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!! :-)