Summary of 2019 Season: Incidents and Accidents

I think that the title "Incidents and Accidents" best summaries my 2019 racing season.

2019 was to be my last year in the M40 category. That means I'm the oldest one and so I'm supposed to also be the slowest. I actually didn't think much about that and was still aiming for podium finishes.

During the winter training, while doing intervals on my Monark indoor bike, I was hitting higher watts than ever before. At 49 I was stronger than ever before. I was really looking forward to the racing season.

But then things happened...:

• Andalucia Bike Race: Concussion on stage 2. Kicked in the head by mountain goat on stage 4
• Billingeracet: 20cm long nail straight through the tire
• Beskidy Trophy: Overheating defective brakes
• Swedish XCM Champs: Crashed into by other cyclist causing bad fall
• Merida Marathon: Three punctures

There were also good racing results:

• Even with malfunctioning brakes I managed a podium finish on the first stage of Beskidy Trophy.
• No podium results in the Swedish Marathon Cup (Långloppscupen) but in a couple of the races (Långa Lugnet and Bockstensturen) I had my best results ever since I started participating in that cup almost 10 years ago.
• Third place in the Danish race Outdoor Sydfyn
• Victory in the Thai race Chiang Mai Epic

Other than racing results... I managed to bicycle a lot again in 2019. All of my bicycle commuting obviously plays a big part here. 40 km, every work day, year round adds up.

Now I'm looking forward to the 2020 season... Which kicks off with Andalucia Bike Race in just three weeks!

2018 - A Recap (Best Racing Season Ever?)

Quick summary of race results: VERY GOOD!

I'm super pleased with my results in the big stage races. I finally got on the podium at Beskidy Trophy. And it was all due to my really hard winter training where I was so much more focused and motivated than ever before.

The Strava Stats

I bicycle commuted to work 218 times. I have an average time of about 50 minutes to get to work and it's 20 kilometers one way.

Total distance commuting: 8720 km
Total time commuting:     392  hours

Fully Motivated Winter Training on the Monark

During the winter training leading up to the 2018 season I was more motivated than ever. I finally 'got' indoor training and I went all-in on my Monark stationary bike. The goal was clear: Increase the watts for each new session. I simplified my training and focused on just a few variation of intervals: 9 x 9 minutes was my base workout. I also did 4 x 8 min, 4 x 4 min and 2 x 20 min sessions. The advantage of having so few variations on my workouts was that I knew exactly what my capacity was for each type and what kind of power to aim for.

One could argue that I peaked my form a bit early, at the end of December to be specific. But I was just having so much fun as I saw my results getting better and better so I didn't care.

In the end it all worked out great and I almost reached 5W/kg FTP just before the season (Andalucia Bike Race at the end of February) started. Here are my graphs: 4W/kg -> 5 W/kg in 5 months.

My indoor training setup (with power meter)

New Race Bike: Trek Top Fuel 9.9 RSL

I purchased a used Trek Top Fuel 9.9 RSL in January. I saw it in an ad as being sold by a local guy. I more or less purchased it on impulse as I still  had the Cube SLT that I had raced all of 2017 (and was happy with). 

Top Fuel turned out to be in a different category altogether. In fact it was better than any full suspension bike that I had ever owned. It's hard to explain (and I will do a separate post about it) but the bike just goes over roots and rocks in a way that no other full suspension bike that I've raced has ever done. It just swallows up the terrain and offers a stable base in all situations. 

I have been so pleased with it that I will be racing the Trek Top Fuel 9.9 2019 model in the 2019 season.

My brand new 2019 Trek Top Fuel 9.9 RSL

Racing with a Power Meter

For the first time ever I raced all my races with a Stages Power Meter. It was great information to have, although I rarely looked at the watts during a race, the information was invaluable in analyzing my performance after the race.

Stages Power Meter

Andalucia Bike Race - My Best Result Ever?

Andalucia Bike Race was the toughest race that I participated in during the year if you look at the opposition. It's a UCI race with 250 starters in my M40 category.

This year the race was treated to some terrible weather. Two stages had to be shortened and one was cancelled.

At the end of the race, after 5 stages (should have been 6), I had finished in 9th place overall. I'm pretty sure that has to be my best result in any race so far. Here's my race story from that race: ABR 2018

Andalucia Bike Race with my girlfriend - Sandra Backman

Beskidy Trophy - Finally on the Podium

Beskidy Trophy in Poland was one of the first stage races that I ever took part in back in 2015. At that time I finished ninth. I fell in  love with it immediately and decided to come back the next year. 2016 I finished fourth, then sixth in 2017.

I came to the 2018 edition of Beskidy with great form and a low weight of 70 kg. As with Andalucia Bike Race also Beskidy was plagued by terrible weather and storms this year. I started of great with a second place finish on stage 1, fourth on stage 2 (rain and stormy), third on stage 3. Before the start of the fourth and last stage I was in third place overall, just two minutes down on second place. However the stage got cancelled as the weather was considered so extreme that it endangered the competitors.

I finally reached my goal of a podium finish in Beskidy Trophy (race story here). This had been one of my long-term goals and I felt that however the rest of the season went I was content.

Beskidy Trophy 2018 - Final standings

Snapphaneturen - Third Place Finish in the Race where it all began

Snapphaneturen is a local marathon MTB race which covers very technical terrain. It was one of the first mountain bike races that I ever competed in back in 2011. My clearest memory from those first years racing in Snapphaneturen was that I always cramped up at some point. As I got fitter I usually managed a top-10 finish in the race (and fewer cramps).

This year's edition of Snapphaneturen however sent some surprising luck my way: Three of my competitors took a wrong turn during the race without realizing it. That meant that I was able to have my first ever podium finish and get a third place. Noteworthy is also that the guys in second and first place where less than half my age. Blog post for this race

Snapphaneturen - Me against the Danish pros

Sudety Challenge - Enduro or Cross Country?

Sudety Challenge is a Polish stage races which is a sister race (same organizer) to Beskidy Trophy. It has six stages (the first is a shorter time trial).

2018 was the first year that I competed in this race. I didn't know quite what to expect. The downhills turned out to be steeper and trickier (and more dangerous) than the ones in Beskidy. I never like to get off and walk downhill when the track gets too steep but I had to do that often in Sudety. It all culminated in the last stage where I was off the bike close to 10 times where the terrain was just too dangerous to bike. It left me thinking: Is this an Enduro race??

I still managed to finish fourth overall however I feel that a podium finish would have been possible with slightly more 'reasonable' terrain. Race story here

I'm not sure if I'll revisit this race in 2019.

Third place finish in one of the stages

Sudety has some tricky terrain

Swedish Marathon Cup (Långloppscupen) and XCM Champs

I consider 2018 to be my best year ever racing. However in the Swedish marathons I had poor results. There were mostly top-10 finishes but I was nowhere near to podium. In some of the races I had mechanical troubles but then in others I just don't know why I didn't perform well.

The Swedish XCM Championships ended with ninth place. I was happy with this result as the race was just one week after the finish of Sudety Challenge

Swedish Marathon Championships

Summary of 2017 season

With the last of the regular summer races done with it's time to summarize the 2017 season:

NOT SO GOOD

Yeah, I had higher expectations.

Things didn't start off well with the heel injury just prior to Andalucia Bike Race which meant I couldn't train properly (and also gained weight before the start of the race). Then I suffered my catastrophic mechanical failure and had to abort the race during the fifth stage. Well, at that point I didn't care that much anymore.

The next goal was the Swedish Marathon Cup (Långloppscupen). I had a fourth place in the cup from 2016 to improve upon.

The cup started of with my favorite race: Billingeracet. I had trained well before the race and my weight was good. The year before I had come in second place so expectations were high for this year. I finished sixth. A bit of a disappointment but I felt that I had done a good race. Looking at some of the Strava segments during the race also told the same story: I was quicker than the year before. So I guess the opposition was tougher.

Things didn't get much better; In the next race, Lång Lugnet, I came in seventh place. In fact that was the theme for the rest of the races in the cup: Mediocre results. Well, that's when they weren't out right awful, I had a few of those as well.

I finished the Swedish Marathon Cup in sixth place overall. Two places worse than the year before. Also not a single podium finish in any of the races.

The middle season goal was the stage race Beskidy Trophy in June. In 2016 I finished in fourth place, just 60 seconds down on third. Again this year the preparations involved a big push to lose weight and I got down to close to 70 kg just before the race. Pretty much the same as last year. I ended up finishing in sixth place, mostly due to a terrible second stage with lots of punctures. If I deducted the time that I lost during that stage it looked like I might have finished in fourth again. A good result, but not what I was looking for.

There was also the Swedish Marathon Championships: I had a good training period before them, weight was not perfect, but good. But then I suffered a puncture within the first kilometer. The way I was able to catch up and finish in 10th place in spite of this tells me that I was in good shape. Especially as I the day after had my best placing in the Marathon Cup: 5th place.

So what went wrong?

I don't know. I think that I'm going to sit down and have a good think about it. One of my theories is that I don't do enough high intensity training. Someone may say that I need to be more structured in my training. And they'd be right in saying that. I have an idea for a separate blog post about this. Coming up!

2016 - Results and reflections

It's time I wrote a summary of the 2016 season. Here it is:

Summary

• Stage races: 2
• Marathon races: 13
• XCO Races: 24
• Team races: 1

Total number of races participated in 2016: 40

Expectations

The main focus this year was on the marathon races;

• Beskidy Trophy
• Långloppscupen (The Swedish Marathon Cup; 9 races)
• The Swedish XCM Championships

In 2015 I had finished ninth at Beskidy Trophy and fifth overall in Långloppscupen. The plan was to do better in 2016.

As a bonus I threw in a new (for me) stage race:

• Four Peaks

The Team

I joined a new team this year: Team Bikeitaly BMC. And that meant a new bike brand: BMC!

Equipment

The bikes

My two race bikes for 2016:

• BMC Fourstroke 
• Full suspension
• Under 10kg race ready
• SRAM XX1
• Fox 32 Float
• BMC Teamelite

• Micro Travel Technology (MTT) 'Soft tail'
• Under 9kg race ready
• SRAM XX1
• Fox 32 Float

These two bikes turned out to be great. I loved how BMC had designed both bikes with a long top tube and short stem. It made the bike quick to react and very playfull

Wheels, Tyres and Pressure

Tubeless - Zero puncures this year!

Tyres: 
On most Swedish and Danish marathons: Specialized Fast Trak Control 2.0 (front) / Renegade Control 1.95 (rear). Usually at around 1.5-1.6 bar (that's 22-23psi).
Beskidy Trophy: Schwalbe Rocket Ron 2.1 Snakeskin 

Wheels:
Stans ZTR Valor. These wheels worked perfectly and are so light! It was especially very noticable when switching between the DT Swiss XR1501, which came with the BMCs, by no means heavy wheels, and the Valors. When riding the Valor wheels the bike just becomes so much quicker to react and accelerate.

Shocks - Rebound

I had never ever played around with rebound settings before. On all previous bikes I had just left the rebound setting at the default. Now, after getting shaken about in this year's Beskidy Trophy I started to experiment with rebound. I noticed that, by default, my BMCs had the setting at almost the strongest rebound. I changed it to somewhere in the middle and wow! What a difference! Instead of having to break in downhill sections because I was afraid of being thrown off the bike because of all the shaking suddenly the fork was working and helping me.

Training and Weight Loss

A large part of the training this year focused on Beskidy Trophy. As this race involves a lot of climbing (2000-2500 vertical meters per stage) one of the important things was for me to become really light. I weighed in at 78kg in December and my goal was to get down to the region of 72kg by May, when Beskidy took place. I actually managed to trump that and my lowest recorded weight was 70.5kg a week or two before the race.

The Beskidy Trophy also has many difficult, quick and dangerious descents. During my 2015 races I had lost a lot of time and places in the downhills and so I knew I needed to get better at that. It's a very demoralizing experience to get passed by riders going downhill, the same riders you struggled to overtake in the previous ascent.  I practiced descents by going to my favorite local downhill tracks.

Racing and Results

Great start to the year

In January I was in Thailand and found a local race which went super! It was a lovely way to start the season.

Beskidy Trophy (4 day stage race in Poland)

This was my big goal for the season. I had done the race the year before, in 2015, and finished 9th. I was back for more! I got my weight down to close to 70kg just for this race. I practiced the downhills. Looking at Strava after the race I had improved my times compared to the year before as much going uphill as downhill. In the end I finished fourth, just 60 seconds behind the podium. Very sad. You can read the whole race story here

Långloppscupen (The Swedish Marathon Cup)

Långloppscupen is our Swedish marathon cup which consists of 9 races, 6 of which add to your total score. I had a fifth place, in the total standings, from the year before to beat.
It started really great in the first race, Billingeracet, where I finished in second place. I may even had one the race if it had not been for a crash. I was so cold after the race that I missed the price ceremony while I was warming myself in the car. However, at that time I thought that there were going to be more podium finishes for me in the cup... How wrong that turned out to be.
I missed two of the races in the cup while competing at the Beskidy Trophy. And then crashed at one of the races. That means that all the six races that I managed to finish ended up counting towards my total.
My placings were in the races were: 2, DNS, DNS, 6, 9, CRASH, 10, 7, 5.
This ended up giving me a fourth place in the total stands for the year. Fourth is better than last year's fifth place, but the individual placings I was not content with.

The Crash

At Engelbrektsturen it happened: I had the worst crash I had ever had. I was in the top-3 at the time it happened. We we're on a gravel road going real quickly. My rear wheel got stuck on one side of a gravel bank while the front wheel was on the other. The wheels started slipping appart and there was nothing I could do to prevent the crash. I went down at the speed of 56km/h and had to abort the race.

The crash also affected my confidence and it took several weeks before I was able to trust the grip of my tyres again.

The Swedish XCM Champtionships

I got a cold just days before the race. I still managed to recover in time but the situation wasn't optimal. I hung onto the group of top-4 riders until about 12km to go when I ran out of steam and had to let them go. Still, fourth place was okay... but just hundreds of meters before the finish line I get caught from behind by one M40 guy and I finish in fifth. I really wanted to be on the podium and I think that without the cold there'd be a chance...

Recovery, commuting and heart rate zones

In 2016 I started to bike commute a lot. First because I had no car (I sold my bike transpoter in the Spring and there were a few months before I had purchased a new vehicle). Then, even after I had a car I continued to commute because it was training before breakfast and I felt it helped me drop weight before Beskidy. It was low intensity (typically with an average heart rate of 130) and I didn't think it affected my recovery.

It worked really well and performance in both the big race before Beskidy; Billingeracet, and also at Beskidy was really good. This in spite of practically no rest days before those two races.

This is how my training schedule looked before Billingeracet


I cycled for 16 straight days ahead of Billingeracet. And then did my best marathon ever finishing in 2nd place.

Ahead of Beskidy I had the single rest day.

This actually worked for me early in the season.

However as June and July wore on I started to feel more and more worn out. So here I think perhaps I should've had more rest days and ALSO perhaps my bike commuting (which I continued) did not allow me enough rest. I actually checked the heart rate of my bike commutes and I'm firmly in Zone 2, which is NOT recovery, not in Zome 1, as I should be.

What needs to change and get better?

• Smarter training
• Better recovery

Strava stats for 2015

2015 - Summary, 2016 - Plans

This seems like a good time to summarize the racing year of 2015. Were expectations met? What went well and what was not so good?

I guess I'm not the kind of person to set hard goals, I'm probably too scared not to fulfill them. Much better to have them in my head. As long as no one else knows about them...

The Races

One of the really positive things about 2015 was the two stage races: Beskidy Trophy and Trans Schwarzwald. Placing in the top-10 in both races, being my two first stage races ever, was fantastic. Especially considering that I would've placed higher in both races were it not for some uncontrollable circumstances. I will definitelly be back in 2016!

The other big goal for 2015 was the Swedish Marathon Cup (Långloppscupen). I finished fifth at the end with one top-3 trace finish. This was 'okay', I guess, but I had hoped for more. Again, I will give it another shot n 2016.

The national XCO championship finished with a puncture. Well, I'm not much of an XCO cyclist so that wasn't a huge disappointment. I was happy to have practiced the championship track and mustered most of the a-lines. As for the national XCM championships I went in feeling physically poorly and ended up with an eigth place, which, under the circumstances, was all I could wish for.

In 2016 I will continue to focus on Långloppscupen and also on the different marathon and stage races. That will be the main focus. I do however want to become a better XCO rider so part of the plan is to do some XCO races as well.

The Bikes

As for bicycles and equipment: I switched from Specialized to Trek in 2015. As in 2014 going with one top-of-the-line hardtail and also a full-suspension bike with identical spec. I still remember that first ride that I had on the Superfly hardtail and how my initial reaction was that it felt so slow to turn in, compared to the old Stumpjumper, and seemed so more boring to ride. Well, after the first few races I really changed my view on that. The Treks were slower to turn, but so much more stable and therefore made me a much more confident mountain biker. They aspired me with confidence to go downhill so much faster than I had before, which really helped with both Beskidy and Trans Schwarzwald. The Treks were great for me and helped me achieve great results in 2015.

For 2016 I'm switching bike brand from Trek to BMC. I'm very very excited about this and so curious on how the BMCs will feel. I will write a complete post on the new bikes. I'll just mention right now that as 2015 and 2014 I will be riding on one top-of-the-line hardtail and a full-suspension bike as well.

Most of marathon races were done on the Specialized Fast Trak / Renegade combo. An early puncture made me switch from the S-works version of the tires to the Control version. 50 grams heavier but then I had zero punctures after that. The XCO-type races were done mostly on a new tire for me: Vittoria Barzo / Peyote. Apart for two punctures I like the way these tires feel. Tire pressures were around 1.7 bars for the smaller Specialized tires and 1.4 for the bigger Vittorias. This seems to work. For Beskidy I used Racing Ralph Snakeskin and they worked great! No punctures in that race where I saw tons of people having punctures. I will continue to use these tires during 2016.

I loved the NoTubes Valor wheels! Imagine a wheelset that's actually LIGHTER in real life than the manufacturer specifies. And the weight does make a difference: You accellerate away much quicker!

The Training

I've raced most of the season weighing in at between 73 and 76kg. Mostly around 75kg. I did go down to 73kg just before Trans Schwarzwald and I think that accounts for part of the success there. I will try to be more focused on achieving a low weight in 2016. Even though my passion for dark chocolate is hard to give up....

I have continued to train using a mix of MANY races and A LOT of training. My training is not very structures. I did get a training program from Activitus before 2015 which I then didn't follow. I'm not sure if I'm the kind of person who sticks with a training program. I may have to become more structures in the future however to take another step upwards in performance. We'll see...

Best results of 2014

Lidingöloppet MTB

Result: 11th place overall, 2nd in M40.
Description: This is a quick paced race with a big part of the best Swedish racers taking part. The race follows some quick jogging paths for the most part. But it also has some really steep climbs. A good challenge over some rock faces as well.
Link to results: Lidingöloppet MTB 2014

Alpe-Adria MTB Giro

Result: 11th place overall, 2nd place in M40
Description: This is a hard race covering three counties: Austria, Italy and Slovenia. The race starts of with one hour of climbing across a pass on the border between Austria and Italy. A hard way to start a race. After some riding in Italy it crosses into Slovenia and then back to Austria for the finish.

Link to results: MTB Giro 2014

Slushcup 2013/2014

Result: Third place overall
Description: This popular Danish winter MTB Cup consists of 7 races. Each race is either of a technical nature or a quick gravel road race. The first race is an eliminator race (XCE), then there are 5 races between 1 and 1.5 hours, and then the last race is a marathon race.
Link to results: Slushcup 2013/2014

Swedish Championships, XCO

Result: 19th

Description: This nature of 2014 year's XCO champtionship was very technical. Far beyond my level of expertise unfortunately. There were two places that had both an A-line and a B-line and I ended up taking the B-line in both places. I found it hard to get a good rhythm going on the messy course. Not my favorite. I will improve my technical level for next year's XCO championship.
Link to results: XCO SM 2014

Swedish Championships, XCM

Result: 7th

Description: This was more my kind of race than the XCO race that I describe above. Two laps of a quick course with some nice climbs. I held it together nicely for the first lap. I was in the top-3 until just before going out on the second lap when I lost my group. I ended up struggling a bit during the second lap. I'm still happy with the results however.
Link to results: XCM SM 2014

Swedish Långloppscupen

Result: 8th

Description: The Swedish Marathon MTB Cup. This cup still eludes me. This year ended with a fourth and a fifth place as best results. I'm not pleased with this.
Link to results: Långloppscupen 2014

Summary of how much I biked during 2014