Triathlon at Retirement

Cykelvasan (Vasa race on bicycle) is the largest MTB race in the Nordic countries, and it approximately follows the famous Vasaloppet cross country ski track with checkpoints at all the classical controls. Almost 20,000 participants were registered over several races and distances. I was in the main and the longest race called Cykelvasan 90 (it is actually 96km long) with over 5000 participants. Three days before this year's Cykelvasa August 10, I felt I was free from my cold and that I could participate. Five weeks with very little training had gone by. For this reason, I knew I had to take it easy to endure 96km (almost 60 miles) on an MTB. Fortunately, the weather was good on racing day. I noticed very few women in my start group. I have done this race and distance once before, but the track had been slightly changed. Instead of doing the initial climb on a meandering gravel road, we had a much steeper climb on the Vasaloppet cross country ski track. I could barely do it without...

This is a mountain bike race largely on the Vasa trail. This year I settled for 45km, which is half distance. Last time I did this distance was in 2019, my time then was 2h 26 min. In early August, I did several training runs on the trail and my splits were not anywhere near those needed for my previous competition time. Weather in Sweden has been the opposite of USA and most of Europe, with the rainiest July and August for at least 30 years. I have never seen the local lakes and rivers so high. Of course, that made the bike track really muddy at some parts. The organizers have made a good job of improving the track, so overall it was not too bad but there were difficult patches. Competition day was lucky with the weather, a rare day with little rain! This time, I knew my approximate finishing time and I was placed in start group 2. I got off well and raced past many bikers without extra effort. In the well-known climb "Lundbäcksbackarna" I felt I was doing well. But somethin...

This summer, I have strayed quite a bit from my core sporting activity - Triathlon. August 12, I did it again when participating in a 94km (58.4 miles) long MTB race called Cykelvasan in Dalarna, Sweden. It is a very popular race in Sweden that draws several thousand participants. The trail is fairly easy, lots of gravel road and broad forest trails following the classical Vasa cross country ski race for the most part.  The distance is very respectable, and I was entered into the open race. My tactic was to last the distance and never over exert myself. It worked out, I had an even pace and plucked quite a few places on the second half of the race. My time was 5 h 18 min and 34 seconds which gave me a 14th place out of 67 women in my age group. I really had no problems during the way. As usual, Volvo cars did a video of the performance if you wanted to participate. It was fun! Volvo movie