Fifth place in M50

This year's Beskidy Trophy was not a good race for me. I think that after all the years that I have been riding Beskidy, several successes and a few podium places, my motivation just wasn't there this year. Also my racing season in Sweden had started really poorly and mindset was not good.

First stage - 59 km, 1900m climbing

Average power: 213 W

Average H/R: 168 bpm

The first stage started well enough, but halfway through I got really tired and dropped out of the top 3. Still finished in fourth place just a minute down on third but the general feeling was not good.

Second stage - 52km, 1200m climbing

Average power: 211 W

Average H/R: 145 bpm

The second stage was a lot better, at the start at least. It was raining hard throughout the stage but I felt good. The tricky downhills worked well for me. The puncture that I suffered halfway through the stage changed all of that. It was a major hole in the tire, and it happened during a stony downhill segment. When I stopped the rain was pouring down and it was quite dark in the forest due to the clouds above. I first tried to inflate the tire using CO2 but it all leaked out quickly again. I realized I would have to find the whole and plug it and that's when I started shivering from the cold. I got my wind jacket on (which I carried in my back pocket), took out my glasses, and started to try to localize the hole while the rain was pouring down. I had dark thoughts of quitting the race altogether but after about 17 minutes (according to Strava) I found the hole and was able to plug it. I finished the stage way down in eighth place and lost a lot of time.