Warren Bates MTB: August - and the summer that never was summer

Bit of a dodgy summer this year. It can be summed up as, grey and lukewarm. Trails never totally dried out, never really hot. Just very 'lagom'. You English speakers will have to look up that very Swedish of words.

After the weekend of the national champs we had a break from everyday life, and from training. For me it was by choice, for Malin it was enforced due to her crash. A week on Gotland allowed us to chill and spend time with the kids. It felt like it was much needed for the motivation to return too after the challenging weekend before.

Unstructured training on the quiet roads of Gotland

Back home to Lund and time for some testing, then onto the CX training in earnest as the season begins already in September. Race dates for the national series, local series and the National champs have all been released, and so the cross season is now planned!

- 23-24/9 - Rävlanda CX trophy and cup races
- 15/10 - MusetteCross
- 28-29/10 - Malmö CX trophy and cup races
- 19/11 - MusetteCross
- 9-10/12 - Lund and Helsingborg CX trophy races
- 31/12 - MusetteCross
- 13-14/1 - National CX Champs in Gothenburg!!

As for MTB races since the National champs I've had some great results and great fun events. The inaugural Musette 6-hour took place on 12/8, and was a great success. The day after was round 4 of the Danish national series in Silkeborg. A marathon race fairly local to home called Snapphaneturen was on the 20/8, then round 6 of XCup was in Malmö on the Rainbow Track on the 27/8. So actually a fairly intense few weeks!

Musette's inaugural 6-Hour race: The smile says it all!

The form left from the Nationals meant that I've had some good results too. First came a closely fought win as a team of 3 with my good friends Tobias Olsson and Phille Nilsson in the Musette 6-hour. When I say close, I mean close.... 5 seconds after 6 hours of racing! Tobias and I did the early work as both needed to leave early due to other commitments, meaning Phille would be riding the last hour on his own! So as it was, Tobbe and I missed all the excitement of the last few laps where the Musette team hauled us in to finish within spitting distance at the line. The race was a fairly small affair for the first test of the event which Musette hope will grow, but the atmosphere was superb, friendly and fun racing on an ever changing course as the weather went from rain to sun several times. I rode my new training bike in this race, a BMC TeamElite 01, which is new for me as I've been riding fully suspended for the last 2 1/2 years. The softtail is a great comprimise of weight, comfort and speed. I really enjoyed riding this bike, with it's sharp handling and quick response. It's nice to be back on a hardtail too, feels like you have to work for your speed a little more. But I also think you become a better rider when training on a hardtail.

The new TeamElite - a rather nice 'Training' bike

The same day we drove to Silkeborg with Sandra from Malins team in order to test the course for SRAMLiga (Danish National Series) the following day. We had read all the forecasts and were prepared for a nice warm, dry Denmark. How wrong we were! On arrival we realised that the area has received a lot of rain both in the days leading up to the weekend, and also on Saturday. When Sandra and I finally arrived at the venue (after some sightseeing in Silkeborg courtesy of her phone GPS! ;-) ) we were greeted with a mud bath! Even the start/finish area was tricky to move around in. The lap was tough to say the least. I counted at least two places where I'd probably be off and running if the ground didn't dry out by Sunday. This would be the first outing for my new 2018 race bike. A BMC FourStroke 01 One, and boy what a debut for that bike!

As it turned out, the course did improve. But only slightly! More rain overnight had not helped, but sun in the morning had helped to make a small difference. I decided to go out fairly easy and see how the legs felt after the previous day's efforts and settled in to 2nd place with the series leader just behind. Onto the second lap I caught the leader and had pulled away from third place, then with some good old British mud riding I pulled a gap for the rest of the race in the slippy conditions as the others struggled to find grip. On race day there was only one climb that wasn't rideable, and the CX training helped me to gain time even there. The legs were shot by the end of the race, but I was relieved to take the win, and also move into the series lead with one round left to go! The new bike felt pretty similar to the 2017 one (good for me having not ridden it before this weekend!) apart from the small changes in suspension, brakes and gears. But I have to say the biggest difference to the hardtail ridden on Saturday was the wheels. I had my Amaton race wheels on the fully, and boy what a difference to the original DT Swiss wheels. So light, stiff and sharp. They really helps to make the bike feel fast and responsive, even if it is a fully!

A win in Silkeborg, and now the series lead with one race left

The following weekend I hadn't really planned to race, but after some persuasion by Magnus I agreed to accompany him to Snapphaneturen, but decided to only ride the open class instead of senior men racing category. The race organised by Hässleholms Cykelklubb is a tough one, and although ONLY 60km, is mainly singletrack, and pretty tough trails. Not a high average speed, and not so many spots to rest on. We took an easy start and I had agreed with Magnus that he would try to stay with me as long as he was comfortable. The start loop was pretty hectic, with riders taking lines all over the place, and lots of traffic and stopping, so already there we lost sight of each other. From there out I just rode to have fun and enjoy the trails. The legs felt good, and the new TeamElite and I had become good friends so I really enjoyed chucking it about on the tough singletrack. With about 15km to go I still felt pretty fresh so decided to push on to the finish at a higher pace. I'd already been passing a lot of riders, but in those last 15km the pace of those being passed had increased and I'd also caught a lot of the race classes. The last 1km was pretty cool as I caught and then out-sprinted 2 riders in to the finish, not realising at all that I'd actually worked my way up to 3rd place in open! My time was ok too, and would have given me a top 30 in the race category. I almost wished I'd raced and tried a bit harder. But still, I had a great time, and I can highly recommend this fantastic event.

Some of the Musette MTB crew after Snapphaneturen

The last of 3 weekends in a row was XCup, again on the Rainbow track in Malmö. This time we had some pretty bad weather, and during the race the race the course went from wet, to wetter, to bog! Luckily for me I love those conditions, so I took the win from my Musette team-mate Philip after taking the lead early on the start loop. It was a really tough race due to the conditions, and during the last lap I had a minimum of 4 fairly heavy crashes into thorn bushes or trees. The bruises, scratches and masses of mud in my eyes took a good few days to get over! Contact lenses and muddy races are never easy going!

The glasses lasted about a lap, then it was 'safety-squint' time. Mud-fest!

BMC and Musette were also at the XCup race showing the new 2018 bikes and in particular the new Agonist that I had a go on round the now drying track. First impressions were very positive, and I especially liked the new geometry of this bike and the stable feeling it gave. The suspension wasn't set up for my weight, but initial feelings were good with good small bump response and a plush feeling. I look forward to trying one in anger at a later date! Could be the XC race weapon of choice if XC courses keep developing the way they have over the last few years with technical sections, jumps and rock-gardens. Thanks to Musette for the 'proper' coffee after the race to warm my hands. A great addition to have those guys there at an already great XCup event.