Season opener in Denmark
It is 1.30 in the night, and I can’t sleep, so this is a good time for writing my blog. The late time of day can excuse all my spelling mistakes. Well today was the first race in the danish race season, and we had a kickoff with international cat2 race. Today was also the first day in my new team-outfit of the join-venture of Rumen Voigt and me. So today was a kind of a start of new thing, so I must admit I was a bit nervous, but everything went as it should, Rumen did a good seasonstart and finished 24th, maybe not his best result, but now he is started and can move on. I have already had several starts this year, so race pace was’nt too big a problem. Well, I was the one setting the pace, and winning the race. Did I mention that we had 4 degrees and rain, and a lot of running?
So now I am sitting here sleeples, which is actually pretty common for me, espescially after racing, I think it has something to do with all the reflections and impressions of a day like this. I haven’t mentioned my bike in this blog, but I can say that it worked problemless, it seems like I’ve found the right setup, and it did its job without any problems at all, despite the severe muddy conditions. Tomorrow there will be lots of cleaning….
So close, but yet far away!
This was my last day in training camp in Cyprus. This wa being celebrated with a race of course. Everything has actually been going my way, training has been good, the course suits me, and my bike suits the course just perfect. The course had relative short climbs, but very steep, and some cool decents, with nice rockgardens. So the scenarie was set. Before the start I had small accident with a puncture and a small argument with an uci-commisaire about starting position, but nothing that could spoil my day. Well I started out in position 40, and after the start loop I think I was somewhere the same. These starts tend to be faster and faster. Slowly I started to work my way up through the field, I definatly had an advantage of my suspension on this rocky course. I the end of second last lap I had a rear-wheel puncture, well, my wheel got torn completely apart, sad as I was in 8-10th position an moving forward. So everything was a kind of wasted work. But hey, now I know my form is in the right place, but it would have been nice though with a good result. Tomorrow I will go back to Denmark, and do my last training before the Danish season-opener. I can guarantee the I will do my best to get a top finish there.
A good start is’nt always half the job!
Dear friends, as I told you earlier I have planned to update my blog i bit more often, so that is what I am doing right now. I am still in training-camp in Cyprus, which I of course enjoy. Last weekend I did a small stage-race here in Cyprus, or rather, I did some of a stage race. First stage was a time-trial of apx 25 minutes. On race-day rain was pooring down, and temperature was dropped to about degrees. Normally i do a lot of warming-up, but in this weather it would be more like cooling-down, so I decided to stay in the car, with the heater on for 2 hours before the start, watching the other guys outside, trying to warm up. Normally I hate starting out with cold legs, but I thought, hey it is only 20 minutes of pain!
2 minutes before my start I made my move and jumpe don the bike and dropped the hammer. Boy I felt terrible, slow and heavy legs. I was pretty sure I had done a time in the heavy end of the results list, so I was surprised when I saw I did 11th best time. Well, back to the car. This day I only had 23 minutes of training, but I was a wreck in the evening anyway. Next stage was a point to point race, in freezing cold again, but the course made a bit up for it, it was really cool. I got dropped after 40 minutes in the front group, and thought that I would be alone the rest of the day. Later on I got cought by young-gun Thomas litcher, and we teamed up and started to catch some of the riders from the frontgroup. On the highest point of the course i dropped Thomas, and since it was downhill almost to the fininshline I thought I was homesafe. But this guy is furious, I have never seen anything like this on hardtail, he just past me like I was parked in a parking lot. I must admit that I was really impressed of this guys riding technique.
I ended up in 18th spot. The day after was i typical xc race, on a cool course. Only problem was that I fucked up my head the day before, and did not get any sleep, could not concentrate, and abandoned the race midway. Alway keep your mind on what you are doing. So now I will try and do my best to make up for it in the upcoming weekend.
back again!
Hey Folks!
This time I promis that my blog will be updated a lot more often. Raceseason is right around the corner, which gives me something to write about. Well season is actually started right now. At this very moment I am in Cyprus for training camp, and, yes you have guesed rigth, Cyprus Sunshine Cup.
I actually like winter, as long as it is freezing and snow, and it was actually really cool that we almost had a white christmas. But now, apx 1 month before european season kickoff it would have been nice with some + temperatures. But winter will not take an end, so I desided to go to Cyprus for a couple of weeks of training and racing, to get a way from the snow-masses. But since all europe is covered in snow, I am not the only euro-pro visiting cyprus. So there is a lot of people here I know, and it is nice to see everybody again. The races here are a bit harder than normal as well. So this is a good opportunity to test my form. Well, it was already testet in the labor back home, and the tests showed that I have never been stronger in a January test before, but one thing is testing, another is racing. Last weekend was first race here, and I did a 15th spot, from a starting-position of 76, so that was good for me. Today was first day of a 3 day stage-race, and I did 11th spot. It was a time-trial in heavy rain, and to be honest I felt slow and like crap. But in some way or another i managed to go fast. Tomorow will be a point to point race. I don´t have a clue about the course, so it will be a kind of a surprise race, you never know what´s around next corner. Stay tuned!
Klaus
Heaven on earth.
Once again I can start my blog by saying, long time no hear. Normally when I say that, it is due to being too busy, but this time I have actually been busy doing nothing. Well at this time of year circus mtb makes their biggest stunt of the year by throwing all the cards up in the air, nobody knows where they will be for the next season, it allways gives everybody some uncertainess, and this year was no mistake, same procedure as last year.
The uncertainess is the uncoolest part of the bike-business, and for me it sometimes can take a toll. This year it was extreme, and the toll it took on me was extreme, so I really had some bad days, and the biggest support is my longtime girlfriend. Writing my blog was’nt highest priority.
It this moment things starts to brighten, and the big puzzle starts to show a picture, it is definatly not that everything is set, but the biggest bricks are there, and that’s the most important.
I have also started training again, well I did’nt actually stop, I hate not using my body, but now I have started training after planned programmes again.
This weekend was pretty tight sceduled, and right now it is a quarter past midnight tuesday, and the weekend is’nt over. It started saturday morning where I did a training-clinic with a danish mtb-club, after that I went home, changed clothes, packed a clean bike in the trunk and went to Osnabrück Germany. Sunday morning I teamed up with our Netherland-dirstributor, to make a presspresentation for the dutch market, it was pretty cousy, and we made some good footage on some cool local trails, the day ended close to midnight. Sunday morning I went training in Germany, I was pretty tired, so discovering a small bit of heaven on earth was the big prize of the day. The trails of Bad Iburg (osnabrück) is unknown, but really worth the effort to visit. That gave me some extra energy, and some inspiration to this blog. After training I packed the car and drove to Hamburg and stayed the night.
Tuesday morning, really morning, I went by plane from Hamburg to stuttgart to meet some new interesting people for our company, and have coffee with my old teammate Jochen Käss. Jochen has made a Barista course, and now makes the best coffee in town. I also had some good time with my long time friend and mechanic Eddy, who was kind enough to drive me around to the people I needed to see.
21.40 I flew back to Hamburg to pick up my car and go home, and here I am 00.36 wednesday, sitting on the ferry, waiting to do the last stint of driving.
Pheeew, time goes by.
Gentlemen, start your engines!
Testing the T2T
I haven’t really been riding a hardtail lately cause I am really satisfied with my fully. But in this part of the season (offseason) I like to experiment a little, so I have decided to make some testing on our T2T hardtail, and compare some laptimes on my hometrails to my fully. I tested the T2T almost 2 years ago as a prototype, backthen I was a hardtail puritan, but things have changed. Now it was time to ride the production model, build with the same choice of components as my fully. Off I went, boy this thing accelerated from the parkinglot, but as soon I hit the trail things got a little more shaky… There is no doubt that a ultrastiff and light hardtail like this is the hammer when climbing, but doing sharp turns and descending got pretty freightning. I went home again to change wheels for something more voluminous with bigger knobs to compensate. Things got a little better, and I tried to do a couple of laps on my training course, a typical hardtailcourse. At the end of the day it was time to try and do a couple of fast laptimes, they all ended up in around 17.50. Normally i do around 17.35-17.45 on my fully. Maybe I am not fit anymore, and the fully makes more fun to ride, so next day I hit the same trail with my fully, with 17.35 as a result again. So I am pretty sure what my choice would be. With my fully I can ride smaller tyres, and smaller knobs, which all gives lighter and better accelerating wheels. So overall on a course like this I think I am better off with my fully. I will of course be testing all winter in all conditions to figure out under witch conditions I will ride different setups.
sparetimefun
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Racingseason is over, so now it is time for some racing… This is me and my friends having fun….
Gaining power!
Ending the season early has turned my everyday up and down. Training is held on a minimum, apx 3-4 days on the bike per week. I’ve now started powertraining in the gym, 2-3 times a week I am doing some wheigt lifting, it feels a kind of good to do something else, and it has a great effect on the looks of my body as well! But it is not only for the looks, there is actually a bigger masterplan. It is 2 years since I’ve done wheigtlifting, I stopped doing it to loose some wheigt on my upper body. I have lost a little, but nothing compared to the power I have lost. So now I will try to re-gain some of my musclepower over winter. I have decided not to fight against my body, in the last couple of years I’ve tried to turn my power-rider body into a mountain-gazelle, without luck, so now I am giving in, and giving it all powertraining-stimulation it wants, and then see how I will benefit from it. I am looking forward.
marselisborg mtb marathon, and some party…
Tresist the o make a short story even shorter, I could’nt resist the opportunity to do a small marathonrace, held on some of the most beautifull trails of Denmark. I actually went there to do some good trailriding, but suddenly I found myself alone in the front with “very strong man” Henrik Andersen, this guy is what we call a “diesel engine”, so he did some serious pulling that took its toll on me, so when he suffered from chainproblems I had to go for it, and took victory in a discipline that i normally don’t favour too much. In the evening I wen’t to The Red Baron’s 30 years birthdayparty, it was even harder than racing! People who knows this guy, knows that he is the man for throwing a party, so he did, and basicly everybody from the danish cycling society where there. Now I am really recovering on the couch…
Progress
Riding my bike haven’t been that joyfull the lately, but now there is a sudden but small change. The medicine that I’ve got i starting to work, meaning that breathing comes more easy. So a couple of days ago I decided to try some hard training, and it felt real hard, but in the right way! In training there is good and bad pain. The bad one is when your legs are heavy, acid comes with a mnimum of effort and/or breathing is is difficult. Good pain is when the legs runs like drumsticks, and you are able to continue with a burning feel in the muscles… Well, the last couple of days my muscles where burning.
Even my trainer would have been proud, because I managed not to kill myself in the euphory of good legs. Maybe that is is the benefit of getting older? Another benefit is that I was able to do the same program, with the same feeling the day after. Ok, downside is that I got to realize that I’ve lost apx 10% of my normal poweroutput, but hey, that can’t really put a damper on my joy, cause that’s trainalble…
Burnout
Burnout is normally something good, that happens in an old car… but after, or rather at, the world championships I felt a physical, and a mental burnout. The worlds was just the culmination of a season plagued by accidents and sickness. I started the race out pretty defensive, and as I started to move forward I suffered survere mechanical problems, and had to abandon the race. I was really at the bottom. I have now decided to end the season now, it dos’nt make sense to continiue on getting frustrated every weekend. I need some time of to clear my mind, and the make some serious training for the 2010 season. I then visited my doctor to get some answers on why I am feeling so damn tired all the time, and why I suffer from heavy legs all the time, it shows that my lunf-infection has turned into astma, so it might not be the worlds biggest wonder that racing on top-level felt a kind of hard. I will get some medicine that should cure the problem be the end of december….
world championship setup
Different course, different setup. Normally I don’t change the setup of my bike very much, maybe changing tyres and some minor tuning on the damping system. This course is very different from other courses, meaning there there is potentially a lot of time to win by making a good setup. I’ve been training on the course here for a couple of days now, and has now feound and chosen the setup I believe in. Tyre pressure was raised by 0,4 bar front and rear to make sure that the tyres stays on the rims in the tight berms and on the jumps. The bigger pressure also gives me some snakebite protection on the very rocky and hard parts of the course. This of course has an negative effect on the rolling performance. The setup on the rear damper is a little slower rebound and a little less air pressure than normal, this makes the frame more forgiving, and makes the steeringangle a little slacker, wich helps me on the steep and rocky sections. The front suspension has a little harter setup than normal, making sure that the fork dos’nt sag too much under hard braking, as well as bottoming out on the jumps. Rebound is made slower as well. I have also mounted a low-rise bar, with some more backsweep, this gives a little more control as well.
Normally I am happy with riding a 2×9 setup (30-42) but this course has a pretty steep part where I need a lower gear ratio, so I have added an extra 24t chainring. The 30t is swopped to a 32 which I will use on the rocky uphill stuff, so for the world champs the ratio is 24-32-42.
Going to Australia
Phew! a race season can soon be over. Right now I am in Canberra Australia for the world champinships. It is my first time in Australia, so I have got a lot of new impressions. The wheather is a lot colder that expected, it is almost winter here. Another thing is the population here, they are really different from other people, the friendlyness and relaxed style of these people are amazing, and I have got the impression that it is not only skin-deep.
First day of training on the course went well, the track is a kind of singletrack heaven, it is really fun to ride, the downside is that it is almost impossible to overtake (or get overtaken) on this track. The nature surrounding the course is amazing as well, mountains, and blue sky (due to the thin ozonlayer here….) is just a romantic background for racing, I even saw a kangaroo-family crossing the course today…
Australia is pretty far from my home in Denmark, and British Airways have’nt managed to get my luggage here, though they had no problem charging us big-time for overwheight! Well, thats life….
Wednesday is the day for hobby-world-championships around here, well not only for hobby riders. Right now I am doing my best to catch up on my form before the “real world champs”, so it was a part of my bigger masterplan to go to the wednesday-worlds to do a little finetuning. To be honest, my form is’nt where I would like it to be, and the fact that i’ve been doing “deathtraining” the last period of time made me a little nervous about the race. Start lineup is a little different here, so I ended up in around 30th spot at the start. Race went of, and my legs was still really heavy from the training i’ve done in the morning. But somehow I managed to catch the front group. T-bikes Rasmus jessing looked pretty strong, so I decided to stay with him, which was good. He actually did my job, and pulled his own team apart, with me on his wheel. Boy this guy has increased his form, he is good rider now. Slowly he started to fade a little, and I could slowly sail away to a small victory. After the race I had a small chat with Rasmus, he is really a cool guy, you should definately look out for him in the late season.
Life can be a bitch!
Well, I would be lieing if I said I was satisfied with the way things had worked out this season. I have never been stronger than in this season, but have never achived so little with this kind of form. Crashes, sickness and bad luck has been the ingredients so far. Before the bundesliga final I got a lung-infect, so I tryed to do the race on antibiotics. Not a good idea. Next thing was that the antibiotics did’nt work, so I have got a new type now, which I’ve just finished. Now I am healthy again, but after 14 days of antibiotics, I don’t feel like a rider who is going to the world championships as a top-fit rider. So I have this week to train full-throttle, and then hope for the best. I have started to have bad dreams about this season, so my stomach hurts in the morning. I will hopefully get some succes in the nearest future….
Small(big) things that makes you happy…
I am travelling a lot, so I have seen lots of hotelrooms in my life, and lots of breakfastbuffets as well, some better that others. One thing that annoys me at almost every stay is the size of the plates and glasses at the breakfastbuffet. Why is it that you have to drink your morning juice from shotglasses? It always ends with me standig permanent at the juicebar, drinking 10 times with the shotglasses, instead of having one glass, to enjoy at the table. Another thing is the size of the plates for oatmeal, they are rediculous, there is only room for 2 spoonfulls of oatmeal in them, maybe that is why they somewhere serve oatmeal with a teaspoon… who eats oatmeal at home with a teaspoon?
This weekend I got a pleasent surprise, in my hotel there was realsize plaits, spoons and glasses, this made a good start of the day, it almost saved my weekend. But only almost, this weekend was time for the bundesliga final, a race I was looking forward for, with good memories from last year. This time I had been a little bit sick in the week before the race, but my optimism and eager to do well overshadowed this fact, silly me, because I should not have been racing this weekend, that stands pretty clear to me now. I think that I am no different from the guys who work in a office until they get a breakdown from stress, they realize the problems too late, and think they will manage, and that if they continiue on things will get better, and in the end, they have digged their own grave. .Well, race went of, and after first lap I was in around 20th spot, I slowly worked my way up to 11th spot. After that, reality came sneaking and I started feeling really really bad, I ended the race in 19th spot, with a total collapse. I think my mom was a little chocked to see how ugly sport can be, I was a mess, and looked like a mess. The guys that I normally beat, and enjoy to beat, beat me, and I am pretty sure they enjoyed my deroute. And I will for sure enjoy theirs next time. That’s how sports work, it is no ”gentlemens area”, and it is one of the last bastions where you are alowed to follow your most primal instinct. That how it is, hate it or love it. I am loving it. But this weekend I was the loser.
Teaching a newbie
Well, I have’nt been nice to update my blog lately, it is not because I have been busy like hell, it was more like I did’nt feel like there was a lot to tell. My trainingcamp (Post danmark rundt) went pretty well, I feel like I came strengthend out of it, and was’nt a total wreck. Some of the roadriders, and the national-coach gave me good probs for the way I did it in the race, that really meant a lot. The guys on the road are’nt as bad humans as I thought, some of them are actually a kind of nice. After the “tour” I took a couple of days of easy training, before I started killing myself again, I am the last preperations before the bundesliga final, and the world championships in Australia. I have never been racing there, so I am really looking forward. I have also spent some good quality time with my girlfriend, she has started to mountainbike a little, and I am riding with her, trying to give her some riding tips. It is a kind of fun, because it is actually a lot easier to learn her something, instead of a rider with a lot of years of riding experience. She have’nt got all the “bad habits” yet. So when I give her an idea of how to do something, she does it like I tell her, because there is no other “options” in her mind, so she has accomplished some really big steps forward in a very short period of time. It is great fun to “teach” like this, so for me her small victories are pretty big.
Tour of Denmark, final stage
The final stage of the race went from Ringsted to Frederiksberg, where we did 10 small laps, like a criteriumrace. The podium of the race only had a 3second timedifference, so we where pretty sure it would be a damn hard day of racing. The first half an hour was really hard, almost a mtb start, but after that everything got a little more calm. The funniest thing of the stage was a couple of Italian and Belgian riders who litterally started to fight with their bare hands. I don’t know to laugh or cry, but there is something pathetic about skinny guys i cyclingshoes fighting. Anyway, we all went to frederiksberg, and did the 10 laps, and we even made a couple of attacks, with no luck, but we had to try. I ended up in the mass-sprint, getting the same time as the winner. My final position in the classement is 40th, I really don’t know how good that is, but the national coach told me he was REALLY satisfied, and I assume that he knows what his is talking about…
Teour of Denmark, stage 4 & 5
Today I had to be tired, not once but twice. Stage 4 was relatively short, 110k’s. But with an average speed of 50km/h it was fast forward, everybody wanted get out in a breakaway, me too, I made a couple of shots, but did not have enough luck to succeed. So I ended up in the peloton, hammering to my hometown Køge. It was great fun to ride in my hometown, seeing people I know at the roadside cheering, it gave a rush. Not enough to win, but anyway. Later today it was time for timetrial, the fight against the watch. It was actually pretty easy for me, my job was to get around as easy as possible within the the timelimit. To stay inside the timelimit I had to do the hilly 15,5 k’s with an avaragespeed of 42 k’s. But since I don’t have i timetrialbike it was’nt a walk in the park. I ended up doing it with an avarage of 46 km/h wich is actually pretty good on a normal roadbike. I was actually the only guy in the peloton riding a normalbike. Besides riding a funny bike i rode with my longfingered Gripgrab-mtb-glowes, so I was a kind of the funny-looking guy today.
Tour of Denmark, stage 3
Watcing the tour de france on television might give the impression of an easy day in the peloton, I can tell you that there is no such thing, at least not for me. Things might look calm and easy, but when you sit there, it is a constant battle of getting the right position to save energy for the final. In my case, this is a task that takes my concentration 100%, I have to be more focused than I am while doing a mtb-race. So today was 5 hours of 100% focus, so now I am sitting in my hotelbed with a headache, not because of physical stress, but more with the same feeling guys working in front of a computer have. Todays stage was almost like any other, first 50 k’s was chaotic with everybody trying to get out in a breakaway. After that, the bigger teams takes control until the last 30 where they drop the hammer, making everybody tired. And in the end Saxobank wins. Today even so.
Tour of Denmark, stage 2
Normally I like things when they are as expected. The wheatheforecast was telling heavy rain, strong wind and thunder, and that was what we got today. From the very first meters it started pooring down, that meant that we all got very cold, and god cold muscles, which made it really hard to fast. The wind was the biggest factor of todays race, and to be honest, I am a clown regarding tactics in crosswind. So my day was really hard, I managed to sit in the wrong position all day long. 190 km is a long ride on a bike, but sitting with the wind in the face for 190 km is even harder. The result of todays effort was’nt really impressive, I got lef behind not once, but twice, and I ended up around 30th spot, 4 minutes behind winner Nicki Sørensen. Yesterday I actually felt pretty good after the stage, but today I am almost as tired as I am after a mtb-race…..
Tour af Denmark, stage one.
Woke up this morning for a new chapter in my life, stageracing on the road. As i have said earlier, I was pretty nervous about it, dispite everybody telling me that it would be absolutely no problem for me. It is funny how I don’t trust anybody saying thing like this. I tryed to do everything as I normally do it, breakfast 4 hours before start and so on. Only thing different today was that I did’nt do any warm-up, nobody seems to do that on the road, so it was actually pretty relaxing before start, normally it is hectic for me. Before we start we had to go to the obligatory team-presentation, where I got represented as the best mountainbiker in Denmark, thank you!
Well, off the race went, in a freightning speed. I was rather afraid that the race would continue like the that for the next 170km, and for 5 days. That would be pretty stressfull for me. After 10k’s the pace got slower, actually really slow for the next 120k’s. The last 40 km was a real race, with 2 climbs, that felt like a mtb start climb, so that actually felt pretty good. I ended up in 25th spot, 10th if you only count the danes in. I am pretty satisfied with this, and it gives me some believe in that I can actually do pretty good here. But Don’t worry, I will never turn fulltime on the road! The wheatherforecast for tomorrow is pretty bad, so the race will most likely be cold, wet and windy, a race that determines mens fro boys.
See you tomorrow.
On foreign ground….
Even though I am pretty experienced rider, I still get the opportunity to try something new. This week will definatly be different. As some of you remember, I did some roadracing earlier this season, to get the nomination for the tour of Denmark road stage race. I have got the nomination, on tomorrow is first stage. The tour of denmark is the biggest ongoing sportsevent in Denmark, with a lot of pro-tour teams, and all the best of Denmark. The race get a lot of interrest from the media, so there should be a good chance of a small glimse of fame on the telly. So please watch aftentour on dr. I would be lying if I was’nt nervous about this new prooject, so everybody please keep your fingers crossed. I will bring my lap-top, so I will try and make a small report every evening.
So long…!
When are you old?
In my world is a veteran an old guy. I am 29 now. Today I was reading an article about myself in a german web-magazine, describing me as a Bundesliga-veteran. That really hurt me. I don’t feel like an old guy. I still learn something almost every day, I still get physically stronger and stronger, I still get motivated from a new pair of tyres, and today I got some new parts for my radiocontrolled car, and was the happiest guy on earth. Maybe you have turned old when you realize that you should enjoy your youth? I don’t know, but insist on living as a young gun, ride crazy like one, and keep on playing, both with my bikes and my other toys. People who know me, dos’nt see me as old, but it is a bit freightning to realize that other people start to see you in another light. But it only makes me wan’t to perform even better, just to make it clear that I am not over the top. It makes me happy when I see guys like Nicki Sørensen and Lance Armstrong doing well in the tour, it makes it clear that age is only a number. Maybe you get “old” when you get aware that youth is only a limited period, that has to be enjoyed. Let’s try to extend it, have fun and play.