A Weekly Write

Reporting; Malene survived. Unbeaten? Victorious? Well, tried my best. 
The past weeks has been real hectic for me, that’s why I didn’t take the time to update in here. I was finishing my semester, preparing for a world cup, racing a C1 and visiting the hospital. Oh, and travelled around Europe a couple of times in 1 week time. So yea hectic is the word. 
But hey it’s Monday and here I am, still smiling and feeling almost... relieved.? My shoulders feel lighter and sitting on the plane now makes me excited for what the next couple of weeks of training will bring.

So I overtook around 30 riders and I still had 1,5 laps to go. Sitting around 20 and looking ahead to top 15.

So yea after 10 days in Spain I flew back to Denmark to see my doctors, and do all different kind of testing/scans. Something is up with my stomach, which we don’t really understand but I’m healthy (and not dying even tho Google tries to tell me otherwise 😜), but I’m taken well care of, so that will be fine. Beside that I also went back to Denmark to race a C1, maybe you followed my updates on Instagram? But I finished 3rd on a sunny Sunday in Randers. I went there with my dad, we had a nice weekend, riding bikes and practicing math. Almost the perfect weekend hah. 
Monday, I continued to study for my exam and went to do more testing for the doctors. I had to ship my poo, you guys, yes, ship my poo with the post 😂 I couldn’t believe when I read it hahah. Sorry for too much information. But we gotta keep it real, right?! Well okay, it's not hundred procent what it sounds like, but still hah.

Anyways… Tuesday and Wednesday were all about the exam. And I finished it Wednesday with a 6 hours writing exam, you heard it, 6 hours! Daaang it was long. But I did it, got home, packed for leogang and went for a ride. Because frankly I was racing a World Cup in 48 hours.
So, Thursday of I went to Munich, our mechanic, Jerry, came to pick me up, and we made it to Leogang in time for official training. But when I went on my bike, I was not feeling like going on the course. My head was in the clouds, and to practice on a slippery World Cup track you need to be 100% there. Short track was Friday eve, and to be honest I didn’t feel much during the race. I don’t even remember much about it right now when I'm thinking back, I was kind of just on autopilot. But I know I took the wrong tire choice, which was annoying, still learning :)

Saturday was the first day I felt like I was actually in Leogang. I felt like I arrived mentally. So I got quite excited for Sunday, maybe a good race day was ahead of me? Right now my best World Cup result in the xco this season is 15. Maybe I could do better tomorrow? 
That dream got a bit spoiled after only a few seconds of racing. The most annoying thing about starting 3/4th row is that the risk of crashes happening around you gets much higher. And yea, it happened, from the middle of the field riders started to get tangled together and went down, we were like 5 riders going down. Oh man. I got back up, shifted down the gears and started to climb the grass field. Looking back I only saw a few riders. That moment I had to breath deep and reset. But nothing else to do than to just go forward? Being in the back ment I was sitting around 50th position. So only upwards from there.

When you’re in the back you’re stuck in traffic and have to go real slow or walk with the bike. Which is frustrating, especially when you see all the minutes you loose on this. But anyway, I tried to think that I could take some deep breath and recover a bit before I would have 5 super tough laps in front of me. Pacing a race like this is an art, honestly 😂 you can’t let the anger drive your pace, you got to be patient and overtake one by one lap after lap. Not all in one go, to then explode. So I overtook around 30 riders and I still had 1,5 laps to go. Sitting around 20 and looking ahead to top 15.

But the thing is when you have to ride in the gravel and grass all the time to overtake, you spent more energy and I felt the gas slipped out slowly doing the last 25 minutes. I was just holding on, until I crossed the finish line in 23rd position. 
Proud that I never gave up, but frustrated, because I think I could have made it into that top 15 I wished for if I had been a little luckier. But hey that’s racing, and I just have to go faster in the Short Track to start further up on the grit! 
 
But like I said in the beginning, I did it, I came through this packed week, and maybe I didn’t win it but I survived and I kept my head over water, actually enjoying it most of the time.
Now I’m SO excited to get back home to my casa Spain and ride and train hard without thinking about math, law or communication analysis 😂 let’s goooooo! 
 
Hugs, Malene