Today was the sixth and last race of the Danish Vega winter mountainbike cup. I've participated in these winter races for many years now. I think it's a great variation to all the indoor training that I do and it's A LOT OF FUN.
Ahead of today's race I was in second place in the M50 category. I was two points behind number one and I had a good margin down to third place so no worries there. You get one point for first place, two for second, and so on. And you're allowed to subtract one result from your total (your worst placed race). The dude in first place, Keld Pedersen, is a really really good cyclist. I checked his background out and he's been on the podium in the World Championships XCO race. I only managed to beat him in one of the six cup races.
The track today was a real rollercoaster. Up and down and up and down and up and down. Steep (short) climbs and descents. 800 meters of elevation in 28 km of total distance. For Denmark that's a lot. I finished third in my category and so I kept my second place overall.
I think that today's race was the only one of the six races that I didn't have to wash the bike afterwards. They tend to be very muddy. Not a single race with snow however this time around. That's been a common occurrence in previous years.
I had two bad races, the first and the third, coincidentally the two really muddy races of the cup, otherwise the other races went well. I even managed to win one.
The cool thing with Denmark and racing in the winter is that so many people turn up. There were almost 100 of us registered in the M50 category.
In previous years I have during winter races still used my 'normal' (summer) race tyres. However this round of the winter cup I put on serious Continental Mountain King tyres for the muddy races. And I must say that it worked! I love the grip and don't care as much about the extra weight.
Race Place cat. Place overall Avg Power Weighted Power Avg H/R
1 4 18 238W 259W 163
2 1 9 275W 289W 172
3 7 19 243W 273W 171
4 3 9 275W 293W 173
5 2 12 286W 306W N/A
6 3 11 265W 303W 166
NOTE for race #6: Last lap I just took it easy because I was the last one to go out and no one was chasing. For the first 4 laps average power was 290W.
Conclusion: The trend is that the quicker the race course, the easier it is for me to put down nice and even power, the better I place. However the trickier and more twisty the course is, or if it's muddy, I do badly.