Singletrack Sisters Race Team: First Race of the Year

First Race of the Year

The first race for some of the team’s 2015 campaign was to be a marathon event in Denmark. The race is called ‘FitnessDK MTB Marathon’ and is held in Slagelse in Denmark. Malin and myself have both raced 4 times and have always enjoyed the event and course. This year we managed to fool Jessica into coming with us with the promise of dry trails and a fun course. J

After some illness Malin decided not to take part, and instead would be cheering us on with the help of our daughter Hilda, friend Helen, and her daughter Isabel. Both Jessica and I would be competing in the 57km (3 lap) event, a more fun training event for me (the men’s full race event being 78km – 4 laps), but the full distance race event for Jessica and the other female competitors. Strange that the female category is shorter, as most other marathon events the women ride the same distance as the men. Our new race bikes having only just arrived were not ready for the race, so I was on my 29” steel training bike, and Jessica on her 27,5” Wilier 401XB from 2014. We had lots of Swedish company at the race this year, from the Fridhems Cykel crew, Jonas Nilsson plus Benny and Carina. Always nice to see some familiar faces before the start!

In the days leading up the race, the weather had been abysmal, and the forecast for race day equally depressing. Plenty of rain leading up, and then during the event would mean for a greasy course, regardless of the fast draining soil in the area. On the journey from Lund we were not so hopeful as the rain pounded the van, but to our surprise the weather did start to brighten up a little and by the time we were stood on the start line just before 10, there was no rain, just a little mist in the air.

I had a late toilet trip due to the queues which meant I started quite far back in the 57km group. After the gun I passed lots of people moving up to the lead group of roughly 6-8 riders by the end of the 4km gravel tracks before entering the first singletrack. The pace wasn’t so high, and I decided to sit in to start knowing that lasting the distance would be the problem for me having trained mainly for XC distance races again this year. The group stayed together apart from one guy who was keen to lead out alone at a high pace, and he duly disappeared from sight.

The course had been changed in a few places since last year, but was still a fun blend of fast, open gravel tracks, tight, twisty singletrack and more open, fast singletrack. The course was quite muddy, but I thought had held up well considering how many wheels were now rolling over it, and how much water had fallen in the past 5-6 days.

Slippy, slidey, muddy fun

Near the end of the lap comes several short sharp climbs, and going into the singletrack before this on the first lap I found myself at the front of the group. I decided to ride the windy trails at my own pace, and then try to keep my pulse as low as possible on the steep ups. By the end of the lap I had inadvertently pulled a good gap back to the group, and went through the start/finish in 2^nd place, not knowing how close my nearest rival was. The plan from now was to try to hold a steady pace that I thought I could keep up for what I was expecting to be 3 hours of racing. To me this feels painfully slow when you know that you can go faster if you just push a little harder on the pedals. Malin was not at the normal feed zone, and I could not see our bottles, so I was forced to start the second lap with the same 750ml bottle of Zipvit electrolyte that I started with.

The majority of the second lap was spent overtaking people in the 4 lap event, and not really knowing who people were. Malin found me by the second feed zone about halfway through, and I now had a new bottle of Zipvit energy drink , plus a couple of Zipvit gels to keep me going. Just after the feed I was caught and passed by a very young looking chap at quite a pace making think that perhaps he was competing in the 2 lap event, so I let him go without chase. It soon dawned on me when nobody else caught me that he could have been in my race. A realisation that was confirmed at the end of the second lap when the commentator announced that I had now dropped a position to 3^rd place!

Beginning the third and final lap I thought I would have to forget my original planned pacing, and try to push and catch the young rider again. No bottles were in view again, so I continued with the same one. Upping the pace and missing a feed soon paid its toll, and after about 8km of the last lap I started to feel cramp in my hamstrings. First in the right leg, and then in the left. The long open fire-roads would then be taken at a somewhat reduced pace, and I longed for the singletrack to start so that I could change position on the bike and stretch out.

During the second lap I had caught and passed Benny Andersson who was competing in the 4 lap event, he then caught up to me again as we approached the steep climbs for the last time (for me at least!). We rode together for some time, yo-yoing a little in the technical and/or pedally sections. Me passing him where grip was scarce, him coming back where power was needed. We then rode together to the finish line where I pulled off, and poor Benny continued not realising that I was to finish this lap.

I crossed the line in 3^rd, relieved that I had managed to hold out with the cramps to the finish. Race time was 02:50 for me, so not far off of my 3 hour guess. Altogether I was pleased considering that this distance is not my strength, and in the XC time realms I felt like I could push harder if I wanted to. I am now looking forward to building up the race bike, and then competing in my first XC race to see how the form really has built over the winter.