Race Report from SM (National Champs)

Well that was a pretty mental National Champs week/weekend.... mechanicals, late night driving, crashes, hospital visits. No offence to Värnamo but I don't want to go back for a while. ;-)

Malin and I drove up as early as Tuesday (Malin raced sprint on Thursday) so that she could try both the XCE and XCO courses. I stuck to my plan and did an interval session on Tuesday, a very easy spin on Wednesday. Only riding the course again on Thursday morning I took my last lap as my race prep session after Malin's qualifying run in the XCE.

Team tents for Musette/BMC and the Singletrack Sisters!

All felt good and I was looking forward to the next day. Until.... my Di2 decided it didn't want to play anymore. The system shut down on two separate occasions and I couldn't find anyone with the necessary equipment to do diagnostics during the afternoon. So, decision to change to Tobias' spare bike's mechanical SRAM group was made early evening, but while Malin was still racing nothing could be done till 21:00. After some time faffing, Tobias and I realised the rear mech hanger was direct mount, and his rear mech was standard. The extra hangers I had with me were also direct mount. So at 23:00, after some convincing/pep-talk by Tobbe (I have to admit with everything I'd put into this event, I was pretty distraught) we drove back to Lund to take the mech hanger from my spare bike.

2 hours in the car.... same hanger/problem again. In the car with the bike as a last resort, and a call to Christian who opened Musette for me at 1am, to get a hanger! Luckily like me he's used to no sleep with small children in the house. ;-) Hanger in hand Tobbe drove me back to Värnamo. In bed by 4:00. Up early the next morning I built the bike up again with the new hanger and the mechanical system. Now with a gripshift SRAM shifter, not ridden gripshift since 1995! The system worked great during the car park test though, and I didn't think I'd have any problems adjusting. 

The BMC FS01, now with mechanical gears - and with 90's throwback Gripshift! Sexy Amaton wheels!

10:00, bike ready, race is just after 12:00. Time to mix drinks, sort kit, get dressed and then ride up to the venue for my warm-up. Only now did I really start to reflect on the manic 12-18 hours and was just glad to be able to make it to the start line. Even if all my usual, and planned pre-race rituals both the night before and morning before had been missed completely or disrupted. The first silly mistake then came when I missed where I was supposed to come in to the start. I rode up to the start area twice, but saw nobody. So rode away again. Only on my last visit did I realise that I'd been checking the wrong place, and all my rivals stood on the start line already! NO! Missed call-up. Was seeded No. 3, but was therefore demoted to the last row. Seemed I wasn't the only one as seeded No. 2 Johan ('Limpan') was also on the last row. 

Now I was feeling stressed, and angry. I had to keep myself in check to not explode and ruin my race before it even started. 

Away almost last - then silly watts - Photo: Malin

The gun went, and I got hemmed in against the fencing on the right-side. Away dead last into the first corner. After the corner was a long wide gravel road. Here I rode like an idiot from last to first place. Haven't checked the power figures, but safe to say it was way over how I had planned to start and I was in the red by the time we reached the first singletrack. Just before entering the singletrack Jokke came by and stretched his legs. If there was more gravel road he would have disappeared but luckily the fast flowing trail suits me and I could close in before the first technical section was reached. He set a fast early pace and I sat on his wheel studying where he was fast and slow. I heard tyres behind me the whole time, and heard people cheering Johan. So Limpan also got a good start and was with us.

The first lap was over in a flash, and for both laps 1 and 2 Jokke and I shared the lead, but I was riding like it was the last lap. Overtaking and attacking in silly places, and wasting energy. Being so angry I felt like I had something to prove and could ride away from everybody. How wrong I was.

Pushing the pace on Liftgatan on lap 2 - way too hard too early - Photo: Lucas Axelsson

Lap 3 and Limpan came by to take the lead, my attacks had helped pull a gap to Jokke, although I later found out that he had also dropped his chain at some point. I sat on Johan's wheel for lap 3, and could ride his pace, although the legs were starting to feel a but strained already.

Lap 3 - Johan's turn to push the pace - Photo: Lucas Axelsson

Lap 3 - Johan still leading and a gap to Jokke - Photo: Lucas Axelsson

Out onto lap 4 and into the first singletrack I was close on the wheel still, perhaps too close as I clipped a tree with my left-hand and ended up sideways across the trail with both feet un-clipped. CRAMP! Ah! Left leg completely locked as my hamstring cramped up. Johan heard and saw that I had stopped so put in a strong attack and got 15-20s straight away as I struggled to straighten bike and body. I tried the best I could to stretch my leg, but the course is so demanding and technical that I just had to keep pushing as hard as possible without over-stretching and cramping again. The penultimate ascent of the long 'Liftgatan' climb was pretty painful with the cramping leg, and I remember letting out a scream at the top as I stood up to try to keep the speed up - all the while friends and family are screaming at me from the side of the trail.

Lap 4 seemed to take an eternity, I could see Johan just ahead in some sections, and seemingly a long way ahead in others. But I just could not push any harder. The beginning of the last lap, and the last climb were pure will power, my body had already called it a day. I knew now that it was going to be a fight to finish on the podium at all. I tried to keep my speed up as much as possible, but with the nature of the course it was tough to not lose time to Jokke, who caught and passed me with about 2km to go - like I was stationary I might add.....

Riding alone on lap 4/5, trying to keep the pace up - Photo: Lucas Axelsson

The last 2km to the finish I was looking behind more than ahead, not knowing who was there and how far back. Over the line. Finished, both mentally and physically. Jokke had even caught a fading Johan near the end, finishing only 10s back, with me a further 40s behind. Donaldh Andersson took a fantastic 4th behind me (good to see him getting back to form!).

Over the finish line - shoulders down by my knees

So, what have I learned from this race/weekend?

1. Know your equipment. I had no idea what to do when the Di2 had a fault. I know now.... But it's too late now.

2. Take spares with you (in this case the spare bike could have saved a lot of hassle, e.g. change of control box).

3. Respect your rivals. No matter how strong you feel, how well you think you've trained, the others have worked hard too. You can't just ride away from people at this level. A better tactical race had maybe seen a different result.

4. Be prepared, and have a mental list of your pre-race checks. E.g. Where is the start?!?!

Tomorrow is another day, next year is another SM. After Malin's crash (which she will blog about), my race was all but forgotten by Saturday afternoon, and racing didn't seem to matter as I stood by her in the hospital waiting for x-ray results while she was strapped to the back-board. 

Finished - where is my beer? - Photo: Malin

Podium Pic! - Photo: Malin

Weekends like this also really bring home why I love cycling and specifically mountain biking. The people. What fantastic friends we have from this amazing sport. Without Tobias and Christian I wouldn't have been on the start-line come Friday morning. Without Caroline, Felicia, Joakim, Carina, Amanda, Jens, Hannes and Felix, and Sandra's parents looking after the kids, tents, bikes, etc, Malin's crash would have been even more of a nightmare than it already was. A huge THANK YOU to all of you once again!

Well done Daddy - Photo: Malin

Another huge thank you too all my sponsors and supporters! Musette Malmö, BMC Switzerland, Fizik, POC, Tete de la Course, Amaton.