The first Marathon in 2010
It was time for the Silkeborg Marathon, the race know to be the start of the season in Denmark. Even though it’s a Amateur Marathon arranged by a club hardly reconised in Denmark at any other races, it’s still a great race though it’s almost 99,9 % gravel roads. But it’s still a extremely hard due to the long climbs and they are every where on the course. I mainly entered the race the test how my training was going so i was a little nervous before the start and also i had no idea how everyone else was doing atm. But after the first 10 km, i still felt great and the first elite riders had already fallen behind. after another 20 km, we were a group of only 6 people in the front and i felt superior, usually i always fell like im dying when during marathons, but this time was different. i startede playing a little with them, but i didn’t dare to make a real move. I figured after a while that they were 2 strong riders in the group who could make a difference and decide the outcome og the race, Allan Bachmann, the train and the specialized guy, Thomas Bundgaard. I had a little crisis on a few climbs after about 45 km, but else i still felt superior. Nothing really happend in the group until 10 before the finish line. Magnus from the national team made his move, he had been passiv the whole race and hadn’t been in front even once. He was extremely strong at the climbs and made us all look like we stood still. at the same time my legs began to cramp, i have never in my entire life had cramps more than just a single contraction but this time they didn’t go away. I fell a littel behind, but was able to keep the gap at about 100 meters, but wasn’t able to catch up. Though i didn’t quite understand it, my legs where great, not even tiret, i wasn’t dehydrated actually i couldn’t see any reason why i got cramps. I ended sixth final, which i wasn’t really satisfied with. but then again, i got a good indication of that my training is going alright.
First Race in season 2010
After the usual ski trip with my best mates highscool class and those massive alcohol amounts i have been consuming the the last month. My body felt torn apart and everything but ready to race. Still I decided to compete in the fight for glory and honor in the 3rd round of the Wintercup.
I’m fairly satisfied with the result, even when i look beyond the circumstances. I ended up in 4th place on my 15 kilo aluminum training Prongy with absolutly no Carbon parts at all, Heavy Deore wheels and 2,4 Nobby nics equipped. I’m not letting my beloved lightweight Prongy loose in this horrible weather.
But back to what matters, the race went good from the beginning I took the backwheel of Allan Bachmann, and Erik Knudsen, the 2 men in Denmark with the most horsepowers as long as it’s flat or a constant gradient which also would be the best way to descripe this race course. So I figured as long as I keep this backwheel I should be the best suited for the sprint and the last slippery hill just before it. But unfortunatly I crashed on the only real singletrack on the 3rd round of 5. And wasn’t able to catch these horses again. Also Klaus vesterlund, the now previous Pronghorn rider, overtook me when i crashed. The last 2 rounds I was able to keep a good pace myself and didn’t lose too much time to the lead, about 45 seconds. Klaus Veserlund Won with Allan as number 2 and Erik Knudsen as number 3.
Better get some race training going soon
Fifth and final Superliga
This time i didn’t have to get up too early. First of all it wasn’t in Copenhagen and second i managed to get a car for myself, so i didn’t have to be there for the first start. Where normally i have to go with the whole family to the first start cause of my little brother. So the circumstances at that point was nearly perfect.
But as i am, no race can be perfect, atleast the preperations can’t. I was just about to rethink this theory, until a few minutes before the gun. i have been warming up on my hometrainer for the last couple of races so i decided to keep during this while it works pretty good for me cause im a slow starter. But this time i figured, i would keep warming up until just before the gun, so that i didn’t get cold waiting for it. But my crew aka. my mother forgot or just wasn’t assure of how long it takes to get some dry cloth on and to shift wheel on the bike, nonetheless she told me to get ready about 30 sec before the gun. When i finally got my wheel shifted, which took a while cause i was a little to stressed and eager, the peloton was long gone. I managed to get to start line just before the Juniors started. This wasn’t really the start i would normally dream of.
The first two laps were all about getting pass all the juniors, B riders and half the A riders. It took quite a lot of effort to do this, so on the third lap i wasn’t really sure i could keep on doing this at this pace. I even crashed and lost like 1 minute cause of my eager of mounting my wheel before the race, i didn’t do it properbly, so it jumped off on the first lap and i crashed.
When i reached 10th position i started to feel allright and i realized that this wasn’t as bad as i feard. I decided to give it an “all out” and caught up with 2 more riders and ended in 8th position. Im pretty satisfied with my effort but im not really satisfied with the final position, but i guess it’s quite okay taking in consideration of my start and my crash.
Congrats to klaus Vesterlund who won the race pretty convincing with about 2 minutes to the second rider.
Shimanoliga #4
This race was once again in Copenhagen, which is 3-3,5 hours from where i live. Besides that im blessed with a little brother racing in the U13 class which is the first start of the day at 10.15 o’clock. So we had to go drive from home at 5.45 ’cause we had to pick the danish president of mountainbike Kristian Skjødt and his girlfriend Mette Kronborg up at 6 o’clock. To get up so early is conflicting with every rule of humanity and on the edge of insanity and ecpsecially if u have to race the same day. Therefor judging from the circumstances i wasn’t really that optimistic, but still had the inner “I’ll give them all…” feeling.
when we arrived i meet up with the supertalent Jonas Pedersen and we went for a walk on the route. already half way round we were both a little depressed due to the realtive flat terrain, which isn’t to any of ours favour. This didn’t make me any more optimistic.
When the start gun sounded at around 14.00 ‘clock, my legs felt like gelly, even though my warm up session had been almost perfect. so during the first lap there was around a 2 meteres gap from me to the second group, i was only able to catch up at the few technical sessions. At the second lap of eight i fell a little behind and had to let Jakob Agger go when he came up from behind. I was able to catch up with Jakob at the sixth lap but the cost was maybe a little to high. I had no choice but to gamble all i could in the turns and downhill sections to keep him behind, ’cause he was certainly stronger than me at that time. so i had to take full advantage of my technical upperhand, unfortunatly there was’nt very many sessions i had the chance to take advantage of it.
at the last lap with about 1 or 2 km to go, i gambled a little to much and hit something during a turn and was tossed of the bike. Jakob ofcouse to the opportnity to get off together with two other riders coming from behind while i was getting up and getting my bar back in position. i was competly done for after this. But still i tried to keep up my own pace the last 1 km, but wasn’t really able too, so another rider, Mchael Iversen came up from behind and overtook me a little to easy, DAMNT. I ended in 12th position, which iam absoltutely not satisfied with.
I hope for better luck next time i have to gamle.
Camp del Garda
I’ve just returned from 2 weeks at the Garda sea or in local terms Lago di Garda. I went here with my family for vacation and we of course all five brought along our bikes, where four among the five are Pronghorns. I have taken this vacation as an opportunity to relax, get a mental break from the scheduled training I’m used to and to get some endurance training in the mountains alongside with some cool singletracks at some downhill tracks.
But it all turned out a little different: The first couple of days went great, just as planned. Found some amazing singletracks and was amazed about how I was able to kill some nasty passages with my Pronghorn XC fully. But the fifth day turned out pretty ugly. I was riding along the road from Riva (the top north of the lake) to Bardolino (middle east side of lake) when a crazy Italian in a teal Fiat Panda hit my bar with his side-view mirror and tossed me into the verge, which unfortunately was made of raw rocks. I didn’t really get time to think the situation over as i was tossed and don’t really know what happened. But I of course hit the verge and found myself half on it the next second. I got myself some real nasty scratches from top to bottom on my right lower leg, some deep wounds at my thumps and another scratch at my chin. My bike has fortunately only got a few scratches on the fork, which are those that hurts the most. The Italian didn’t notice hitting me or he just didn’t want to.
I was unable to train and to take a swim in the sea for two days, which gave me a perfect opportunity to sleep and get fully recovered after the endurance training. But somehow I managed to injure my bag, nothing critical of fatal I guess but it still gave me another day in bed.
After this I had 4 days left in Italy, so I climbed a couple of mountains giving some roadies a little sweat and killed some cool downhill tracks.
Beside the fact that I was struck by a car and had my bag injured, it turned out to be a very good vacation and/or relaxing training camp.
/Simon
National championship
This year the national championships were in Holte. This season hasn’t really been very good, the generel level of the riders in Denmark has sure increased alot, but i haven’t. From the early beginning of my winter preparation for this season last year, i have been way more proffesionel in the way i think and live, but still i haven’t gotten any stronger. Therefor i decided to take a few weeks breake from the scheduled and routined everyday living and just trained what ever i felt like during my preparations for the nationals, as my last option.
It seemed to work even better than i could possible have imagined. At the Ghost cup just before the nationals i feelt stronger than ever, i therefor looked forward for nationals. And for good reasons, the race went great, during the second, third and fourth lap i was in 3rd position and didn’t even feel tired, i actually feelt GREAT!. unfortunatly a T-Shark rider (can’t really tell one from another, they all look the same to me) overtook the lead of our two man group and had a small break-away with approx 5 seconds, cause i made a small technical mistake xD. He didn’t really get any further the next 3 laps, untill i punctured and had to run 2 and half kilometers to the next technical zone. When i got my reserve front wheel i was completly done for good and had gone from 3rd to 4th position and from 4th to 12th position. i was able to ride half a lap before i almost collapsed and had to leave the race.
Even though i left the race with only 1½ lap to go, im still satisfied with the race. my best result so far this season has been a 9th place. And during this race, i was able to maintain a 3rd during most of the race.
#3 Ghostcup in Fredericia
Once again i went to race on an ordinary wednesday, this time in Fredericia. I came directly from my grandmas funeral, well it wasn’t really that sad, she was 98 years old.
i didn’t really get much practice or time for warm-up on the route, though it wasn’t really necessary with the practice. The route was generally flat and not very technical. The race began and i went from the front line to the fifth in no time. it seemed hopeless to fight my way back up again. But i kept my motivation and thought “this is great practice for overtaking”. So i ate 1 rider at a time and slowly worked my way up the peleton. my legs were great and i overtook one elite rider after another and ended up as number 3. Quite satisfactive. Klaus Vesterlund once again knacked us all and is sovereign the overall leader of the cup.
Worldcup in Houffalize
I went with the danish national team to Houffalize, which was supposed to be my peak this year. But i didn’t really turn out as if it was. My legs felt like gele during the whole race, and i got cramps as soon as on the steep start loop. I ended as nr. 176, which is totally unacceptable. I guess it’s due to too much relaxing actually. I use to train hard 2 days before a race, just to make sure my legs are still there. But this time i skipped the hard training 3-4 days up to the race. Maybe a bad decision.
Heavy legs
i have just finished my last training before i take of to Belgium. I have, as written in “shot version of my season start”, pushed myself to the limit during the last few weeks training. But the sideeffect has clearly taken it’s toll, my legs are TOASTED!!!, but luckily my motivation has never been at a higher level. So i bet i’ll be ready for giving my best at Houffalize.
Short version of my season start
my season didn’t start too well. I caught a flue which prevented me from training for 4 weeks and this was only a month before the first danish Superliga.
At the superliga i screwed up totally, not only was i in bad shape but it was also my first race as a Elite senior. I ended up as number 20 something, not really Pronghorn standard :S. I had then 2 weeks to prepare for the first Bundesliga in Münsingen. I pushed my self to the absolute limit to get prepared and it turned out with a acceptable result. I was seeded as the very last rider in the peleton of 120 riders. After the first lap i was in the 47th position and i ended in the 37th position, which i personally know i can do way better. Ergo i need to train a little harder and a little more, i haven’t reached my limit yet.
So now i have been training as hard as i possible could for the last 2 weeks and i have begun my preparation for Houffalize, which im going to compete in as a national team rider.