Second I want to praise all the volunteers from the start in Bergen through all the feed stations at, Gullbotn, Kvamskogen and Kvandal. Everyone was in a very good mood and cheering us on.
The race
I started out from Grieghallen downtown Bergen together with Beathe. We started in the second group of the day scheduled at 05:03 in the morning. We arrived early at 04:30 and I had time to take one last stop at the toilette before start. 5 minutes before the first group started at 05:00 it started raining quite heavily but it only lasted for a couple of minutes and then it calmed down to a light rain for when Beathe and I started.
My official start time was at 05:02:24. The whole group started out at a slow pace with a police motor bike leading the group for the first 5 minutes. Once he let us go Beathe and I tried to settle into a comfortable pace. As this was my first bike race I found this a bit hard in the beginning as there were always new riders in front of me that looked like I could catch up with and follow. But once we got to Arna after about 20km we had settled into a good pace of about 23km/h.
Now the route took us along Osterfjorden towards Trengereid where the first climb up to Gullbotn starts. This is a steep climb of up to 11% at the steepest and took us from about 25 meters above sea level to 272 meters above sea level. The climb went quite well and half way up we passed the first split time. Beathe manages to keep a much higher pace then me up the climbs so she quickly got away, and as we had agreed before starting, she was not going to wait for me. The race is to long for her to spend time and energy for my sake. So once I saw the last of her going up towards Gullbotn I did not see her again until I finally got to Voss about 7.5 hours later.
Half way up Gullbotn the group that started around 06.00 and that was aiming for the course record passed me, and their pace was simply mind-blowing :)
As I got to the top of Gullboten I had a short stop to refill my water bottles with Squeezy energy drink and I also grabbed a banana before getting on the bike for the decent down towards Tysse.
It is a relatively short distance and easy ride from the feed station at Gullbotn to Tysse where the longest climb of the course begins. From Tysse there is about 10km climbing and 460 height meters to the top of Kvamskogen and we reach the top about 71km from the start in Bergen.
Just before Tysse I caught up with a nice lady that was riding Bergen - Voss for the 5th time and I rode together with her for the first couple of kilometers up from Tysse until the climb started to get steeper. Once the steepest part started I braced myself for the long climb ahead and the pain I knew would come. Going up the same hill 2 weeks earlier I knew that I had to concentrate on racing against myself, ignoring people passing was hard, but I knew that saving my legs was key to finishing the race. I finally made it to the top 3:53 after the start in Bergen.
After the first short decent from the top the feed station at Kvamskogen is located just before the final long decent down towards Norheimsund and the Hardanger fjord. I took time to change my woolen top and it was nice to put on dry clothes. Again I refilled my water bottles with Squeezy energy drink. I also had a New Energy chocolate bar and a slice of loaf with sausage. The volunteers, as mentioned earlier, were fantastic and they make everyone feel like professionals the way they threat you and look after you. After about about 5 minutes I was on my way again.
The decent down to Norheimsund is long and I was careful going through all the tunnels and bends. The rain from early in the morning had stopped and the road had dried up and the sun was now shining and it started to get warmer.
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| Norheimsund |
I got together with two girls for a period riding from Norheimsund to Øystese but in the short steep climb up from Øystese I lost them. This climb was surprisingly hard, not to long but surprisingly steep (now I know before next year). I have to send a big thank you to everyone standing along the roadside, it was very encouraging towards the top of the short climb to have people cheering the riders up the last 100 meters and I felt that i got the biggest cheer of all :).
Now I got into a comfortable pace that I was certain I could keep for the rest of the ride along Hardangerfjorden and I even managed to appreciate the nice scenery we passed through. The picture below show a beautiful area called Fykse where we cross a bridge across one of the smaller “arms” of the Hardangerfjord.
From the Fykse bridge there is about 45km to the next feeding station in Kvanndal and at this point my legs started to tell me that in their opinion 100km seemed more then enough. However, since I was in the second group out from Bergen at 05:00 in the morning I now had riders passing me constantly, some of which I managed to hang on to for some periods of time. All of them where extremely nice and came with encouraging comments and that helped me keep the pace up. Somewhere between Ålvik and Kvanndal a photographer took a picture that speaks for itself :)
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| Foto: Twinhouse v/Tom Guldbrandsen |
After 6 hours and 40 minutes I arrived at the feed station at Kvanndal. Again superb service and encouraging words. Everyone applauding that we had reach this far and saying that now the hard part is over. I had two slices of loaf and a couple of chocolate bites first and then I spent some time stretching my legs. I probably spent about 15 minutes at Kvanndal before I got back on the bike for the last 40km towards Voss.
I felt surprisingly well after the stop in Kvanndal and the ride towards Skjervet, the last terrible climb about 15km from the finish line at Voss, was nice and flat. As I passed Granvin, that last small village before leaving Hardangerfjorden, the weather was now perfect, nice and warm and I felt a surge of new energy as I knew that I got closer and closer to the finish line.
After about 145km from Bergen I had reached the bottom of Skjervet and again I settled into my own slow pace. For the first 3rd of the climb I felt ok and then suddenly within two seconds I had cramps from my hip down to my toes in both legs. All ten toes curled up inside my shoes and my first thought was: “Oh no, now you are going to fall and look like and idiot”. The reason of coarse being that my shoes were locked to the pedals on the bike! However, without remembering that I had done so, it must have been an unconscious act, I had at some point earlier in the climb loosened both shoes from the pedals and this saved me from an embarrassing fall.
I got of the bike and tried to stretch my legs to get rid of the cramps without much luck so I decided to start walking. Form here I walked a god half of the way up and towards the top my legs felt better and I got back on the bike and a 100 meters from the top I passed the last split time and I knew that I had only 13km left to Voss.
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| Foto: Mom |
Seeing my family at the finish line can not be described in words, almost everyone was there and the one cheering the most was my 4 year old boy Simen that had been waiting patiently for his dad for hours. Although I hate to admit it, in all the excitement of finishing and relief that the race was over I felt some tears coming as I got the best hugs ever from my wife and son.
Thank you so much Janicke for allowing me to spend so many hours out riding my bike this spring. It has payed off :)
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| Foto: Mom |
After relaxing for a couple of minutes I remembered to ask for Beathe`s finishing time and she had finished in 7:12 and that is in my opinion very impressive. I also learned that Terje had finished in 7:18, 42 minutes quicker then last year. So all three finished and all three were very happy with the finishing time.
Now we start preparing for Bergen - Voss 2012 :)
Statistics:
| Distance | Total time | min/km | km/h | Split time | min/km | km/h |
| 74 km | 3:53:42 | 3:10 | 19.00 | 3:53:42 | 3:10 | 19.00 |
| 126 km | 6:41:31 | 3:12 | 18.83 | 2:47:49 | 3:14 | 18.59 |
| 147 km | 8:21:29 | 3:25 | 17.59 | 1:39:59 | 4:46 | 12.60 |
| 162 km | 8:58:35 | 3:20 | 18.05 | 0:37:06 | 2:29 | 24.26 |
Very nice! Also watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvaRdKYCPFk
ReplyDeleteBest Regards Tom G.
well done! definitively not an easy course!
ReplyDelete