2, even the legs got an airing! The temperature was well in the double figures for probably the first time this year. A nice feeling!

On the startline, soaking up the rays!

The start gun went and I got swamped. Didn't make the best start, and the first few corners were tight before we were out onto the wide gravel tracks for a long loop before the first singletrack. I actually felt pretty good in the legs, and could therefore push my way back up the field, and crossed the line 6th after the first lap. Over the next two laps things felt great and I worked my way up to 2nd place, and by the feed zone I got a report that I was only 30s behind the leader. The guy in third stuck on my wheel, and I probably should have stayed with him and worked together, but instead tried to attack and get away. We rode together for the 4th lap, and then when he attacked at the beginning of the 5th I started to feel the fatigue hit me and couldn't respond. From there on out I was just holding on to the finish, passed by several others as I slowed and lost time on the pedally bits. I managed to hold 5th place's wheel on the last climb and we rode into the finish close to each other but I had nothing left to go round before the line.

We Brits love a bit of mud!

So, an improvement over last week. Both in the official total (6th) and the unofficial old-boy's race (2nd). Pretty happy with the speed when it was there, and beat a good few that finished ahead just a week before. Think the hayfever was helped by the wet weather, but hopefully things will start to settle from here on out in any case.