Result: First place
Equipment: BMC Fourstroke with Maxxis Aspen 2.2" front tire and Continental Raceking 2.2" rear
Type of race: XCM (marathon), 70 kilometers
Engelbrektsturen is the fifth, out of seven, race in the Swedish Marathon Cup. I've done all five so far this season and placed 3rd, 4th, 4th, 11th and 4th. I have a good position in the total standings. The race is 70 kilometers of very quick gravel roads and some messy singletrack. Almost no flowy and enjoyable singletrack. The organizers threatened 1500 meters of vertical ascent but my Garmin only registered about half of that.
It was another early rise for me as the race was some 640 kilometers north. The good thing however is that I drove from a rainy southern Sweden to perfect shining sun in Norberg (where the race is). I packed the car the evening before. Actually, there's a story there to be told: When I was race-prepping the bike the day before I noticed that my bottom bracket bearings were barely moving. Recently I've purchased all the tools needed to change pressfit bearings so I was able to do it myself. Anyway, got up at four in the morning and drove away at 04:15. Race start was 11:00 and I was on location at 09:30. Perfect!
Warmed up by doing the first 10km of the track.
The race started and there's 4 kilometers of doubletrack where everyone rides in two long lines and overtaking is hard. I thought I was in a decent position but as we came to the first climb and I nailed it I went past about four guys in my (M50) category. So they had somehow managed to be even more aggressive at the start.
I saw Stefan Carlsson, who has won almost every race in the cup so far, not too far ahead of me. That was a good sign as I usually don't see him much during a race as he's so darned fast.
Quite quickly a group of about 20 riders formed and I had one M50 rider with me, number 502, Kaj Gingbäck. I did some math in my head and came to the conclusion that the two of us were probably in second and third place behind Stefan Carlsson.
I was really surprised at how quick the first 30 kilometers of the track are. I took us just over 1 hour to complete them. Lots of gravel roads and some climbs. I went hard but not too hard. On every climb I took the opportunity to push hard to tire Kaj out and then I would wheel suck as soon as we got over the top.
The singletrack went okay. There was very little flowy and fun singletrack and instead most of it was really rooty and rocky.
At 30km all of a sudden I see Stefan Carlsson standing by the side of the track holding one of his wheels in his hand. Aha! Puncture. That means that me and Kaj are now fighting for first place.
We do about 10 more kilometer and I notice that Kaj has problems in the climbs. We're about 10 riders in the group at this point and as we get to the next climb I go all-in in an effort to drop Kaj. It works. I can hear him panting and moaning and I take that as a good sign. I don't see Kaj for the rest of the race.
The weird thing about this race is that I never felt very tired. As we got to 50 kilometers and there were just 20km left I was thinking "already!? We're almost done!?". I was feeling very fresh.
People kept dropping off the back of our group and with about 6km there were just four or five of us left. Then all of a sudden, a shock: I'm leading the group of riders through some really rough singletrack going as quick as I can but someone behind me is calling and asking to be let past. I move over and who do you think it is? Yeah, that's right: Stefan Carlsson!! Now I must admit that I was pondering about this possibility throughout the race since I saw him standing with that puncture but I felt that my group had been keeping such good speed that there was no way he could catch up on his own... But he had.
Okay, frak! I just pour all of the energy that I have left into trying to stay on his wheel while we navigate this rooty rocky singletrack. I manage it for a while, and drop the rest of the guys behind me, but then Stefan gets a little gap and he's gone.
We get out to the last four kilometers to the finish and now it's all double track and gravel roads. I can see Stefan ahead of me, perhaps 100-200 meters away. I give it all I can but before I can even try the rest of the group catches up from behind and then they start pulling like crazy. We have one elite category guy in the group and he's pulling HARD. I just join the last wheel and the group pulls me up to Stefan, who is riding solo, in the matter of perhaps one kilometer.
With three kilometers left to the finish I'm trying to plan out a strategy of how to win the race. The group is going hard. I need all my watts just to stay with them. Carlsson is being sneaky staying on my wheel. At one point in a slight uphill I try to gun it but everybody goes with me and I lift off the throttle.
Now the finish area in this race is a bit special but I know it wheel from all the previous times I've done this race. It's all on asphalt and goes in a square around a church. It's something like 50 meters of wide asphalt road, 90 degree right turn, 50 meters of road, 90 degree left, 50m road, 90 degree left, 50m road, 90 degree left, and then just the last bit to the finish line. From previously planning my sprints here I've always thought that whoever enters this section first will also cross the finish line first. So as this section approaches, with about 300 meters left to the finish line, I gun it and overtake everyone in the group. I just sprint the whole section trying not to break in any of the turns, never looking behind me, and I win the race! I never see Carlsson (well, because I never look behind). In the results he's listed as one second behind me.
Race data
Average power: 259W
Average heart rate: 167bpm
Max H/R: 186bpm
Weighted average power: 284W
Here's the final sprint with all the data below:
