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.