The Weekend of mtb (Lidingöloppet and EC XCO)

The did race this weekend too. Two weekends in a row racing without a racelegal bike and licens. But thanks to Stefan I had a Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper with a Khisel fork and all parts Specialized has done to make a fast mtb 🙂

Rode Lidingöloppet MTB for the 2nd time and the prestige was bigger than ever before as I had to win over my colleague Jaime and the pressure was on. I know he’s strong and easy trained, I also know he can train which I’m not good at. But anyway. Didn’t got the best start and did a lot more work in front of the bunch than I should but I wanted to keep the pace up didn’t go too hard. Pushed hard on the climbs, softened on the downhills and tried to keep the pressure proper on the flats.

It felt hard but not to hard and when riding a 8kg 29er it feels like flying. Lost grip in many corners with my 1,95″ S-Works Renegade tires but they rolled faster than every tire I used before. It felt like I could push and keep pushing. Got dropped by a guy and the women winner Isabelle Söderberg in a climb we had to walk (the ran) and ended up being 3 people with one other from CK Valhall. And a guy who didn’t want to help. We 2 rode good with the other guy on wheel for a long time. 2 others came from behind and the group became 5. No more work for me 😉 At the most technical part at Bosön I got dropped and had to ride the last part alone. Was a little tired but pushed as hard as I could and passed one from the earlier group.

Finished at 2h24min and 45th place of Men Race, 38 spots better than last year and 13min. Beat Jaime with 10min 😉 Stats here: Strava

Ended the yesterday with taking the train to my dad. And spending the day with him at the awesome European XCO Championships in Huskvarna. With winners like Victor Koretzky, Jolanda Neff and Julien Absalon

XC/DH World Championships and Boels Rental Ladies Tour

World Championships is going on this week in Andorra with Eliminator and Team Relay already done. Here is a replay of the eliminator race:

And here are some highlights from the Team Relay yesterday:

And this week it’s also a big women’s stage race in the Netherlands. Sadly not sent live except the last stage on sunday. Here’s the press release about it:

Following races like La Course by Le Tour de France, the last stage of the Boels Rental Ladies Tour will be broadcasted live on television. Main sponsor of the race Boels Rental took the initiative and with the help of several partners, television station L1 is able to broadcast the race live on Sunday, September 6^th. There will also be a live stream on the internet. Sander Kleikers and Marianne Vos will commentate the race. At the moment it is still possible that more television stations are going to broadcast the race.

The sixth stage of the Boels Rental Ladies Tour starts in Bunde and finishes on the Cauberg. It will be the queen stage of the race, with a trail through the hills of southern Limburg. Before that the peloton has already five race days behind them. On Tuesday, September 1 the stage race starts in Zeddam. Followed by two stages in Tiel, an individual time trial in Oosterhout and a stage in Gennep. Before the live coverage on Sunday, a summary of the stage in Gennep will be shown. The best women cyclists in the world compete in the Boels Rental Ladies Tour.

Don’t miss cheering on Sara Penton doing a great race so far.