Megavalanche Update

Another weekend without racing is coming up. What’s becoming of this Team? I’m confident that Max will keep the Team colors flying by doing a road race. For another fraction of the Team it’s a welcome opportunity to prepare for the all important Team Championship. I am of course referring to the Megavalanche.

For those of you who have no clue as to what I’m talking about, check previous entries here:
http://www.rivette.dk/index.php/dev_log/artikel/megavalanche/
http://www.rivette.dk/index.php/dev_log/artikel/new_sponsor_for_the_mega/

I expect to finish among the two best from the Team. The training actually started this past week with DS Jesper Skriver ripping Obergammarau Bike Park to pieces. Rumor has it that the crazy former cross country rider gone bad, threw wall-rides and manuals all around. Naturally I had to retaliate to such unannounced practice. With team-mate Kristian Axelsen in Copenhagen on a high-school field trip, the plan was to try out the BMX Supercross World Cup track. I borrowed my mom’s old Mazda, Kristian ditched all school related activities and off we went for a Tuesday night pump practice.

For only 30 DKK the local club will provide a bike, helmet and everything else needed. The track is almost identical to the one used for the World Cup, with the starting ramp and first straight somewhat modified. I didn’t really feel like going down an eight meter vertical ramp with a three meter jump at the end anyway. I guess we have to admit that our practice was on the women’s track too. We captured some of the action with “Daddy Long-leg” Axelsen’s camera phone. And if you want to see how the professionals do it login to freecaster.
http://freecaster.tv/bmx/1007930/uci-bmx-supercross-by-swatch-highlights?page=3

Assorted cell-phone images:

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Billingeracet 2009

“...so after that you attacked really hard? Out the back of the lead group?”

It was my second DNF this season out of five races so far. That’s very far from satisfying and I won’t go into details. Let’s focus on the team members that actually finished the race: Max, Peter, and Kristian. 80 km’s of technical trails around Skövde made for a beautiful setting, with a four-minute climb to the finish line, tempting those with anything left to experience severe bonking and cramps in the final kilometers.

Well, actually a fifth member of the team participated in the race. Niklas had a promising race in the junior category when a rock with dimensions of another planet forced him to abandon from third place. Kristian was then left to defend the honor of the junior smurfs. The race became a little long for High Tower and he had to dig deep to finish the race in fifth place. Although a Swedish documentary on six year old Chinese gymnasts and their training regime made him conclude the night before the race that …” I don’t think we’re really training that hard”… apparently it wasn’t enough to quite make the suffering reach the podium☺.

In the elite class, Max was racing on home soil with the team for the first time. And he had to make it on his own which also fought bravely to do. It was a rather competitive field, sporting riders like Friberg, Wengelin, Darwell, Vätterhal, Westergreen and Bleckur. Max made the selection for the lead group after the hard starting climb. Halfway through the race Wengelin, Darwell and Vätterhal had had forced a further selection and made the race a battle between the three of them on the last climb to the finish. Loosing and missing bottles throughout the race had Max running on empty but he still managed 7th place. Quite impressive! Our very own breed, Peter Bech, had a rock solid race with an 18th place finish. He seems to have the stamina this season and held just about the same position throughout the race. We’ll hire a Chinese gymnast coach later this year in order to give him those last few minutes to the front.

It was a fun trip “hinsidan” with an oriental dinner, which seems to have become the norm. One of the youngsters also experienced that Swedish waitresses understand German, although it’s perfectly all right to order Danish as well. Another good “learning experience” as the Americans says. There’s no racing scheduled for next weekend so maybe the R6 will see some action for the first time this year. Otherwise, c’ya in Vejle for the third round of the mtb-liga.

Peter Bech feeling optimistic before the start.

These group photos are so much fun.

Palatial accommodation in Sweden.

There should be a funny story somewhere here, yet we don’t know what it is.

Team truck, still going strong.

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Junior Action

Team Rivette Juniors fooling around somewhere in Belgium.

4 races in a row

Wednesday 6. may I went to Ghost cup in the beautiful Skanderborg on a funny track near the Lake. The course had a “death-drop” witch was like a little bump after being in Houfalize ☺ I finished right after peter from the team. Then came Sunday with 2. round of the Shimanoliga in Silkeborg with some good steep climbs, on the last lap I nearly got the wheel of my teammate Kristian, but he saw me and got the better of me. Tuesday I went to a local road-race where the pace was higher than expected, so I was a little tired the day after in Fredericia to another Ghost-cup race. Now I am looking forward to Langlobscupen in Skövde, then Shimanoliga in Vejle and then a 4-day race in Polen – and then I have to study some before my last and final exam in physics.

/Niklas Bangsbro

Houffalize World Cup from a junior’s perspective

The first weekend of May six of us Danish juniors and a U23 rider went to the Houffalize World Cup with the National Team. Those hailing from Jutland met with the others in Kolding. In front of us was a long trip to Belgium. When we arrived we just had time for a quip spin. The day after we went to see the course and the rest of the day was for relaxing. The course is probably one of the coolest I have ridden yet. Not too technical but really hard and with long downhills. Not average Danish terrain. After course inspection we relaxed for the rest of the day.

Come raceday we just had to give all we had. The start wasn’t until 14.30 so we had a lot of leisure time. The start is always important and I was really nervous. The start-loop was really brutal with a chance to kill your-self and end the race prematurely. That first hill is like a stairway to heaven.

We were told to be carefull and save a bit of energy because there was a good chance to over do it on that climb. The start gun went off and the pushing resulted in crash in which I got held up. After the first climb there was a long downhill I had anticipated we would be forced to run down. Fortunately that was not the case but there was a lot of riders everywhere so pace was extremely slow and I was forced off the bike in other places. 
The second lap was much better. There was more room to ride your own pace and slowly began to work through the field. This time I rode almost the entire track except for the one steep climb that was taken out for the next day elite race.

The last lap I gave all I had and usually I do well on the last lap. It was also the case in Houffalize where I succeeded in outsprinting two competitors on the line.

In the evening we were spectators at the 4X-finals. Four riders fighting all they can on a short action packed downhill track. There were a lot of crashes and the racing was spectacular.

On Sunday we were able to just enjoy being on the sideline for the elite races. The entire elite were at the starting line and it was fantastic to see how they race. I am definitely looking forward to experiencing that again.
It was a long drive home with the usual primitive boredom activities. I won’t tell you about that but I guess its part of racing far from home.

/Kristian Axelsen

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Shimano-Liga 2 Post Scriptum

Photo courtesy of Brian Lykke, Mountainbike Club Vejle.

The course was nice, the weather was beautiful and the riders were many. Even with Christian Poulsen as a spectator and Benjamin Justesen and Klaus Vesterlund missing in action. The online results and prize ceremony were even improved for the second round. So what’s missing? I’ll tell ya’ll - a bit of balls from the growing pack of serious riders and teams.

With less than week to go only seven riders had registered for the Saturday night city-sprint, six of them being Team Rivette riders including three juniors. Excuses are plenty but really… with so many people giving the impression of being so dedicated with costly bikes and set-up’s, hours of training, web-sites and so on, you would have thought more would have found their way to Silkeborg Saturday night to do a short action packed race. Not only would it benefit to their own fitness in the long term but would also have been a nice gesture to help promote the sport. You know, in other disciplines they actually race for several days in a row. As a matter of fact, in the national races on the road they compete both Saturday and Sunday down through all classes. In that sense our discipline still has some way to go in order to adapt a real racing mentality. I think it’s a real shame the organizers had to shut down such a good initiative. Maybe a few additional points to the overall classification from the city-sprint would help next year.

Talking about the road, what do you think of second place in the junior ranks, Asbjørn Andersen of Team Glud & Mastrand!? “What, no racing on the road this weekend? What the heck… I’ll give those Robin Hood mtb-riders a run for their money”. And that’s what he did, displaying quite a bit of flair for riding on knobby tires. The junior smurfs was a bit off the pace but in their defense they’ve been doing more racing this spring than before. The same could be said of the other guys who keep storming ahead. Jonas won as usual but check out how steady the lap times of Frederik Kjeldsen was. It was another good performance by mini-Kjeldsen.

I guess it was finally time for the veterans to deliver. And dare I say, “look out punks – I’m coming”. Well, actually I dare not, knowing it’ll only last as long as the last week of training. But for the first time this year I felt comfortable on the bike. Right from the gun I let Klaus go. Primarily because I could see how hard he was trying to make a statement early on ☺ and secondarily because I feared the “red plague from HMTBK” would get me in the end. But it didn’t which means my endurance is getting better. The race became an individual time trial, testing my focus and will to suffer. There’s still a bit of way to go on that account, but it’ll come as my form progresses. Our Swedish team-mate Max had come over from “hinsidan” to help make an appearance. Riding in third place he was forced to abandon with a mechanical. Klaus would have looked good on the podium with two blue flanks.

The coming weekend the second round of the Bundesliga takes place. The field is even stronger than in Münsingen. I guess it’s not an Olympic year, leaving the stars able to compete more frequently instead of structured training away from their competitors. We’ll adapt the latter strategy and will now have 10 days of good training before heading to Skövde in order to give Max some back-up in the Swedish marathon series.

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Shimanoliga 2, Silkeborg

Peter bech moving way too fast for the camera Photo courtesy of Brian Lykke, Mountainbike Club Vejle.

- (or a day in the life of Peter Bech, Team Rivette)

07.39: Woke up to the sound of singing birds and a cascade of sunlight coming through the bedroom window. Tried to walk as silent as possible to the toilet to empty my bladder, so I didn’t wake up Max Macdonald who arrived the evening before.  I succeeded in not waking him up, and went to the front door to get today’s paper.

07.41: Slamming the door too hard resulting in a wide awake Macdonald.

07.55: Made a huge bowl of oatmeal and some nice coffee imported by our Swedish rider. Enjoying the breakfast while discussing how we shall spend the waiting time until today’s race kicks off in the afternoon.

09.33: Decides to take the Rivette Team Truck to the starting area and then walk back through the bright green forest. We both agree that this should be a part of an everyday waking up routine.  Walking, not driving the car!

11.45: Team rider and good friend Thomas Bonne checks in, high on yesterday’s impressions from the BMX world cup in Copenhagen.

12.09: Putting on the team uniform and filling the bottles for today’s event. I realize that I’m out of energy drinks and suddenly appreciate the coke cans from my in-laws. Sugar is sugar, right?

13.11: Starting my warm up procedure. Actually I don’t have one, but I usually do a lap on the course and settle with that. There are a lot of riders and spectators for today’s race. Great to see that mountainbiking is regaining its popularity. Try not to talk to too much and focusing on getting warm.

14.00: The race begins. I don’t care about my start position as number 25. I have the whole day to pass people. Race strategy is to quickly find my own pace and ride consistent to the finish line.

14.09: Hurting like hell, forgetting race strategy and trying to hold Max’ wheel.  Apparently he started in the middle of the field as well.

15.00: Looking at my watch and realizing that I’m only half way. It feels like I’ve been riding forever. In 6th position and very pleased about it.

15.58: Getting passed on one of the last uphills by a strong riding Frederik Edin from Sweden. There is nothing I can do to follow him.

16.04: Crosses the finish line totally wasted and very content with my 7th place.  Happy to hear that Thomas took 2nd place after Klaus Nielsen.

16.45: The race commentator announces that the prize ceremony is on and tells the first 10 riders to go to the podium to collect their envelopes.

17.04: At home in the shower washing off the dirt from the dusty track. Glad that I don’t have to sit in a car for several hours to get home.

17.25: Thinking of grabbing a coke, but decides to go for water instead. I did get 6 of those bad boys on the bike, remember.

17.57: Naive as I am, I look for results, but you gotta give the guys a chance to get home. Not everyone lives next to the course.

19.58: Sending my thoughts to Max who is on the ferry to Gothenburg. He had a mechanical and didn’t get the chance to show the crowd what he is really capable of. I’m sure we’ll see that pretty soon in the up coming races.

20.05: Thinking of hitting the sack, but I guess it’s too early. Maybe I should read the paper which I didn’t finish due to a great bike race.

Thanks for reading. The results should be on by now.

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