Last Saturday I raced in Birkebeinerrittet which is a mountain bike race in Norway over the mountains from Rena to Lillehammer. The race is about 94,6km and it’s the worlds biggest mountain bike race with ~16.000 contestants. My group started at 13:20 so I left Fredrikstad around 07:15 together with Linda so I’d have plenty of time. I arrived early and managed to get a good 45 minute warm up by cycling around Rena before the race started. During my warm up it started to rain and I got some messages from a couple of friends of mine that the track was extremely muddy and slippery. I raced in Grenserittet earlier this year and thought that it couldn’t be much worse than that… boy was I wrong. Take a look at some pictures from the event and you’ll understand.

The trip over the mountains did not exactly go as planned though. After 3,16km’s my cycle computer stopped working. It has been this way once before and that was at the Grenserittet race. I’m guessing this computer doesn’t want me to enter these races. Now, this was only a small beginning. When I stood on the top of the so called raisin hill (Rosinbakken) at the ~55km mark I had managed to break my glasses (which was a major bummer in these conditions), puncture twice and split my chain 3 times. Since I only had one extra tube in my backpack I actually had to patch the tube the second time around which was not too easy when everything is covered in mud. I got quite cold during this ordeal as well so it wasn’t to pleasant to get back on the seat. Since my chain (and the rest of the bike for that matter) was covered in mud it’s easier to break it if you don’t have the correct oil and bit of luck. The last time I sat mending my chain some other guy broke his chain as well so we sat down and shared a laugh and a bun with raisins (which was fitting since we were sitting at the top of the raisin hill).

After all this I lost all motivation and did not ride very fast and efficient to the finish line. I finished the race in 5 hours and 54 minutes which was way more than my intentions. Hopefully the weather will be better next year and that I’ll have a bit more luck with my bike. Mats finished the race in 5.24 wihch was a big improvement from last year.

I’ve uploaded some photos of my bike after the race to flickr:

Last Saturday I finished my first MTB race: Grenserittet Cross Countries. This race is the largest in Sweden and the second largest in Norway. It starts in Strömstad, Sweden and ends in Halden, Norway 81 kilometers later.

I finished in 3 hours and 49 minutes. My goal was to beat the 4 hour mark so I’m quite happy with the result. Hopefully I’ll be able to participate next year as well!

Yesterday I signed up for Grenserittet, an 80km bicycle race from Strømstad, Sweden to Halden, Norway. I was supposed to attend last year as well but was too late.

So … what has old Edvartsen been up to the last couple of days? Well … last Friday I picked up my brand new bicycle from the local postal office. I ordered it the week before and it arrived at my place last Tuesday but since I wasn’t home it was sent to the postal office.

My first trip with it was on Saturday when I rode out to Engelsviken for a summer party at a friend. The trip was about 14km and it took me ~32 minutes which was ok I guess considering I hadn’t been sitting on a bike for about 2 years, which my ass kindly reminded me of after about 10 minutes on the not-so-soft seat.

The bike I got is a Full-Dynamix R4.0 20″ alloy frame with Deore XT all over and a Rock Shox Reba Race fork. The colors in the picture below are a bit off. The pink-ish color is actually red.

Full-Dynamix R4.0

The first two trips (to Engelsviken and back home) was not exactly off road and the tires I have on aren’t suited for fast straight riding, but I went for a 15km trip on my old running track today to see if I still had some guts to ride at least a little hard. The frame seems stiff and solid and the fork was very pleasant. I can adjust the stiffness of the fork from a lever on the handlebar (2 positions only) so I can soften it if I need it, and harden it if I need that. Worked like a charm.

Since I forgot to reset the timer on the computer before I took off today (I only reset the distance) I have no idea how long I rode but I will take the same trip a couple of times more this week. I’ll probably even make some graphs of some sort (yeah, I’m a statistics nerd).

My friend Mats has challenged me to enter Grenserittet which is a 80km long race from Strømstad (in Sweden) to Halden (in Norway). The route profile is shown below and the colors represent the type of the surface. Red means a “path” in the wood, blue is asphalt and gray is gravel, so it’s mostly gravel with a couple of pretty steep parts.

Route profile

I’ll do 2-3 shorter trips this week and a longer trip on 55-60km in the weekend to see what kind of shape I am in! If all goes well I’ll enter the “competition”.