Race 3 - Denmark Long

Sometime in the near future, I will start coming up with more interesting names for posts! But for now, Race 3 - Denmark Long will suffice.

Lessons learned from Daniel Hubmann nearly became Friday's title, as on arriving at the start I realised my GPS watch is magnetic, as north on my compass was about 45° off from where I expected. Perhaps Mr Hubmann can be excused for his mistake a few weeks ago! If you missed reading about it, you can find it here.

Onto the race on Sunday. My second of two hard races over the weekend. Warming up I felt my legs were a little sluggish, but after some sprints I at least felt they were better.

At the start I was ahead of the Danes - Hoffmann, Søgaard, Lisbygd and a few others. It was a good position to start in (not optimal as I was being chased) but good for me to feel under pressure all the way and start with athletes chasing me.

Part 1

I started well, picking a good route to the first control. Disaster struck for 30 secs on the approach to the control where I slipped on a root, and somehow the chain dropped off the front chain ring and back cassette . It took 30 secs to put back on, while getting a little knotted in the process which again needed sorting out. But 30 secs at the beginning of the course is no biggie - I should have been on for a time around the fastest split here, highly unusual for me on the first control. I saw my 2 min woman here so knew I had gained a lot of time.

I knew the best route to 2 was to go left on the big tracks, but on seeing my 2 min woman, I changed my mind, took a risk to go right. The risk was based on the fact the path into no.1 was marked as 'slow' but actually good riding. My second option to no.2 was along the 'slow' path to the right of the straight line. As the path to no.1 was good, I decided the risk was worth taking if I could gain some more seconds.

It was not worth it! About 100m into the path, the mud began, and carried on until I hit the fast path. Two mins binned here.

On the way to no.3 I was my two min woman again, but knew she had pulled back about a minute on me with my error earlier. On the way to 4 I didn't want to turn around and go the same way, so I carried on straight, taking a longer route and losing another minute.

On the approach to no.4 I saw Nina, my -2min woman who had clearly gained time on my mistake to no.2 and then overtaken on the mistake early on to no.4. I pulled her back and sat behind her for a couple of controls - taking time to plan the rest of part 1 of the map and waiting for my chance to ride away.

Part 2

At control 7, the opportunity presented itself. I had decided in advance I would take the north route to no.7 as the line into the control seemed better. I could then carry on without turning on the way to no.8. Nina and Caroline (my 2 min woman who I finally caught at 6) went to the south, so I stuck with my plan and went north. I was about 30 secs faster here and saw them on my way to no.8. I then lost 20 secs just after no.7 as the path was bad. I should have turned at the control. I reached no.8 before them, but saw they were not far behind.

Another route choice where I stuck to my plan that had been decided some controls earlier. I went south this time, taking a nice line into the control. Again, this was a little faster than the north route Nina took.

The route to no.12 was another decision leg. Was it faster to go right out of the control and straight up the fast track, or go left and chance it on a medium path? The latter was the shorter route, but the former was easier biking. I opted for the latter, but rode up the road for a few metres before turning after a few secs. Turning at no.12 I saw Nina was right back behind me, so I knew I had to hold it together. I also knew as long as she kept me insight, she was unlikely to make a mistake, and therefore finding 2 mins at the end of the course was going to be hard.

No.13 after my lesson from no.2 I stuck with the big path. I also knew the quality of the paths around no.13 was poor, so I kept my route in simple.

Control 15 was a leg that split Nina and I, both trying to take a different route to gain some ground. I went straighter, she went faster. We arrived at no.15 with Nina a second or two ahead. After that, with one control left, I sat behind again. Nina however was much smoother on the singletrack sections and pulled a few seconds away. Guess it must be those 27.5 inch wheels! She certainly carried speed well on the corners and roots. I pulled back at little to no.16 and it was then to get to the finish.

Sunset from Jønkoping (unaltered image!)

I finished 4th today. Nina won in 1.27.34, Lisbygd in 1.28.54, Søgaard in 1.29.29, and me 1.29.49. There was then a sizeable 10 min gap to 5th.

It's hard to say what could have been without my mistake early on. Without the 2 min time loss to no.2, I wouldn't have taken the idiot's route to 4 (the idiot's route hadn't been in my plan for the leg). But without Nina around, would I have sustained the high pace for so long? Likewise, I wonder if Nina hadn't caught me so early whether she also would have carried on pushing maximum all the way to the finish. I certainly think it would have been a very different race!

The long distance doesn't feature in my plans for the year. Today was only raced hard because I planned an easier day on Saturday. All my training has been geared towards the sprint and middle races, so for me to have been focussed on the long and been relatively close to the leaders was a good thing! Yesterdays extensive route choice focus seemed to have helped today (mostly!) and after the first part of the course, the routes I took were generally faster.