More pictures from my last race

I found more pictures from my last race, from Cluj. I want to thank everybody who was there with a camera and captured these moments:

accelerating after a tight corner

one of my favorite pics -SPEED

running to get rid of the cramps

my hat was bothering me

with a gel in my mouth for a whole lap

there was a lot of mud

concentrating

Clujul pedaleaza - Cluj is pedaling

Sunday I went racing to Cluj. Cluj is at about a 2 hour car ride (about 100 km) but I had a rough time getting there. The day before I changed my tires but I didn't pay attention when I bought the tubes and I got a 20 inch tube. So I had to go back to the store and change the tube. The next morning my phone didn't wake me up, it didn't ring. Next the car didn't want to start. After some help from a few taxi drivers and a lot of lost time it finally started, as I found out in the evening the battery died. My bad luck didn't stop there... I got to Cluj almost in time but I still had to hurry to get my race number. I didn't go on the first route my gps suggested so I had to go under a pole and disaster... I was kind of lucky that the driver behind me wasn't too close and that my Thule bike carrier is kind of idiot proof. The seat of the bike is a bit torn and one peace of plastic is broken so I was kind of lucky. The car stopped and I couldn't start it again so I had to run up the hill to get my number...

Before the race started I had to wait because the kid and beginner races were first. When the race started I was tired and cold. The first two laps were very hard, I was struggling to keep up and find my rhythm. I don't really enjoy these fast races. At the end of the second lap the rear wheel slipped and my left gastrocnemius contracted and it was hurting. I couldn't pedal for a while so I was running. I got back on the bike and started to find my rhythm. I was in about the 20th place at the end of lap three. Slowly I started to get back in the race and I started to have some fun to. My Nobby Nics were awesome, I had so much grip on every surface (mud and ice) that I was very happy that I bought them.

I finished the race in 15th place, I was covered in mud and I had really bad muscles cramps in my legs. After three days my legs still hurt. It was a great race, I had a lot of fun, I am happy that I was able to race although I had a lot of problems, I even won a Garmin t-shirt :D

Some pics from the race:

new tires on the bike, clean clothes on me (before the race)

race time

before the cramps

go go go

it started to snow

pushing hard

Merida rulz

Merida flags again

getting dirty

on the finish line

dirty and tired after the race

dirty after the race

muddy

going home

Stats:
    - time: 53:07
    - distance: 11,91km
    - average speed: 12,5 km/h
    - max speed 23,4 km/h

All the pics here.

New tires

As  I wrote earlier I bought new mud tires. I bought a set of Schwalbe Nobby Nic, two new tubes and a bottle of Slime. I was thinking of trying some tire sealant that helps prevent and repair flat tires and with the new tires it was time to test the green stuff. Here is what I have on my wheels right now:

It was very easy to put the sealant in the tire, just unscrew the valve and put in half a bottle. I hope this will help me run flat free for two years. In my first season of hard riding I had no flats, in the second season I had a lot of flats. This is my third season and I will ride without flats ;)

I tested this setup last Sunday in a short race so a review is coming soon you here you can find out that these tires are just great!

Stuck in the mud

Last Saturday we went out for a ride in the forest. Sadly the mud was very sticky and I couldn't see my tires after a while. Then my wheels got stuck so I had to remove the mud by hand. After that the bike gut stuck so I jumped off. It was glued to the ground, I could't lift it the first time I tried.

So we went for a ride on the road. The weather was very nice and there were a lot of bikers on the road. It was a great ride after all, although the bike got really dirty:

This was the first time this year that I used spds on my mtb. I noticed that my feet are not stable enough on the pedals so I think I have to get some new cleats. Or I will buy new pedals because the left one is broken and the cleats are very expensive. I looked at bike24 but I don't want to order from them again and I saw that hibike.com has better prices :)

Stats:
    - time: 1:27:41
    - distance: 27,71 km
    - average speed: 18,9 km/h
    - max speed 48,2 km/h

MMM 2010 - Medieval Mud Marathon 2010

Saturday was race day. It was a very hard race so it was a big satisfaction to finish it.

I had some bad luck before the race but I was glad that I could get there. It was raining a lot before the race  so I had to buy some new tires. I bought a pair of Race Kings (2.2) which are not exactly good for mud but they are better than my old tires. When I was changing the tires the tube from my back tire had a hole. I had two spare tubes but both had holes. :(


I wanted to go to Tarnaveni and from there go to Medias the next day but it started raining and I had a flat tire. My father came after me and took me home :)


Saturday morning I bough some tubes after I got my race number and I fixed my tire. My bad luck didn't end there, I left my bottle in the car so I had to buy a new bottle.


It was very hot when the race started and a thunderstorm was coming :)


I started the race on the back of the pack but the first kilometers were in the city so I passed at least 100 people. Then on the first climb we got muddy. The mud was so bad that even if I pushed the bike it stuck to the tires and the tires were getting blocked so I had to carry the bike on my back. When I got to some grassy roads I cleaned the bike and got on it. In the forest I tried to push the bike on the leaves so the tires could spin. I had to clean the bike a few times and I was getting tired of pushing. When I finally got to the climb on the field where the road was on grass I was very happy that I could ride on the bike. People were amazed that I was still on the bike because it was a hard climb but I was just happy that I could finally stay on the bike. The mud wasn't so bad after the first climb, there were some nice road on grass and some roads  in some villages and I really liked my tires, they were great on grass and country roads and even on light mud. The Race King is a very fast tires and it gets clean very fast in light mud. But on heavy mud it's not good so I felt down in a muddy corner :(


At about the half of the race some small muscle cramps were starting to bother me so until the end of the race I had to stay focused to avoid some serious cramps. I had to clean the bike a few times but the mud wasn't so bad and I could go fast. At the last checkpoint were we could get some food and water I had some serious cramps but after a short rest and a lot of glucose I could attack the last climb. The last climb was another pushbike section but it wasn't so muddy so I only had to fight my muscle cramps. I finish the race about 10 minutes before the thunderstorm started :)


Stats(these are not exact because I carried the bike a lot):
    - time: 3:54:29
    - distance: 48,7 km
    - average speed: 12,4 km/h
    - max speed: 49 km/h

   - actual time: 4:24

   - average heart rate: 176 bpm

   - max heart rate: 201 bpm

It was a very hard race, the hardest so far but I was very happy when I crossed the finish line. I will be back with more pics.