Beskidy Trophy 2016 - Gone in 60 seconds

The race

Beskidy Trophy is a four day stage race in the Polish Beskidy mountains.

Important stats:

• 4 stages
• 286.5km
• 11550 meters altitude gain

It's a tough and technical race. The climbs are gruesome and the descents are difficult and often dangerous. If you don't go downhill quickly you lose whatever time you gained uphill.

I took part in the race last year, 2015, and placed ninth. This year I had higher hopes...

You can check out the description of each stage below (which I wrote as I completed it) or you can scroll down to the bottom and read the summary.

The setup

Bike: BMC Fourstroke FS01 XX1
Groupset: SRAM XX1, 10-42, 32T chainring AbsoluteBlack oval

Wheels: Bontrager XXX

Tires: Schwalbe RocketRon 2.1 Snakeskin (1.6 bar, front and back). Tubeless.
Other equipment: Minpump, minitool, CO2-inflator + two canisters, tire levers, spare tube

Stage 1

67km, 2604m altitude gain

It had been raining all night and morning. The temperature was around 10-12 degrees Celsius. So the trails were going to be wet and muddy and the stones slippery. This being a race with so much downhill riding means that tricky descents become even trickier.

The climbs went well. I probably pushed it a bit too much but legs and lungs felt good. The descents not quite as well: I was getting passed a lot. And by the same riders that I then overtook in the next climb.

I got braver descending as the stage progressed and still managed to finish it without incident.

It was very foggy in most places and one of the scary things was going full speed in the downhills while hikers were going uphill and suddenly appearing through the mist.  It was weird riding slalom between them and having them jump for cover.

I came in fourth place in the M40 category. One minute behind third place, two minutes behind second and about 5 minutes behind first. 27th overall. The good thing is that I move up to the first group for tomorrow's start.

I'm just a bit (quite a lot actually) worried that I went too hard today. I'll notice tomorrow.

Results are here:
http://www.pomiaryczasu.pl/data/2016_Trophy/Live/Classic_1stage_live.html

Here's a photo of Sandra and me after the stage finish. Don't be fooled by the seemingly nice weather in the photo; The sun didn't come out until after we had finished the stage.

Strava stats show a heart rate that's a bit higher than I would've wanted it to be

I couldn't find a photo of me but here's one for today's stage that gives you a feeling of how foggy it was:

More photos from today's stage here

Starting grid (shot from second group):

Stage 2

84km, 2775m altitude gain

Complete turnaround in the weather meant sunshine and 25 degrees Celsius. Today's stage is the longest and hardest of all four. As you can see by the profile below theres' a huge hill to climb in the middle of the stage

We started the stage with a transport section to the first climb. I had in advance decided that I needed to be a bit defensive and calculating during this stage. I went out HARD yesterday and didn't want to die halfway through today's stage. This meant that in the climbs I held my own pace. In practice this had the result of letting people get away from me early in the climbs and then often catching them halfway through or towards the top. I felt the strategy worked out well.

I felt that the downhills went better than yesterday. I was still losing places in the super technical ones, but in the faster and more sane ones I held my own.

The climbs went well. I remember that last year I had to get off in a few places in the super steep uphills where I was able to cycle today. The five kilo weight loss really is noticable.

Halfway through the stage I had my first crash. I was approaching a creek rather quickly, perhaps at 30km/h, and from what I could see I thought that I would be able to just splash through it. However, when I got really close I noticed that there was a wooden board going diagonally across it. Too late to brake my front wheel slipped on it and my bike went flying one way while I flew the other. Bike was ok and so was I and I was able to get on and continue.

I crossed the finish line in fourth place. So same position as yesterday. I was very pleasantly surprised as I thought I was going to have a hard day. However, in the general classification I was in 44th (compared to 27th yesterday) so things have gone a bit slower today.

The fun part is having Strava to compare this year's segments to last year's. The stage was identical this year and in total I was 18 minutes faster. The big climb went 4 minutes faster. And all downhills sections between 30s and 60s faster. This actually makes me more happy than going faster uphill :)

In the general classification I'm now in fifth place.

This is how the bike looks after a 'dry' stage:

Notice the average heart rate. Compare it to stage 1 above. This is how you pay during multi-stage races

Stage 3

69.2km, 2534m altitude gain

Fourth place in today's stage (again! three times in a row now!).

I climbed back up to fourth place in the total classification. With one stage to go I'm three minutes behind third place and five minutes down on second place. And that after a total of 13 hours of biking! Exciting!

Tomorrow is a real killer of a stage too with the most amount of climbing of any stage yet!

Stage 4 (last one)

71.3km, 2910m altitude gain

So, how did it all go? What happened during the fourth and last stage?

Well, since its Tuesday today and the race finished Sunday you probably figured out that it didn't end with me climbing the podium, right?

So the short answer is: I came in fifth in the last stage and finished in fourth place in the total standings.

The slightly longer answer is: I came in fifth in the last stage, I overtook the guy who was in second place in the total standings, but the guy behind me, in fifth place, overtook me in the totals. By how much? Exactly 60 seconds. Yeah, I missed a podium finish, a third place, by exactly 60 seconds. This is after 18 hours of total riding during four days. Pretty depressing, huh? So that's why there was no update since Sunday.

Here's a link to the final result sheet

Conclusion

• Fourth place in the M40 category. 
• With about 150 starters from some 17 countries it's a good result
• BUT the fact that I was only 60 seconds away from third place really hurts 
• 4 minutes away from second place
• Equipment worked perfectly with zero defects
• The BMC Fourstroke was great in the difficult terrain. 
• The 32T chainring was sufficient to climb the steep hills.
• The Schwalbe Rocket Ron 2.1 SnakeSkin were light enough to climb quickly, roll easy and MOST IMPORTANTLY: NO PUNCTURES.
• I need to descend quicker
• I lost time descending. There's no denying it. It's easy to compare to the riders that were around me on each climb: I went past them while going uphill, and many of them overtook me going downhill. I can improve my descending skills. But going quicker downhill also means taking more risks.

Beskidy Trophy 2016 starts in two days!

The Race

The first high point of this year is approaching quickly

Beskidy Trophy is a four day mountain bike strage race in the Polish Beskidy mountains.

Each stage is between 70km and 80km  long and has between 2500m and 3000m of climbing.

First stage profile

Results

Results will be available here as each stage finishes

The Bike

I will be riding my BMC Fourstroke FS01 XX1

Why the full suspension then and not the Teamelite hard(soft)tail? I give up one kilo of weight to get the rear suspension. I think it's a good trade. I save my legs over the long stages and the absolutely insane downhill sections are a bit safer on a full suspension bike.

Gearing

SRAM XX1 as always and I will be riding a 32T fron chainring. Lots of climbing so low gears are needed. I may decide to switch to a 30T even. We'll see.

Wheels

Instead of my ususal race wheels, the NoTubes Valor, I will be riding a set of Bontrager XXX. The Bontragers are 120 grams heavier, however they are aluminium and therefore a little more compliant than the stiff carbon fiber Valors. That will help in the super fast and bumpy downhill sections. I haven't decided 100% yet though. I may end up riding the Valors after all

Tires

Schwalbe Rocket Ron Snakeskin 2.1. Tubeless. The Rocket Rons have good puncture protection in the SnakeSkin variant. They're also relatively light (the set I put on weigh 530grams and 550grams). Yes, I would run 2.25 if I thought I could spare the extra weight and rolling resistance. However, with all the uphil riding I go for the narrower 2.1 version of the tire.

Strava

Body Weight

My weight has been steadily going down since December of last year:

17th of May:

20th of May:

22nd of May:

XCup #3 - Fun fun fun track!

Result: Nineth place

Bike: BMC Fourstroke 01 XX1 Racing Ralph 2.1 Snakeskin (front and back), 1.6 bar. Bontrager XXX wheels.

During today's race I tested the bike setup for Beskidy Trophy next week. That's why I was running the Bontrager wheels instead of my usual Valor wheels. Also the rather slim tires which were not optimal for this course.

I started strongly and was up in fifth place for a while. Got tired towards the end and dropped to ninth. Still really happy with the race as my heart rate was through the roof (as expected after a week of only low intensity training) and that makes it a perfect training session leading up to Beskidy.

Results

My helmet cam video

Outside video from close to the start. You can see me 12 seconds into it (thank you Peter Balog)

Billingeracet: SECOND PLACE!!!

Result: 2nd place

Bike: BMC Fourstroke 01 XX1 Fast Trak 2.0 / Renegade 2.0 1.7 bar. Stans Notubes Valor wheels.

Well, it was cold and miserable. One degree Celsious and raining throughout the race. But I had perhaps my best race ever finishing in second place.

I had a really good starting hill where I came up first in my category (M40). After that I didn't see any other cyclists from any of the Master categories. I just rode in groups with Elite riders (you can tell by the number series on their backs).

At one point one of the Elite riders in my group called out my name: I turned around and looked at him. He said: Alex, you must be in the lead in the M40 category. I had no idea what he was talking about, I was sure that there had to be at least some M40 rider that had gone ahead which I told him.

With about 20km left, while I was in this really quick group with 5 Elite riders, my left pedal struck a root and I went flying over the handle bars. My Garmin bike computer went one way, my glasses the other way. I picked up both in one hand and was so stressed that I didn't even try to place the bike computer back in its holder. I just got on the bike and pedaled. I saw my group of riders disappear in the distance and started realizing that there was no way I was going to catch them. Still, stressed out, I managed to clip the bike computer into the holder... the glasses I just threw away and then I went full ahead rushing down the single track at crazy speeds, but to no avail. The group was gone! After a while I noticed that my handlebars hade gone crocked in the fall. I looked behind me; There was noone coming up. So I just stopped and straightened the bars.

I started riding a little bit slower, realizing that with 20km left it would be stupid to try to go the rest of the distance alone. I decided to wait for someone to catch up from behind

After a while I noticed one biker slowly catching up. It turned out to be Stefan Hellman, an M40 rider. Shortly after this an M30 rider caught up as well. We formed a group of three riders.

The race finishes with a double hill. The first one starting at about 70km, and the last just a km before the finish. Early on in the hill the M30 rider dropped off the back. Stefan Hellman started going hard up the hill and I managed to just hold on to his wheel. However, just before reaching the top I had to slow down and he got a gap of about 20m. After this I never managed to catch him again. Up the last climb, 'Strupen', I went as hard as I could, looking behind me all the time, worrying that someone was going to catch up. Instead I almost caught up with a rider in front of me (unfortunately from a different class).

I crossed the line and quickly ran to the officials who told me I had finished second. This was the first time I realized that I had actually done a really good race. I was overjoyed and punched my fist in the air. I don't think I've ever been as happy in my life. The competition had been fierce, pretty much all the best Swedish M40 riders had raced, and I had placed second!

I missed the price ceremony because I was sitting in my car thawing. So no podium photo :(

Results Billingeracet 2016

One more result link (if the first one doesn't work)

Heart rate

Suprisingly low heart rate. Both average and max. Weird! Usually that would mean I was not rested enough but then I should've performed worse as well

Bike setup

I decided to ride my full-suspension BMC Fourstroke XX1. The reason is that I wanted to save my legs in what I knew would be a long race. This worked out perfectly. I actually ended up using the Downhill mode of the Fox 32 CTD dampers over the rooty parts to make the ride more smooth (and also of course in the downhill sections).
I used my light Stans Notubes Valor carbon wheels. These are really light and accelerate so nicely. However, I feel now afterwards that I had inflated my tires a bit too much. 1.7 bars was too much for all these roots. 1.5 would have been better.

Strava

This is the fourth year that I participate in Billingeracet. I've logged all four years on Strava. It's really fun to look at how I've gotten faster.

Starting hill

Last hill ('Strupen'):

Hotcup #2 - Good legs!!!

Result: 5th place

Bike: BMC Fourstroke 01 XX1 Fast Trak 2.0 / Renegade 2.0 1.6 bar. Stans Notubes Valor wheels.

With the most important race of the season so far coming up this saturday I set the bike up for today's Hotcup in the same way as I will race on Saturday (Billingeracet). That means I'm racing the Fourstroke and running my Stans Notubes Valor wheels with the easy rolling Specialized Fast Trak Control at the front and Specialized Renegade Control att the back. While today's race was a bit too close to saturday's I took a chance and went all in anyway. The 'training' the rest of the week has been and will be easy commuting by bike.

Result: Hotcup #2

The race went really well and I felt strong all through it. I was part of the second group. At one point Björn Österberg and another guy went off the front and I was able to chase them down but pushing really hard on the quick sections. Now, any day that I'm able to catch up with Björn Österberg is a good day. I also managed to leave the rest of the group behind.

All the climbs felt really well and I was able to overtake riders going uphill. I attribute this to my current low weight. This bodes well for Beskidy Trophy in two weeks.

However, with a really tough starting field the my finishing position of fifth place may not seem all that impressive. Everything physically felt really good however. Best legs so far this season!

Ahead of this race I was a bit worried whether I had fully recovered from H12 last saturday which was really tough. Strangely enough my heart rate today was some 5 beats lower than normally for this type of race. This may be an indication of the fact that I was not fully recovered. And that makes my performance even more impressive.

Now lets just see if I can fully recover before Saturday's important Billingerace...

H12 - Team racing is FUN!

I don't often do team competitions. Mostly because I don't like to rely on other people (hm, that sounds harsh...). H12 is a Danish 12-hour mountain bike race which can be competed in as a team of four riders. We decided in our team, Scuderia Bike Italy BMC, to race H12 this year. Our strong rider was going to be Warren, but just a few weeks prior to the race he injured his hand in a race. Anton replaced him. So the team was: Anton, Jonas, Phille and I.

The bikes:

Alex: BMC Fourstroke XX1 (Tires: Fast Trak / Bontrager XR2)

Jonas : BMC Fourstroke XX1

Phille: BMC Fourstroke XX1

Anton: BMC Teamelite XT

The race draws a large crowd. The men's team competition had some 250 teams registered. Many of the best riders take part in this race. So we knew that competition was going to be strong.

The race takes place on a track where one lap is 11km long and a mix of single track and gravel road. The single track parts are quite rooty and rocky and there are some seriously steep, but short, climbs. It's not a track where you get many opportunities to take it easy.

We had decided on running one lap per team rider. We calculated on it taking about 30 minutes. It's rather intense so you run the entire lap at close to maximum heart rate. It's smart to make many short stints.

I took the first lap and managed to get us into tenth place. Jonas took the next, then Anton and lastly Phille. After a few laps we were switching between seventh, eight and ninth place, depending on who was riding the team's stints, and how fast the rider for the opposing team was. We were really even within the team, never more than a minute or two from eachother's lap times.

When we got about halfway through the race our placing had more or less stabilized at seventh place. However the eighth placed team was just a minute or two down. So we felt the heat from them all the time.

As evening was getting closer we realized that we may have to max out the team. I started to take extra laps. Chance had it so that I also went out on the last lap. I wasn't sure how far behind the rider of the other team was but I went all out anyway. However, with only 2km remaining of the last lap, he caught up with me. As he went past I managed to take his wheel and a frantic chase began. For the remainder of the lap I was on his wheel but I didn't find a way around. I made a last effort on the finishing straight but it was just too narrow and I couldn't get around him.

An eight place is still a great result and the whole team was happy. I still felt like I had let them down though.

Results

With the terrain being as rough as it was, AND with the length of the race (I did 7 stints all-in-all, so close to 80km and almost 3.5 hours in total) it was so nice to have the full-suspension BMC Fourstroke. It really saved my body and I was able to perform good lap times all through. My last lap was actually my third fastest one!

Video from the first lap (link to Youtube)

Three quarters of the team (no, the girls were not part of the team but are in Scuderia Bike Italy BMC)

XCup #2 - Mud, roots... more roots... did I mention roots?

Bike: BMC Teamelite 01 XX1, Rocket Ron LiteSkin 2.25, 1.4 bar. Medium MTT damping

The second XCup took place outside of Höör. We were here racing last year and it was muddy and rooty. This year was about as muddy but a lot more rooty.

Results

The starting hill went really well. I flew up it and went into the single track in second place behind Stefan Larsson. However after that I gradually lost places. I didn't like the terrain all that much. I ended up in 11th place... not very good.

In hindsight I should've taken the Fourstroke instead. The full-suspension would've really worked in this terrain. I did however want to give it a little rest and relaxation. It's going to have to work hard soon enough.

Video from the start

XCup #1 - The art of racing on consecutive days

Result: 9th place (overall)

Bike: BMC Fourstroke 01 XX1 Fast Trak 2.2 / Bontrager XR2 1.5 bar (training wheels)

Today's race was the first one of this season's XCup. The whole cup takes place in southern Sweden and all of the races are within easy reach for me. Also most of my training pals participate in the cup it's really fun racing against your friends. The races are 60 minutes long + the lap.

This particular track is a lot of fun with some tight single track mixed in with sections of gravel road. Especially the first 'loop' is really twisty and tight and I've had problems there in the previous year's that I've raced this track.

As this was my second race on consecutive days (Varberg took place yesterday) I was very curious as to how much my body had been able to recover. I know that each consecutive day of racing lowers my heart rate a bit and so performance suffers slightly. As I knew at the start of this week that I was going to be racing both Saturday and Sunday I just had one intensive workout Wednesday morning. The rest of the week has been low intensity training.

Results: XCup #1

Things started out very hectic with a bunch of us barrelling down the start loop which was a long gravel road. People were switching positions, advancing and being pushed back and it all seemed a bit chaotic. Luckilly everyone got out of it unscaved and we went into the first portion of single track in a bunch. I took the outside of the left turn into the single track and got a really good position somewhere around sixth place.

The pace that was set by the leading guys was totally manic. I hung on for the first half of the lap and then I let go. The front group was 5 riders; Johan M, Stefan L, Luke, Ola and Björn. I was in the second group with Jerry, Martin W, Stefan M, Kristian S and Erik Mattelin.

Erik seemed to be the quickest of us but he kept crashing, getting back on his bike, chasing us down, catching up and then crashing again.

After a while Jerry and Martin went to the front of our group and on each gravel road section they pulled HARD. I had either Jerry's or Martin's wheel and enjoyed being sucked along in the vacuum behind them.

The group stuck pretty much together with perhaps a rider or two going away on the tight first single track loop but he always got reeled in on the gravel road section. I had to fight quite hard not to get dropped as the pace quickened. A few times there was actually a gap of 10-20 meters between me and the group  but I managed to haul them in every time.

Going out on the last lap I was at the head of the group of a while. But as the end of the lap approached Jerry, Stefan and Martin went ahead and I was unable to follow them. Erik was behind me so I concentrated on keeping him behind. The last section before the end sprint on gravel road was over a rooty and slightly muddy section. I sprinted hard there and halfway to the finish line I looked behind and saw that Erik was a few meters back so I could relax and roll over the finish line in ninth place.

I really have to say that the BMC Fourstroke was an excellent weapon for this kind of terrain. This is exactly the kind of trails that you want a well setup full-suspenion bike. Raising the tire pressure by 0.1 bar was also the right decision. I didn't notice and of the rolling of the rear tire that I had in yesterday's race.

But now for the interesting part: How did the heart rate match up compared to yesterday? Two days of consecutive racing - What effect did it have.

Saturday pulse data: Average: 177, max 187

Sunday pulse data: Average 176, max 183

Really good in other words! I'm very happilly surprised.

Varberg MTB Meeting (Västgötacupen #1): XCO with failing chip and incompetent officials

Result: 6th place / DSQ

Bike: BMC Fourstroke 01 XX1 Fast Trak 2.2 / Bontrager XR2 1.4 bar (training wheels)

There was this XCO race, Varberg MTB Meeting, not too far away (a 2 hour ride). Sandra and I decided to try it out. We do very few XCO races. This one is part of a a cup: Västgötacupen. The other races are quite far away and we may not do any of the other ones. But it's really fun to add variation to your life.

Now the reason we don't do much XCO racing:

1. It's usually a long drive away and the races are typically 1 hour long. 

2. They're technical in nature with jumps and stuff. And that's not my strong suit.

 All dangerous sections of XCO races have A-, B- and C-lines. The A-line is the difficult and often dangerous ones, the B- and C-lines are easier. The B- and C-lines are also made so that they take longer time to ride so by not doing the A-line you lose time.

It's always a challange for me to try as many A-lines as possible. In this particular race there were four places where you could chose. Three of these were serious jumps. Jumping isn't my thing. I didn't do the A-line in those places. The fourth place was a Rock Garden. Here I did pick the A-line. I'm very proud of myself for that.

Even where there are not sepparate lines with varying difficulty an XCO race can be dangerous. This was also shown in this race where there were several crashes, one leading to a rider being picked up be an ambulance. He was lying on the actual race track and they didn't dare move him due to the risk of a spinal injury. It was quite scary to see this while we (slowly) rode past.

For my class, M40, this particular race was 6 laps of a 3km course. The course was ALL single track. 4 sections with sepparate lines. Going either uphill or downhill in most places. Not steep, but few flat sections.

Result: Västgötacupen #1

The starts in XCO races are always really chaotic as people now that the race is short and so getting a good start is vital. The start loop in this race was really short and we were into single track almost immedialtely. I was probably somewhere in the middle of the field at this point. Mostly because I don't want to risk a crash, it's just not important enough for me.

I quickly started picking up positions and I advanced through out the race. I think I must've overtaken some 20 cyclists while not being overtaken myself a single time. It was a lot of fun. Sure, some of the guys in my class took the A-lines and gained ground on me there but I got them back in the climbs.

The finish was fun because on the last lap there was a guy on my wheel all the way through the lap and I was not able to shake him until the sprint.

After going over the finish line an official came running up to me and told me that my chip had not worked and that they had no officially registered time for me. This has happened before and in cases like this it's the officials duty to look at the rider's number plate and register the time when he crosses the line manually (by just writing it down). Somehow the officials of this race did not have this procedure down. So, at this time, I'm listed as DSQ in the result list. However, checking my Strava entry for the race, I can see that I came in at sixth place. We'll see how this develops. I've filed a complaint with the race organizers.

Reflections:

Slightly low tire pressure in the rear. It felt like the rear tire wanted to come off in the turns (the ones with good grip). I should go 0.1 bars higher

Hotcup #1 - Premature sprinting is bad for you

Result: 8th place

Bike: BMC Fourstroke 01 XX1 Fast Trak 2.0 / Fast Trak 2.0 1.6 bar. Stans Notubes Valor wheels.

The first race of this summer's Hotcup series is a long one: 2 hours plus the rest of the lap. A good length race to practice for the marathons of this summer. The lap was about 11km long so the race would be either 4 our 5 laps. This would end up being important... as you'll see below...

We have raced this track before and usually it's quick and flowy with lots of singletrack. This time it was a bit more tricky with some new blown-down trees and tricky detours around them.

Weather was... cold, but at least almost completely dry. I raced in short shorts and leg warmers! Very brave and unlike me.

Result: Hotcup #1

The start went well and I was in the front group from the get-go. After a while we had a group of about 8-9 riders. My club-mates from CKX, Stefan Larsson and Björn Österberg, were in the group. Pace was HIGH.

About half-way through the lap the pace dropped a bit and I could stop hanging on for dear life. Well, at least I thought it dropped. A quick look at  my computer told me that what I felt as a drop in speed was showing up as a heartrate of 180. Ouch!

After lapping the first lap and started thinking about the long-term implications of this hard pace. Would I be able to last for two hours? "No way!" was the answer. Here I took inspiration from a blog entry from one of our best Swedish mtb-racers, Henrik Öijer, which I just read a day earlier. He wrote that sometimes it's better to drop down to the second group in order to finish the race strongly.

So I let the lead group go and dropped the pace a bit. I went from a 180+ pulse to 160+ and waited for someone, or some group, to catch up. I was very curious about who it would be. I knew I had some really strong riders behind me.

I was a bit surprised by how long it took before I started seeing a lone rider approching from the back. It took him a while to reach me too, which is a good thing because I was more likely to be able to hold his wheel. It turned out to be a Danish rider on a Cannondale Scalpel. Towards the end of the second lap I took his wheel and he pulled strongly, but not too strongly.

The Danish rider was very technical and lightning quick in some of the tricky descents. Also, there was one place where you could ever go over a log, or around it. Here he bunny-jumped over it. Very impressive! Myself, I went around.

We went around the entire third lap together with him pulling 90% of the time. When lapping and going out on the fourth lap the clock said something like 1h29minutes. So I judged that we would probably just do one more lap as the fourth lap should be a bit slower than the third.

When there was about a quarter left of the fourth lap suddenly two guys came up from behind. The lead rider was in a CK Ringen dress (my old club!) and the other guy I thought may be Henrik Söeberg. The CK Ringen guy was pulling hard. As they went past my Danish guy didn't try to take their wheel so on the next road section I sprinted in order to get on the wheel of the CK Ringen guy. I managed to do this and I could tell that my Danish guy also made it.

As we approached the last few km:s of the lap I looked at my clock: It read something like 1h52m racing time. I thought we would never go out for a fifth lap. So this was it: The sprint was approaching. I this point I had a bit of luck with some back-markers and managed to get ahead of the three other riders. So I decided to try a long sprint to finish first in the group. I pushed HARD.

Well, it worked as far as that I was the first to finish the lap. However the clock showed 1h58m14s. Yeah, that's right. I fifth lap was happening.

I had spent all my energy on the sprint and my spirits hit rock bottom. I watched rider after rider go past me. Martin Wehnhov passed quick. At some point halfway through the lap I messed up lapping a slower rider, got stock on his rear wheel, and flew over my handlebars. I got back up just to see Stefan Methander zip past. With no will or energy left in my body I slowly rode the last part of the lap finishing in 8th place.

Fitnesslöbet - First race on the BMC Fourstroke

Result: 9th place

Bike: BMC Fourstroke 01 XX1 Fast Trak 2.0 / Fast Trak 2.0 1.7 bar. Stans Notubes Valor wheels.

Fitnesslöbet is a marathon race early in the season which is really good as a build-up to the marathons that come later on in the spring and summer. It's a long race: 76km, on a tough track, and all the good Danish riders are there.

The race is over four laps of a course. The course is rather special as it's mostly gravel road for the first half and then the second half is all single track. But not only that: The last part is totally murderous as you cross the same small hill in three different directions. And after that there's another three steep climbs.

Last year was really good as I finished in fifth place. This in spite of getting really tired during the last lap. The race last year was really muddy and took a long time to finish.

During this race I decided that I was going to improve my gel-intake process compared to previous races. I even went as far as to take my first gel just minutes before the start. A first for me.

Result: Fitnesslöbet

As the race started I got a really good position close to the front and I was able to not exhert myself too much during the start loop on gravel road. When the course turned into single track I let go of the quick boys and settled back in a good group. Henrik Söeberg was there, so were Palle Jensen and Thomas Kyrum-Stein.

Quite early in the race I noticed that my body wasn't feeling 100% full of energy and power. In the short climbs I had to drop back a few meters each time and then take them back in the next flat section. I decided that if I was going to finish the race well I would have to be super tactical. Not a strong point of mine.

Henrik Söeberg went away at the end of the first lap and took one other guy with him. I decided not to try to follow. I stayed with our group which looked like it was some 20-30 cyclists strong. I was up among the first few all the time. this is a good position to be in as it avoids problems when lapping slower cyclists and you get a good view of the course.

I looked back every now and then and saw the the group was thinning. At the end of the second lap Palle and Thomas also went off the front. Again I held back decided that I was not in a good enough shape to take any chances.

When the third lap was nearing its second half and the single track was about to start I decided to make a strategic move: I knew that it was really important to have some good wheels to follow for the first half of the last lap, where all the gravel road sections are. But there was a real danger of losing those wheels when the climbing started on this third lap. So I went to the front of the group so that I could set the pace for the last half of the third lap, thereby making sure that I would be in a good position for the last lap.

This all worked out as planned. We lost a bunch of cyclists off the back and on the last lap there were only five of us left in the group. As expected I was getting real tired now and I was only able to hang on until the climbs of the second part of the last lap started, then I had to let them go. I managed to finish the last lap without anyone catching up from behind so my strategy worked.

I finished the race in ninth place. Happy that my strategy had worked and that I had done what I could with the resources that I had in hand. Perhaps less happy with placing worse than last year though.

The first race on the Fourstroke was a fact. The bike performed flawlessly. I'm really looking forward to racing this bike during the marathons for the rest of the year.