Couch Potato

This is what his rivals saw of Kristian in todays race. Foto:mbaek.dk

Like I wrote in the last post, Kristian Axelsen is not wasting his time on the couch. Actually he uses every opportunity he gets to race his bike. This weekend was no exception.
The cross riders usually compete both Saturday and Sunday. A concept that might be suited for mountain bike events, but that’s another discussion. Kristian was the runner up in the junior category in the first race in Hammel. According to Kristian, the conditions were extremely muddy due to the huge amounts of rain lately. He was beaten by Emil Arvid Olsen by 20 seconds. In my book that’s almost the same, but in a cyclecross race that’s apparently a huge difference. What do I know!

I talked to Kristian in the evening after the race, where he actually was wasting time on the couch. He was satisfied with his performance and could go to bed without any pressure because he already had a good result under his belt.

Sunday’s venue was in the lesser know town of Nr. Søby, close to Skive. Despite that it was a more prestigious race. 3rdround of the national Post Cup.
Kristian didn’t seem to care about what kind of race it was. He just took off, never looked back and rode away with the victory. The time on the couch was obviously well spent.
With the national championships only 4 weeks away I’m starting to get really excited for our two cycle cross aces. I really hope that Bonne and Kristian will time their progression for that event and show the rest of the fat tire community how it’s done.

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District championships, Cyclecross

There are still a few hard core mountain bikers around, in whose dictionary the term” off season” doesn’t occur.
They have opted to spend the winter break racing, where most of their summer rivals recover from some hard months on the mountain bike.
Two of these energizer bunnies who just can’t get enough, happen to be members of Team Rivette.
Thomas Bonne and Kristian Axelsen are riding the cycle cross races across the country in preparation for the national championships in the beginning of January.
This weekend they rode the district championships in Zealand.
Especially Kristian was determined to do a good performance. He lives in Jutland but the team is registered in DMK and that makes him a Zealander. He got aware of the license situation a few weeks ago when he won the junior ranks in the district championships of Jutland but couldn’t go to the podium according to the regulations.
To that he simply replied:”then I just have to win the championships in Zealand”
To find out if he could live up to this statement, read here in his own words how it unfolded:

This weekend I travelled to Copenhagen to do two cyclecross races. I stayed with Thomas Bonne during my trip.
The first one was with JC cykelklub. The course was not like an MTB course. It was only 2,5 km long, and it wasn’t difficult to ride. But with 25 km pr. hour, it is. I only ride for 45 minutes, so I don’t need anybody to hand out bottles. Mountain bike races can sometimes be confusing for the helpers if the rider wants different bottles on different laps.
I got a good start and fought my way forward. Then I could feel that my energy levels started to drop. I gave it everything I had and finished in 3rd place.
Next day was the cycle cross races in Helsingør, I was feeling better.
The course was much more my kind of style. It was a little like a mountain bike course. It had some sections with stairs you had to run, and some obstacles you could bunny jump (if you were good).
The juniors started 1 minute after the elite field. When we came to the stairs on the first lap, I fell on them, so I got blue all over my body. After that I jumped on the bike again.
5 laps into the race the problem came. “How many laps to go ???” I couldn’t remember how many laps I had ridden and how many that were left. How can you keep track on the laps, when you are racing on a bike.
I finished the race in 39 minutes as number 2.
Thomas Bonne finished 4th in the elite field.
After the race I drove home with Anders Bystrup. We were having a nice trip home with Cross World Cup on my PC, but the batteries only lasted half the race.

Kristian unfortunately couldn’t fulfill his dreams about claiming the gold medal. He got a silver medal instead but also a lot of valuable experiences he can benefit from later in the season.
And of course, not to forget, he also got the lovely red pig in the picture. Great prize!

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Lion Heart part II

I think I owe you riders and readers to explain why I have been seen back in the classic blue Rivette jersey.  Well, like a number of other persons in Denmark right now I’m unemployed due to the financial situation in the country, and my team affiliation in 2009 was closely linked to my job situation. Furthermore maybe for the same reasons my 2009 team has decided to close down its activities in Denmark. I have no hard feelings worth mentioning and I wish them the best of luck!

And wasn’t I supposed to quit racing anyways? Sure I was, but right now after many deep thoughts I’ve reckoned that it’s not an option.
The only comfort I have right now is my family and my bike. My dear wife and kids make me think of the things that really matters in life, and I guess the rides on my bike gives me the opportunity to get rid of anger and disappointments and surely have a good impact on my general mood. So in these days I experience a blooming in my private life and I really enjoy riding my bike. On the bike I often join Peter Bech who has got the title of Rivette team manager. Peter very early offered me to rejoin the blue guard. So there you have it..
The last ride I did back on the 2008 Team Rivette on my H6 bike was the incredible nice Invita race in Varde in late October. Funny thing about this is the fact that exactly one year later I was reunited with the same untouched H6 bike to the 2009 edition of the same race. I didn’t exactly repeat my 2008 win but struggled to stay in top twenty. Not a very good performance for an elite racer. I have improved my form since that, earning a fourth and a first place in the first couple of rounds of the annual winter mtb cup.

If my job situation allows me to ride my bike, you will see me turn out for the 2010 Team Rivette. And I can assure you that we will make a great impact on the 2010 scene, being present at the 12- and 24 hrs races and of cause the Superliga. I know Peter soon is ready to present the 2010 team. Look forward to some surprises!
See you at the road and at the winter cup in Viborg and Varde.

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Megavalanche 2009

”The cow” participates every year and makes some cool helmet-cam videos. See video here

From the 6th to the 12th of July the cycling-event of the year took place. No, it was not the Tour, not the Nationals, not the Worlds. I am of course talking about the Megavalanche. I had been biggin’ it up in advance and let me tell you – it was all that and more. I owe ya’ll a report and think it will be a way to kick a bit of life into this site again.

Only four men had the guts to take on the challenge: P.R. Andersen, Flemming Tanghus, Jesper S.L. and yours truly. As previously mentioned, Flemming was the only one with international palmares on fat knobby tires. The rest of us was (not are) pure hardcore wannabies. Some styling it up more gracefully than others, dare I say, but everybody were high as a group of stockbrokers on coke before the financial crisis, as we drove up Alpe d’Huez. Jesper S.L. had booked a nice little ski apartment which was soon to be filled with body-armour, fullface helmets and fork oil.

The event itself boasts a qualifying race held the Friday before Sunday’s main race. Approximately 2000 riders enter the event and only 500 of those will qualify for the main final. Those not eligible for a start in the main race either compete in the b-final or in a timed open race down the course meaning there’s no mass start but you’ll get a registered time down the mountain. The qualification and final-course are different from each other, which is pretty cool as you get to race on two different tracks. Qualification takes roughly 30 minutes to do, whereas the main race is at least double that (depending on your ability stay upright).

With 2000 riders in qualifying, Friday is a busy day at the lift. With a previous result or early registration you’ll get a seeding in qualifying but make sure to leave for the start in time. I had a fairly good starting position but it took me nearly two hours to get to the start. The day before I spend 30 minutes on that same trip.
The week of training went good and bad. The first day out, we managed to get separated on our first ride down the slopes. Trails are abundant and emerging everywhere.

Somewhere in all the dust we got split into two groups. It didn’t do much damage to the riding though, as you just jump on the nearest lift and go back up for another ride. Day two saw P.R. Andersen tear his fork apart. That cost him about 600 € and most of the day in the pits. All in all we spend quite some time getting acquainted with the local bike shop. Largely thanks to P.R.  but by the end of the week the bikes were smoking.

By the third day we were starting to get comfortable on the slopes. Especially the two family-guys (Flemming and Jesper) dusted of their racing skills in a frenzy-like manner. One of the last rides down to Alpe d’Huez they left me substantially behind. Dust-clouds were all I could see as they skid around every corner. Suddenly a much larger dust-cloud exploded ahead of me. Yup, it was man-made and resulted in a broken shoulder and exit Mr. Tanghus. Well, he didn’t exit till Thursday after realizing it was to hard riding down the finale-course starting at the glacier at Pic Blanc. Tough guy!

Other than that we kept shredding the trails and spending money at the bike shop. Come Friday the excitement level was at an all time high. I barely missed my start. I put on my gear in the last gondola to the start and entered the start box as the gun went off. The day before had been used to check out which lines to take in the first kilometers. I think I did pretty well, but hadn’t really any idea of my position. The qualifying race is almost entirely downhill and after one third my arms felt like an eight year old Chinese gymnasts at a training camp.

The last 5-7 minutes that same Chinese could have flicked-flacked the course faster than me. At the line I came in as 15th. P.R. did the same in his race and Jesper was 18th in his. We were all within 40 seconds of each other. To much regret however, S.L. went on the rampage at the start and crashed with an injured wrist as the result. He managed to get down with honors but the main-race was out the question. Two down, two to go I guess.

As kind of a reserve we had Thomas Riis to come stay with us from Friday. We couldn’t persuade him to take Jesper’s spot in the final, but he went thrashing with the two finalists on Saturday and acted as an excellent helper (as always) Sunday morning at the mountain-top. I’ll be surprised if his not competing next year though.
The start for Sunday’s race was at 9.00 am. We had been given lift time at 6.10 am. Not the favorite time of day for P.R. Well, not for me either in what is supposed to be a fun/vacation trip. Weather was good though, and seeing the sun rise at 3200 meters as we stood atop Pic Blanc 7.00 am. was incredible.

The two hours before the start was spend checking out the very steep starting section, and waiting in line for the toilet. Standing in the middle of 500 crazy riders about to descend a glacier on mountainbikes made me kind of nervous. Even if I managed to stay upright I would have no control of the others. And if you haven’t figured it out already, people were crashing left and right. As the gun went off, everything turned into chaos.

I didn’t avoid crashing and kind of half-stumbled-ran-rode the first section. Once on the snow it went pretty well till some British bloke decided to tackle a downhill snow-section on his a.. just in front of me. A close encounter was unavoidable, but I guess it was the same for most people. I could spend pages writing about the race, but all I will say is that it’s much harder than I anticipated. P.R. finished just within top 100 after an hour and 10 minutes, and snug in at 170th place six minutes later. It definitely ranks in my top three of best cycling experiences and I’m surely returning next year. 

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Scandinavian Championships 2009

Peter Bech on the podium with his shiny new medal.

Updated with new pictures.

Well, in all honesty maybe it should have been the Danish National Championship since Denmark was the only nationality represented in the elite class. Nevertheless, it felt a bit international since the race was held “abroad” on the island of Bornholm.

Old dog Klaus Vesterlund came out on top as winner and can now add Scandinavian champion to his palmares.  Skinny man Jessing took second, while our very own Bech Peters was showing form in third place. Yours truly was the first man off the podium with M. Laustsen trailing in fifth spot. Let me give you a short recap of how things went down.

The course was somewhat more demanding in terms of technical skills than your average Danish xc-course. A climb of at least five minutes, with the finish line half way up made sure to take out any strength not lost in the technical parts. Particularly one descent was nasty. It started with a fast section of small drops and football size rocks here and there. Then came a long steep wooden stair with steps so far apart it would make the rear end kick sideways like an angry bull. The only thing sensible to do was to release the brakes and keep a firm grip on the saddle with the thighs. Once down the stairs, a rocky section would test balance and stamina. I don’t think anyone stayed on the bike all the way through that part. The organizers certainly delivered a decent piece of race course.

The riders that chose to make their way to Bornholm did their part too, I think. At least I tried. The first lap felt good and I got away with Jessing and junior rider Jonas P. It was my first race in a while and I honestly thought things were going great. At the start of the long climb, Vesterlund and Bech had closed the gap while I struggled with a chain suck. I quickly bridged back to Vesterlund and Bech and we chased after the two T-bikes in front. At the wooden stair we had almost closed the gap but wasn’t quite able to get those last meters. Well, in the third of six laps Vesterlund closed by himself and I was suffering to stay with Bech. He would put small time gaps into me on the climbs which I closed on the long descent, but in the fourth lap even that came to an end. Up front, Vesterlund said goodbye to Jessing and we were racing in that order to the finish-line. Simon Tarp was the unlucky guy of the day. While leading the race on the first lap a crash forced him to change wheels in the tech-zone and came in sixth after Morten Laustsen. With the nationals three weeks away the podium all showed that they are medal-contenders. Vesterlund has got the diesel engine running, Jessing keeps improving and the serious off-season training and race participation this year, has made Bech possibly stronger than ever. I find myself with a bit of work to do. Throw in a week of Megavalanche and I am myself starting to doubt that I will peak in three weeks time. I think the roadbike will be brought along to Alpe d’Huez.

Racing on Saturday left us with a day of fun riding on Sunday since no ferries were departing on Saturday. The island has an enormous amount of quality terrain to offer and we made good use of it. The highlight of that day was a crash as a result of Peter Bech’s confidence in his abilities as a downhill-rider. Those drops that required a bit handlebar-control can be a real bitch.

Sam Hill’s downhill run from the 2008 World Championships inspires Peter Bech to try his hand at some DH action later on.

The weather was a bit gloomy in the morning, but cleared up nicely.

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