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.