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….
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.
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
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
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!
Podium Finish for Pronghorn in the US
Wow What a race to end the season. My second ever endurance race, and already guys on the start line where talking about not wanting to race against me. The race two weeks before I was on fire, and if it were not for the three flats I would have won. Most of the gus had been at the last race and where not looking forward to me putting the pressure on early.
The week leading up to the race was hard, I was sick and did not get good rest, but there was no way I was going to let his stop me from trying to win. As the gun went off, I just attacked right away. I found the last race that these endurance racers do not like to go fast from the start. I had a big gap going into the single track, but after a few miles I knew I had to back off. The lack of sleep was really slowing me down. So I settled in and waited for some help. I was joined by Davis Bently (junior national team member) and Greg Anderson (Morgan Stanley team). The great thing was that all three of us have the same coach, Dario Fredrick (whole athlete). So for three laps we took turns on the front and work harded together. We even shared food, seems strange to do in a race against opponets.
The last lap rolled around, and I knew what was coming. My legs were hurting by this point in the race, but if I was suffering so were the other two guys. We hit the first climb and Greg had some sort of mechanical, so I attacked. He bridged up to Davis and I, and we kept going. Greg came around at one point and hit the front hard, It took everything I had to hold his wheel, but I knew if I wanted to win I had to beat him!
I had to get on the front to control Greg and keep him from attacking anymore. So I took the front, and set the pace. Greg faultered on a corner and I attacked again, again he bridged up. We hit some sand and I attacked again, but could not break those two. I attacked two more times over the last few miles but just could not shake them, they wanted the win too. With bout two hundred meters to go I stood up to sprint for the line and a win…but my leg cramped and I had to settle for second.
I really happy with second, to fight so hard for a race is amazing. I am also really excited to know that I can race and win these unltra endurance mtn. bike races and am looking forward to winning the National Ultra Endurance series next year.
Thank you all for your support.
Ray Storm
Hello from the states
Hello everyone! Ray Storm from the US, I think the lone Pro for Pronghorn over here. It has been great to hear about how well everyone did this season, I am stoked to have such fast teamates.
I know the race season has come to close over there, but I have one more race to go. Having switched from the gravity and sprints to endurance racing, I am trying to get some late season racing in so I know how to train over the winter.
I raced last week, first endurance race, and had a great race! I thought I was going to get my doors blown off, but instead set the fastest lap time and had a huge gap on the field…intill I proceeded to get 3 flats in a row. Bad luck, but it is good to know I made the right choice to start racing endurance. So I hope to have some good luck this weekend and bring home my first Pro victory and first pro victory for Pronhorn here in the states.
I will let you all know how it goes
Ray Storm
This is my race face!
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
01102009013
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…
vicious rumours not true!
It has come to my attention that there are vicious rumours circulating about Pronghorn being in financial trouble and close to bankruptcy. This is absolutely NOT true.
It is true that we have decided to discontinue Team Pronghorn Racing in 2010. This is not a financial decision but a decision made to follow up on our success for 2009, where our expansion into new markets has exceeded all our expectations. Instead of having our own team racing in Denmark and Germany, we have decided to support more teams as a frame sponsor in our main markets such as Germany, UK, USA and Italy.
The fact is that our sales are growing month by month and that we have full support from our investors. Pronghorn Racing will be in the market for many years to come and we’re proud of what we have achieved so far, especially as we have only been in business for 1 year.
Not only will we open new markets for 2010 but also launch new products for 2010 and 2011.
You are more than welcome to contact me or Asger (also a Pronghorn Racing shareholder) if you have any questions.
Kenneth: kd@pronghornracing.com
Asger: at@minerva.dk
br
Kenneth
CEO
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….
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.
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.
6+6 = ?
12 is the nearest answer.
But at the Cubebikes 24 hrs race 1900mtb also showed it could be the next hot mtb race class. You race in duo teams for 6 hours, rest 12, and then race another 6 hours. It’s like a 24 hrs without the sometimes killing night ride. I thought i was smashing fun.
Maybe that’s what 1900 should do at the next years event. We have a fairly big 24 hrs in the spring elsewhere, and we have two 12hrs races. I mean when we arrive in late August I think riders just don’t have the motivation for another 24 hour race.
A litlle more time spend on advertising, a more exiting web and personal invitations for the DCU rated teams and clubs should pull more riders. They had to make up a new slogan of cause..Simon Q and I won the premier of the 6+6 in front of Team Webike’s bachmann and Borup. It was a good practise for the Shimano leage final on Sunday.
I guess I don’t have to mention that the Pronghorn PR6 SW is the ideal weapon in these kinds of races…
” my god the section with roots is tough after 12 hours..”
What roots??
/Klaus
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….
Superliga #4, HMTBK
I don’t have any words to describe what a crappy day I had this Sunday. Crashed two times on the two first laps, got bullied by Peter Bech, lost all air in my front fork, and ended my short appearence with blowing up totally.
I just wanted to go to Chr. Skjødt (chief of the race series) and give him back my chip and number and tell him I won’t be needing this any more. EVER.
I didn’t. In stead I chose to watch Womens soccer at the soccer field close by for about 30 min thinking about the contents in my poor life….
What a sorry sport women’s soccer is.
See you at the 5th round in Aalborg and 1900’s 24hrs.
/Klaus
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.