Day 3, Saint Gervais

Day 2, Saint Gervais

Day 1, Saint Gervais

Afternoon Activity

9PM start, 13h of racing through the night over three mountain passes. Fortunately the nights are short and never completely dark in the middle of summer. 

Lucky with the weather and had some amazing scenery. 

Nice to get a good (excellent) result after puncture last weekend during Styrkeprøven and a disappointing year of racing in general so far. 

Lots of ups and downs during the ride. Long times since I've pushed myself this hard on a bike. Legs didn't feel too good to start, but they lasted well and towards the later stages performed far better than expected (not often that happens). I just barely managed to hang on to the top of the last big climb. In the end very pleased with the result. 

Windy day, so no one wanting to do any work at the front (me inlcuded). In the end spent 2/3 of the day coasting, and then smashing it up the final parts to Valdresflya and Sognefjellet (2nd and 3rd mountain passes). 

Thanks to Kolbotn SK for giving me a lift to/from the event on their bus. 

________

Surprisingly fast pace in the first 10km. Two small crashes that I narrowly avoided. First climb went alright, though looking back on the data it was harder than I thought. 

Bit cautious on the initial decent down from Filefjellet and had to work hard to catch back on when a gap opened up. From there pace was fairly smooth and gentle into Fagernes with a gradual downhill, good tailwind and a peleton of 100 people. I was sitting amongst the back 10 people the whole time. Lots of unnecessary risky behaviour and a fair few close calls, but thankfully no crashes. 

Felt fine on the first climb but after 110km legs felt really heavy, despite not having done any work for 1h, just rolling down the hill. Starting to think racing again 6 days after Styrkeprøven was too ambitious. Questioning how keen I was to continue cycling actively, wondering how much I could get if I sold my bike. Genuinely came to accept that this was not my day and figured I'd just try finish in as 'easy' a way as possible without making a complete fool of myself. I figured the easiest way was to stick with the peleton as long as I could so I could get a tow where possible...



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Martin MacDonald

Jotunheimen Rundt 2019 - T4th overall

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Day 3, Saint Gervais

Day 2, Saint Gervais

Day 1, Saint Gervais

Afternoon Activity

Afternoon Activity

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