I flew to Denmark rented a van and off I went to the northern part of Denmark where the championships were held this year. Rold Skov, was the name of the forest, beautiful place. Sun was shining too, which as a dane you don’t take for granted. Loic came along for the ride, and we had a good weekend together. My team, KMC Orbea, also arrived with our general manager and one of our mechanics, to help both Fini and I. ​
​My two races, was. Was like a little bit meh.

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​Monday, we drove back to Copenhagen and prepared for travelling back to Barcelona the following day. The suitcase life is real for us during the summer, hah, anyways the suitcases made it to Spain (luckily with all the airport mess atm). I felt so tired, mentally, and physically the weekend had been massive, packing my stuff and travelling again felt like a mission. Tuesday, I woke up feeling unwell – day 2 race hangover? Started to feel sick, and yea  I tested positive for Covid… Omg. Honestly. 

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.

​We had a nice few days in Nove, before the race weekend started on Friday, which was super cool. The Orbea Oiz is an awesome bike for a track like Nove Mesto. The track is rooty, rooky, not super steep, lots of flow (if you find it) and for that the bike is insane. I loved to play around out there and set it up as good as I could. I ended up riding with a little higher pressure in my front wheel (1.1) to make sure I didn’t puncture, in the rear I stayed on 1.1bar like I normally do, but with a tire noodle for protection. For my suspension we ended up releasing a bit of air and making it slower. Made me feel way smoother and in control both up and down.

top 20 after the start loop, and I had stayed within my limits. ​I knew we had 6 laps to go and that I had time to make up spots.
But that stumble I talked about? Yea, in one of the fast sections we call AC/DC, I came a little too hot and out of control into a turn and hit the ground hard. But you know, normally, I crash, I get up and I ride on. Somehow Sunday was different. I did the first ‘get up’ part, then the next step was harder. I had hit an old injury on my knee, which is a sweet spot for pain, so it took me around 5 minutes to feel anything but pain - Imagine a Malene rolling down to the start/finish straight breathing so deep not to cry – not so nice… I was determined to finish the race, pain or not, I wasn’t quitting.

​When the pain eventually got under more control, I was struggling to find the mental strength to get back into the race for the last couple of laps. I couldn't distract myself from the pain, it was just a battle with myself. But now as I’m thinking back, I wasn’t in a super strong mental place when the weekend started. So maybe the tank of Malenes-mental-warrior-unstoppable-beast-mode was a little empty. And maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself. In the end of the day I set a goal to finish pain or not - and I did that. 
Now I’m back in Denmark getting taken care off, resting, helping my body and I think by the end of this week I’m back in the dream state again, ready to pursue.