Var det Varde ?

Photo: Deleuran

A historic moment! For the first time (in my time as a mountainbiker) there was a UCI class 1 race held in Denmark! The place was the most flat part of the country, but the trails were the sweetest ever seen on Danish ground

Curvy, manbuild trails demanded for absolute full concentration for 1,5 hours, which made the race pretty hard. I would even dare to say, that most World Cup courses are easier, because they have sections, where you are allowed to rest mentally for a while and just let the legs do their work.

In Varde, there were no such sections! That made the race pretty hard for me, since I’m the kind of rider, who loves some nasty climbing, where I can make a difference.

Photo: Deleuran

The race was indeed some nice practice in bikehandling skills. My greatest competitor turned out to be Swedish Alexandra Engen, who hung on my rear wheel for the entire race. I managed to make a gap to her on the penultimate lap, but then I heard the creepy sound of a flat tire, which was coming from my rearwheel!.. This season I’m riding Schwalbe tubeless ready tires with sealant (Doc Blue), and this was actually my first ever puncture on these tires!.. I felt the sealent spraying from the tire, which stopped after 10 seconds. Tech zone was 1 km ahead, and since I had absolutely no idea/experience if the sealant would fix the puncture automatically, I decided to change my wheel not taking any chances of throwing the victory away. That meant, that all the sudden Alexandra was back on my rearwheel, which made the finish quite exciting. Luckely I still had some power in my legs, which made me able to attach on every posible climb, reaching the finishline with almost a minute gap. Phew!.. This victory was awarded with some nice world ranking points, and this time I didn’t have to travel around the world to collect them 🙂 Now, I have some weeks in Denmark, before heading off for Marathon World Championship in Italy and the next World Cups in USA and Canada! Uhh, I’m looking forward to that!

Now I’m preparing for an exam on monday, wish me luck!

Oh, btw, if you consider tubeless, I can surely recommend Schwalbe. The tire still holds air. In fact, I can’t even see, where the puncture was. Shame on me for doubting ..