Tour of Utah

Well what can I say, this race was a mixed bag. I had a mediocre prologue, partly because I spent the whole afternoon before the race taking care of team business, the stuff that a manager was supposed to do, but our composite team didn't actually have a manager so I had to do it. But at least we had a caravan car and a driver, and although he was pretty inexperienced, he figured it out pretty quickly. The first stage was pretty mellow until I flatted right at the base of the final 10km climb. So instead of starting the climb in the top 20, I started it at the very back of the caravan. I worked my way back up to the peleton but I was too gassed to make the front split when Sevilla and Mancebo attacked with 4km to go. I still made the second group and only lost 1 min to the main group which was ok considering the circumstances. The third group lost 5 minutes and then it just went up from there.

Putting the frustrations of the first stage behind me I focused on Mt. Nebo. It is a gruelling 36km climb that goes about 4800ft vertically and ends up at 9300ft. The first 90km of the stage were basically flat and a break went that everyone knew was going to come back. I started the climb a bit further back then I wanted since I was out of water and hunting for a bottle in the feedzone right at the base. I had to work my way back through the peleton to make several splits as OUCH was drilling it at the front. Near the bottom Lill from Type 1 attacked and split the rest of the group to pieces. I was again in the second group but in the company of some good climbers. We could see the front group basically the whole way up the climb and we caught some of them as they started cracking towards the top. There was actually a slight downhill to the finish and thinking that I could still get a top 10 on the stage I sprinted out of our group and won the sprint in a bike throw over Brent Brookwalter of BMC. Sadly there were still 10 riders up the road so I was 11th, but it was still a good day.

The next stage was the 15km ITT and I had another mid pack ride. I haven't really spent any time on my TT bike since March and I think it showed here. But we've done so few TTs in Europe that it didn't really make sense to train on that bike too much. This Utah TT was actually only the second non-prologue TT that I have done all season, so I guess I can put my mediocrity down to lack of practice. I really need to strengthen this part of my racing to be a real GC threat.

The final road stage ended up being the only really hot day of the tour, and the heat definitely took a toll on my body. I barely made the front group of 25 over the top of the first climb over Alpine Loop and then suffered through the rest of the stage until the bottom of the finishing climb up Little Cottonwood. I held on as long as I could, but I really didn't have good legs and ended up finishing the stage in 19th place. But due to other guys crashing going down Alpine Loop and others cracking harder then me I ended up moving up from 23rd to 15th overall. I then rode pretty conservatively in the crit, just staying in the top 30 but out of the wind to keep my place and the prize money that comes with it.

So now the plan is to rest a lot this week and hopefully this race will give me great legs for the USPro road nationals in Greenville this coming weekend. I am already in South Carolina and enjoying the abundance of oxygen.

Horsens Crit

On Thursday we raced a crit in our home town on a super hard course that went up a steep 500 meter climb every 1.8 km. A break managed to go on the second lap, it was 5 riders and we had 2 so we were pretty satisfied. But the rest of the group kept attacking on the hill and I was having a hard time following all of the attacks but I stayed in there as the peleton was shredded from 65 riders at the start to about 20 after 20 minutes. Two riders eventually got away and made it across to the break, then about 35 minutes in I got away with 3 other riders and it was much easier because we could ride relatively steady up the hill and not have to do massive attacking efforts every lap.


That being said it was still super hard, but I led our group up the hill every lap where all of the spectators were. So at least I was showing off the jersey in front of the home crowd, and Bjarne Riis who showed up to watch. Then with 3 laps to go, Ricky bridged up with a Capinordic rider so we became 5. Coming through 1 to go Ricky attacked and all this did was pop me off the back since I had been pulling up the hill. I caught back half a lap later and immediately launched an attack but they got back up to me and so I just led out the sprint hoping that Ricky could take it. He got 3rd out of our group for 10th, I was last for 12th. In the front our two riders finished 5th and 7th. So we were pretty active but the result wasn't super.

I then went home and had two hours to pack my bike, eat, and make it to the train station to make an 11:30 pm train so that I could make my flight out of Copenhagen at 6am to go to Salt Lake City for the Tour of Utah. It was hectic and then I got basically no sleep on my 29 hours of travel door to door. But I am in Utah relaxing now. Looking forward to some real hard climbing, the form is good so I am expecting some good things.

Fyn Rundt

On Sunday we raced the oldest race in Denmark and one of the oldest in Europe, the 210km Tour of Fyn (one of the Danish islands). The race was a flat and fast start and a big break went in the first 10km of about 20 riders. We had two riders so we decided to sit back and see what happens. Two teams missed out completely though and chased hard so that the gap was staying at about one minute. The roads got a bit narrow and hilly after 70km and Michael Rasmussen attacked on the longest hill taking about 20 riders across to the break. As soon as we got there there were a bunch of attacks and when all was dusted there was a group of 26 riders clear of the peleton and with Berling and I coming from the Rasmussen group and Chris holding on out of the break.

Then not much happened until we hit the four 6km long finishing circuits.

The tactical cat and mouse games started as soon as we reached the circuits. The first group to actually get away had Chris with 5 other riders. That group was hovering about 20 seconds in front us and the gap to the peleton was falling from two minutes to about a minute. I was having a hard time following the attacks since my sprint is even worse then normal at the moment, but I decided to try one of my own and got into another group of 6 that made its way across to the front group. I was still not feeling great so I didn't want to work, I did my best pain face while sitting on the back and no one even asked me to pull through.
Just as soon as we caught the front group another group of seven came across with Rasmussen and some others, but sadly Berling missed out so we were down to just two out of 19 and neither Chris nor I can really sprint. About this time my legs started coming around and I started feeling much better following the attacks. Chris attacked like 6 times in the last 6km but didn't get far any time. I took my time and went just once at one kilometer to go. I got a decent gap but got caught with 350 meters to go and passed by everyone except Rasmussen. Figures that the only rider I beat in the sprint was also the only rider skinnier then me. Chris finished 14th, near the back of the group. Funny thing is that I felt somewhat blocked up until the last 10km, so it took me 125 miles to warm up, that's got to be a new record.

Herning Crit

Last night we did a crit in the town of Herning. The big star attraction was Fränk Schleck and a few other Saxo Bank riders. So a huge number of people made it out to watch the race. There were people lining the whole two kilometer course.

I was fortunate enough to roll to the line just as people started lining up so I got myself a second row start just behind the two TdF stage winners Nicki Sørensen and Schleck. There is me chilling in the background.

The first prime of the race happen on lap 3 and a group went off the front going for it. Then the Danish champ Matti Breschel went across, then Brian Vanborg from Liquigas. Sensing that this might be the break of the race I went after Vanborg. I never got onto his wheel but I made it up to the break on my own, and I was the last one to get across. We then worked smoothly, but no one was really driving it. Breschel and Vanborg were taking pretty weak turns so the rest of us were content to do as they did. It meant that we never got more than 30 seconds on the peleton, but we stayed that way for an hour.


We were pretty content to share the work and the primes.

Then with 9 laps to go the attacks started out of the break and I ended up in the back split, with 4 riders in front. But since the peleton was so close everyone ended up coming back. Once I got caught was content to just roll across the line, getting out of the way of anyone trying to sprint. Berling got himself to the front and did a great sprint to end up 3rd.

In the end it was an all Danish continental team podium, with the best Saxo Bank guy, Anders Lund in 4th. I like that in Denmark most of the post tour crits are not fixed like they are in other parts of Europe, it means that you actually get to race with the pros instead of riding around in a parade. Overall a decent day, this was my first time being in a real break in a pro crit, so I think the from is good before the big goals of Tour of Utah and USPro nationals.

Beach

The beach is only about a kilometer away from where I live in Denmark, but the weather has been pretty cool and wet so I haven't been able to go. Finally this week the weather was nice, mid 70s and sunny, so I spent a few days going down there. Its not much by California standards, but its still nice to get out and enjoy the sun. Here are some pictures.

This is the back way to get there with a nice view of the Horsens fjord

The actual beach is pretty small, but its still popular.

Still there is good fun for people of all ages.

Tour of Utah climb profiles

Unsatisfied with the profiles of the climbs provided by the race organizers, I made my own. Because I am a nice person, I will share these with everyone.

Stage 1:
Climb #1, Old Snowbasin


Climb #2, Emigration Canyon

Stage 2:
Mt Nebo (to the finish line)


Stage 4:
Climb #1, Alpine Loop


Climb #2, Traverse Ridge


Climb #3, Little Cottonwood Canyon (to finish line)


I think these are going to make for one hard race. I'm excited.