While working out all dates, I found that one weekend stood out against the rest. The first weekend of may is Enduro Nirvana for us in Central Europe, 6 events and counting! How cool is that?!

• Metabief Open Enduro
  
• Punta Ala (PRO#2 Super Enduro)
• Clans (1001XMB)
• Enduro de l’Ambleve (L’EREC)
• Meziers (Val de Seine Enduro tour)
• Sainte Marie Aux Mines (Elzas Bluegrass enduro)

Hard to choose? Check locations here, perhaps I’ll see you in Remouchamps (Enduro de l’Ambleve L’EREC)?

Top Enduro Weekend 5th and 6th of may 2012 weergeven op een grotere kaart
Visit: Enduro-mtb.nl

I’m so stoked right now. A little sad that I can’t ride myself this weekend to go out and play, but there will be riding this weekend, somewhere in the Netherlands around the border near Germany and Belgium you may see it in real live. Don’t stare too much if you see them ;-)

Don’t forget to check out Teamfietsshopuitgeest.nl for updates, we hope to have a new version of our website up within a week.

Trek Slash 9 review on Bikeradar.com

“It’s expensive, but Trek’s Slash delivers astonishing control and composure for enduro downhill or all-mountain blasts”

Vital MTB on the Slash 9

So a big thank you to Sportograf for making my Trek Bike Attack 2011 even more memorable!

More

Read the full report:  Trek Bike Attack 2011 – the aftermath

This morning we found the sun had left Lenzerheide/Churwalden en it was a little easier to leave this beautiful place to go back home. Only 24 hours before that I left to hotel to take the bus to the Rothorn uplift and placed my Remedy in line 5 around 9am. The Rothorn Gipfel was bright and sunny, but very chilly. Last time I was one of the last riders in line 0 all the way back, so it was a first for me to get up this early. In time to go back down and chill for a few hours before race day.

Qualifying for line 5

Saturday is usually raceday too, racing for your place on the start grid. Last time I had a DNF because of 3 flats. I was determined to finish without flats or any other type of problems. And preferably within 25 minutes. We had done 6 runs on friday and I did just the bottom-part on saturday morning because of the huge line to go up. This one run felt perfect so I left it to that, went into chill-mode and waited for our time to go up. This year a massive amount of Dutchies entered the race and we all started 15 seconds apart, a Dutch invasion on the Rothorn Gipfel, it was just awesome! Annemieke was the first to open the race for us. I think I was nr 5 and I struggled a little with the first tight corner, but got into gear soon after. I felt pretty strong and I had the time on my new pretty purple Raceface bars, this to remind me to keep peddling. (I have a tendency to just cruise sometimes), the last section in the woods I had some back-pains and that was a little distracting. I crossed the finish and found out my time was 21:43, oh yeah I had done it! Eventually I was 16th overall (57 women) and first dutch girl. Us dutch girls had a little friendly competition going on who was going to finish first this weekend. I texted my trainer and she gave me solid advice: sure this is a good result, just don’t get to excited, it’s sunday you need to focus on.

Back to raceday

Sunday, raceday! We had several hours to go and arrived at the top around 12.30, right on time to go find our bikes. I had chosen a very stupid place to start. I had thought it was smart to stay near the mountain wall, but that was a very tight spot and I had no way to move. The signal sounded, René Wildhaber was on his way to another victory and we where walking towards the first slope. I finally got on the bike and it wasn’t for long I tumbled over the bars. That was a pretty nasty fall, but I was more worried to get back on and not fall behind the fast riders too much. Because that would lead to an advantage of riding instead of walking on the technical trails. We still had to walk quite much, but I was much better than last time. After the race we compared stories, and we all had to walk a lot and all had to squeeze the brakes more with so many people on the track. And mainly that was more exhausting than just letting the bike rip.

I passed the Talstation and took off my goggles and prepared for the uphills that where waiting for us. I tried to stay cool and take my time for it, but in the meadows I needed to stop to prevent from hyperventilating. I looked up and there was my friend Belinda, we complained a second about the heat and walked on. I expected us to ride on together but I think her Stinky was holding her back too much. The climbs where taking it’s toll, the evidence was very visible on my Garmin. If it had colors it would be bright red, 99% of the max. That would explain for the dizziness. Wanting not to give up and not able to get the pedals go around, I just kept walking. In the last uphill I eventually got up the bike again, and tried to enjoy the last 2 km’s, the trails and the scenery. I made it across the line in 1:05 (25th place out of 57 women, 44 finished).

I took a while before I could enjoy this result, I was very happy I improved my time and I won our friendly competition. But it did hurt and the heat was overwhelming in a way that left me a little unsatisfied. Soon it turned into dedication, this leaves room for improvement! The potential to improve over this result is just waiting on the surface, it just needs more work. Maybe a lot of work, but I have to tell you, it’s been so much fun getting to where I am now and I’m actually proud of the progress so far.

Hopefully I’ll be there next year in Lenzerheide, with more skills and power, to take on the competition of the fastest Dutch girl in the Swiss mountains. Girls I dare you!

Results

• Dutchies: http://services.datasport.com/2011/mtb/bikeattack/LANDNL.HTM
• Women: http://services.datasport.com/2011/mtb/bikeattack/RANG011.HTM
• Men: http://services.datasport.com/2011/mtb/bikeattack/RANG001.HTM

The “best of” riding pictures

• http://bikeblog.nl/2011/08/trek-bike-attack-2011-the-pictures/

Tomorrow is race-day 1: the qualification. All Dutchies are places together and we ride our qualifier 15 seconds apart from each other, one long Dutch train! Good luck everyone!

» www.in-beweging.eu

Barely 8 months after writing about my reunion with the Bullit, I have another Trek-addition on the way to replace it. I feel bad, but happy altogether. It brings a few nasty details with it though, my mate just donated a set of wheels for it but I have to get another set for this one as it uses a different hub-size. Also a different bracket-size, and this one had ISCG tabs. So chainguide, cranks, bottombracket, wheelset and probably some cables and a short cage reargear. Will I be complete then? Gosh I hope so… impulsive actions always come at a cost, let’s hope the fun makes it worth it.

No, I can’t! Lack of sleep, back-pain, pollen or just not fit enough, you tell me. The first 5 km’s hit me hard and soon I was in the back of the field. That’s not fun, but I hung in there. Soon the riders of the 30 km tour caught up and I started to realize that I might be a lot fitter than I used to be, I’m still a crappy climber. And boy, was this climbing. It never seem to end, I swear wide paths and all going up. Not all very steep, but going up, and not very entertaining either. Before I was near the 15 km I was already contemplating how to get this over and done with. My back was killing me and my heart-rate was higher that I consider ‘fun’ and still nothing fun going on in front of me.

I realized the 30km was doing the same route, so I figured I’d take this short cut and I did. At the rest-post (23 km’s) I was stretching and also I found a small bottle of caffeine in my bag. After this I felt more ‘happy’ and the last 7 km’s was also more interesting and I managed to get to the finish line without getting really cranky.

So, what does this mean? I’m fit enough to endure 30 km’s of mostly climbing (766m) and if my back hadn’t bothered me that much, I would have endured the 55km’s but in a dreadful pace. I’m still not talented for riding uphill, I never was and apparently never will. Reality-check ;-) but with the next few weeks of power-training, getting stronger and faster, I will at least get a little better. Which will be very fine for the Bike Attack. In the mean-time… xc marathons will disappear from my to do list.

So… 9 things to do in 2011?

1. Train with Personal Trainer (excellent!)
2. Trek Bike Attack: in the 11th gear!
3. Sorpetal 55 km marathon (30 km’s, not my idea of fun)
4. Full marathon 100 km (NOT gonna happen)
5. Week of bike-fun around the PPdS & more F4G trips!
6. Shoot a freeride4girls movie
7. Clean my garage ;-)
8. Don’t freak… I may actually ride a xc race in Apeldoorn! (NOT gonna happen)
9. Get the Remedy in top shape before PPdS & TBA (looks awesome, will update asap)

One more epic adventure coming up: next weekend my first marathon (55km), a lot less then the PPdS (85km) but with 1700 meters of climbing…O…M…G… keep your fingers crossed for me ;-)