Sunday 22 January 2017

Vintercuppen #4 - Blocked by backmarkers!

Result: 3rd place


Bike: BMC Teamelite XX1 Fast Trak 2.0 / Fast Trak 2.0 1.5 bar (Stans Valor race wheels)


The Venue

The fourth race in the Vintercuppen cup. Conditions were dry and temperatures just above freezing. I'm in fourth place overall in the cup, just a point behind third place.

The Start

Good start, I was around fifteenth place. I climbed about 5-6 places during the first half of the first lap. Legs felt frigging great.

Blocked!

During the fourth lap (out of a total of five) I'm in a group with the second placed guy in my M40 category and the leader in the junior category. I'm last in the group. We start lapping some back markers. The other two riders get ahead of them but I end up blocked in. They totally refuse to give me any room to pass and I lose valuable time.

Chain Dropped

During the fifth and last lap I start see the two escaped riders ahead of me again and I'm gaining on them. Then, suddenly, I drop the chain. In all my time of riding SRAM XX1 this has only happend twice before. I manage to get the chain back on in the second try. Henrik Ahlbäck (M50) and another guy (don't know his category) pass. I manage to overtake the unknown guy before the lap ends but Henrik finishes just ahead of me.

The Result

I finish 10th overall and 3rd in M40. The second placed M40 guy finishes 20 seconds ahead of me. Without the obstruction and dropped chain I would've had him.
I've had a hard training week with a total of three high intensity training sessions so the result is good in that respect.

Post-Thailand Form

It's been two weeks since I got back from my Thailand training camp. I'm feeling a nice form peak right now. This together with a 5kg weight drop feels lovely.




Saturday 14 January 2017

Winter Training 2016/2017 in Chiang Mai, Thailand

This was the fourth Christmas in a row when I took a trip to Chiang Mai in Thailand for my winter mountain bike training

Here are the stats:

Total days in Chiang Mai: 16
Total days biking: 16
Total kilometers ridden: 931.6 (58km / day)
Total rolling time: 59 hours (3.7h / day)
Total meters climbing: 16599 (1037m / day)
Strava KOMs taken: 9
Mechanical problems: 1 (broken spoke, fixed by local bike shop for €7)
Crashes: 0