Two Explosions
Today was raceday in the German Bundesliga. Sprint day, a dicipline designed for small fat guys like me. So hopes where big today, as I actually felt pretty good on fridays training. But something went wrong, Timetrial was OK, but the first heat was catastrofic. No power, only two explosions, so I took the parkingticket, and let the other riders race. But hey, I can find a lot of goog excuses, just like any other proffessional rider. One excuse could be: I saw the big rain clouds coming, so I thought it would be better to abandon, and get home, instead of staying out in the rain, I am only being proffesional….
No, the really good thing about today is that it can only be a lot better tomorow.
Ghost Cup #6, Vejle
Fast dry tracks on home soil in my home town of Vejle dressed in the XM champion jersey. I really couldn’t avoid to win. (0: Simon Q. was showing progress and took second place i front of Jacob Agger 1900 MTB after 2 laps solo after Jacob Bering took a faceplant. I’m heading to Bornholm and the Nordic XC Championships in the upcomming weekend and will use the opertunity to get some milage and good training before the danish XC chamapionships.
Tour de france
It summertime in Denmark, the wheather shows its best side at the moment, so training is really enjoyable, and hard training dos’nt feel quit as hard. But something is still missing to make training and recovery perfect. What can it be? A new highmodulus proteinrecoverydrink, a wonder material for tyres? No, Tour de France is the correct answer. It sounds pretty comic, but I am not very interrested in bike sport. But the Tour is different, the media interrest is massive, and everybody has an oppinion, and you have something to discuss with your trainingpartner every day, for 21 days.
For me the tour gives my recovery a boost. The timing is perfect, every day after training the live transmition starts. After half an hour of watching it on tv, I fall asleep, and get apx 1,5 hour of extra sleep every day. This really speeds up recovery! So I am really looking forward for next weekend where it all starts. Untill then I’ll do some racing myself. Next weekend will be bundesliga in Wetter, Germany. The course looks like something you could find in Denmark, so I am looking forward to punish some of the guys who gave my selfesteem a notch a couple of weeks ago in Albstadt. Untill then, enjoy the summertime.
Pronghorn-Racing at the X-Hardt-Event
As Pronghorn is new on the german market, it is also important to see our bikes on the race-tracks. At the X-Hardt-Event near Cologne four Pronghorn Riders started in different classes. The two young guns Simon Klein and Florian Dörich battled in the U17-Class and got both on the podium! Nice result boys!
Timo Anders gave it all on his Pronghorn (CLICK) and was also fast.
I wasn’t really fast and unfortunately really tired. But I did many wheelies for the crowd and had a spectacular crash in the finish area…
Ride on,
Marc
Whats up for the weekend?
This weekende I will get on the roadtrain again, in the danish Post Cup in Thy. It will for sure be hard. My own little hidden agenda is to ride for an election for the national team for Post Danmark Rundt. I is a stage race across Denmark, with all the big teams represented. Why? It would be a perfect training for the mtb-world championchips. That’s the plan, please don’t tell any of the roadies.
Back from Willingen
Hi !
Last weekend the Pronghorn-Crew was present at the biggest bike-festival in Willingen. Jezz (UK), Robert (DDR) and me worked at our tent on the expo area. I also raced the short distance of the marathon and suffered a lot ath the end (one banana wasn’t enough for the second part of the track) For me as a MTB-Coach it was crazy to see how most of the marathon-racers have huge problems in the downhills and trails. Seems like they all have to visit my riding technique school (ridefirst.de).
The weather wasn’t the best, but on saturday the sun was shining most of the day and I was the only one of our group, who protected the skin with suncream. The others were a little bit red, hehe. On Sunday noon the rain visited us again.
Next to come: The X-Hardt-Event is the perfect chance to do a demo ride on a Pronghorn bike, and it is really close to Cologne etc.
See you and ride on,
Marc
P.S.: Some impressions from our booth:
24 hours in a racers life
Sunday morning 7.30.
Got out of bed at my mechanic Eddi’s house. His girlfriend Anette has made breakfast, with everything needed for a long day.
8.30 after 2 double espressoes it is time for obligatory visit at the mens room.
9.00 Meeting Eddi in his garage, for bikecleaning (yesterdays sprintrace got pretty late), and tyre changing. The guy is excentric about bikes, so perfect is’nt enough.
10.30
Prepare bottles for the day, 10 pcs.
11.00
Pack everything into the car. Packing is’nt easy, it has to be done so that you know exactly where everything is. Because after the race I will hopefully be so wasted that a can’t think one rational thought.
12.00 Arriving the start/finish area. Watch some of the womens race, being impressed by danish rider Annika Langvad making serious trouble up front in the womens race.
13.00, starting my warmup. It is so warm, that I decide to warm up on the road, normally I do it on the hometrainer, but today I am worrying about getting dehydrated.
14.00 The start has been moved from 14.15 til 14.45. I continiue roadriding.
14.30 is time for call-up for the start. The organisation has made a mistake, and instead of starting in second row, I am the very last guy at the start.
14.45 Start, it is now time for apx 2 hours of struggle, and it is indeed a struggle, the course has 2 extremely long and steep climbs, which is painfull on all 8 laps.
I work my way up to 23rd place, but usual suspects up front are long gone.
16.50 Crossing the finishline with somekind of relief. Eddi is ready with my bag for the shower.
Meet the other riders in the shower, discussing the race, getting all the stories from the other teams. Hearing Hermida speaking of his race as “catastrofic”
17.15 Eddi has packed the car and we take of. I am too wasted to drive, so I just sit there.
18.00 arriving at Eddi’s house, getting some fast carb.hydrate from Anette’s homebaked “racemuffins”.
18.05 Takeoff. Now it is time for 1000km of car travel alone. I should’nt say this, but it is now also officetime, the next couple of hours I talk to all the peole I have to call after a race like this, my boss, my girlfriend, sponsors, my trainer, my parents(who is always anxious) and friends.
02.00
Getting 1 hour of rest on ferry. Meeting the other danish riders, telling more or less true stories of the day.
04.00
Home again. Discovering that I have forgot the keys for the appartment. Had to wake everybody
up with the doorbell, not popular…
04.30
Can’t sleep
0?.00
Ok, i think I could.
12.50
Woke up again. Just see apx 1000 missed calls and a ton of emails.
Roadtripping
Being a pro cyclist includes lots of travelling, often by car, thats no exception for me. Today I am going to Alb-stadt germany, it is a 1000km+ ride. Rides like these can be pretty boring, but sometimes it is just like running or cycling, and you get into a kind of “time gap”, with no sense of place of time, the mind and thougts live their own lives. It is a kind of funny. It is nice to have good company on these trips, the best trips I have had was with my former teammate Peter. I think sitting in a car for 10-15 hours is the best way of learning someone to know, you have the time to really talk and listen, there is nothing else to. Cartravelling is for me a grat chance to listen to some of my favourite music, without anyone complaining about the noise. Since I am travelling alone this time I have bought big collection of music with me, so I am really looking forward.
Hey old man, you did it!
My teammate Mr.Vesterlund has been fooling around with thinking about ending his career, if he did not make a good race this weekend. My oppinion is that it would be a terrible waste of a good sportsman. So the tactics today was to get Mr. Vesterlund on the Podium. Vesterlund had a really bad startposition, and had the best no.1. So my job today was to slow the race down as much as possible the first couple of laps. That’s easier to say than do when you have a motivated Thomas Bonne up front, setting the pace. But everything whent as planned, an Vesterlund finished the job himself in the best manner, and hit the 3rd spot. For my point of view everything was perfect, and I could claim 1st spot, and make hattrick in the danish Shimano-liga. What a weekend. The setup of the team is starting to look pretty pro, so I would like to thank everybody who has helped us today.
Small changes, big impact….
Now that I am starting to train on my mtb again, my passion for working on the bike is flowering again, meaning making changes all the time. I have two race bikes, well one for racing, and a bike similar to my race-bike, but only for training. Setup is equal on these bikes. Yesterday I decided that I wanted to have a new dimension on my bike. I changed the handlebars to a Pronghorn riser 630mm, put on a set of lightwheight wheel, but with Kenda Nevegal tires. I softened the suspension front a rear a little. The goal was to build a “trailbike” but a trailbike suited the terrain around my front door, which is’nt too extreme. It still has 100mm of travel, but it getting used more.
The backsweep of the riser-bars has distributed the wheight more to the rear wheel.
It was time to surf… like yesterday. Big smile, the bike corners like a pair of carving-skis, it the same feeling. Jumping etc was almost the same a normal, going straight was almost the same, climbing was a little tougher due to the new sitting position. All day went with taking big corners, going sideways, grinsing! Today all call my trainingpartner, and ask him to go train (or surfing) with me, I really wan’t to share my new passion with someone. Well I can’t really call this training, it makes too much fun to be training.
Trailsurfing at home
Tpday was a day like most other days in my life. Woke up at 7.30, had breakfast until 9.30, thinking about how the training would work out. Talking on my cell prone untill 10.30. Now it was time for hitting my hometrainer, things worked as i should, I got punished, the hometrainer got punished.
12.30 I desided to hit the local trails, instead of training on the road again. This was the best decission I have made today. I have’nt been riding much mtb since my crash in Münsingen. today I made my first bunnyjump since Münsingen, so now biking makes fun again. The next couple of hours I just rode along my local trails with a big smile on my face. My legs felt pretty good, but the hard training was over, so i could just enjoy riding with good speed and no lactate (that’s not normal). Well, I did not set the fastest laptimes today, but I was really a great ride, doing jumps and hitting the berms just correct. I think a had the same feeling as a golf-player hits the ball right on spot, or a surfer finds the perfect wave. If everybody could have rides like these, I am sure the world would be a better place.These rides simply clears your mind, it’s like therapy. So hey, go get yourself a good bike that helps you ride well!
Another thing that crossed my mind today is the rescue of the dinoaurs,
or more often known as the Hummer. A Chinese company has bought the Detroit-car-company Hummer. I think it is a good thing when a company is saved from closing, but this one should’nt have been rescued. The Hummer is HUGE, but very unspacious, it has a big thirsty enginge, but slow as hell, it looks like a ofroader, but there is a lot of cars doing a lot better off-road- so why save this dino? Could’nt we use our money better in these times? I hope that this investment will turn out as the worst investment in chinese history.
First race in the season
Hej again!
On Monday I had my first race for this season and as I am not in shape it was tough. Now I know how Klaus felt in Madrid, I had a short night and was really tired. But the downhill-section was cool and technical, so I managed to ride all switchbacks without mistakes in the third round. The next race is the short distance at the marathon in Willingen on 13th of July. I won the free spot in a raffle, that’s pretty cool. So I don’t have to pay the entry fee…
The Roadtrain
Long time no hear, I am sorry about that. The last couple of days I have been training on the road, or more exact, racing on the road. I have once again concluded that roadracing is good training, but boring as hell, it is close to riding intervals on the hometrainer!
The funny part is that the roadies are pretty frustrated about it too, I hear a lot complaining about having good legs, but nnot the oppurtunity to use the, they are not in the right getaway. I tell them go mtb-racing instead, in mtb-racing there is a rule that says, if you have good legs, you win, period. Only problem is that Absalon always have the good legs….