A little update from last Sundays race in Einruhr, Germany.
by Soren Nissen
After some weeks where my focus has been mostly on my training it was once again time to get ready to race in Germany. “Rursee Bike Marathon” consisting of 100km and 2500 meters of climbing was on the program.
I knew before the start that there was some really strong riders to look out for. Amongst them the former winner of Cape Epic Robert Mennen from Germany and ex. Merida factory team rider Bas Peters from the Netherlands. With these riders and another handful of strong guys I knew it would be a hard day in the sun.
We started out directly with a sky-high climb over more than one kilometre with 20-25% !!
Like always in German races the pace was high from the beginning. So after the first hour of the race the front group was cut down to just 10 riders. We rode together like that until km 50 where Robbert Mennen thought it was time get the “party started”. Only Bas Peters and I was able to follow this pace and we rode together until the last 30km of the race. I felt really strong on this day even after almost 2000m of climbing, so I decided it was time to try and attack the others. There was no way that I wanted the race to come down to a sprint finish as I would definitely not win the race like that. So I attacked on the hardest climb on the track. In the beginning I could not get them off my wheel. I had to continue this crazy pace for another 7-8km before I could get a gap on Peters and Mennen but I felt strong and I could hold a nice gap until the finish line where I could raise my arms as winner of the race.
This was a super nice day for me and a good test before my really big upcoming goals in July. I feel like my shape is good at this point. I have been doing a lot of hard work and now I can only hope that it’s good enough for the upcoming BIG events.
In July I will have my main focus on the Luxembourgish national championships in cross country where the track seems to fit me perfect this year. A national champion jersey would mean everything to me. Beside the nationals I will go 2 weeks to Austria to race a part of the UCI XCM World Series, “Montafon M3”. The week after I will be starting also in Austria at the UCI S2 stage race “Ischgl Ironbike” were also most of the world elite will be represented. Beside these events I will be starting in marathon races in Benelux and Germany. It may look like a busy summer but I feel ready and in shape to attack the 2nd part of the season.
Last week I got some more good news. In October (13-21) I will once again be starting at the biggest MTB event in Australia, the UCI stage race the “Crocodile Trophy”. This year I want to come back to improve my 2nd place from 2015. I believe this is a really nice race to end the season and there is always a huge media coverage from the event
More Info here: http://www.croctrophy.com/
So a lot of important races in the upcoming weeks, and I really hope to be ready for some super results!
Here a Link to the “Rursee Bike Marathon” page: https://www.mtb-am-rursee.de/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/mountainbike.amrursee/
Here some news/articles from the race:
https://www.mtb-am-rursee.de/2018/06/weltklasse-mountainbiker-soren-nissen.html
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