Well, this was another one of those days. I am starting to get the feeling that Grenserittet is the easiest Norwegian race. I also use to think races here were easier than in Sweden. Nope. Still, 70km was a good length for today. It was pouring rain while I drove to the parking and it did let up a bit but just in time for my start it was pouring again. I found these two pictures...


The opening road part switched over to grus a bit too soon and I was getting completely covered in mud. And that is the summary of the day...28km of road and 42km of mud. I didn't really reflect on it at the time but the grus was that sucking mud that made things go quite slowly. In this opening 20km there were 3 singletrack parts which were just deep mud and for the most part unrideable. And I swear that there was an electric fence along the side of one of these. So up to the first food stop was really slow since it was still raining.

The first food stop had a bucket where I could wash my glasses which was great because I could not see a thing. I had pretty much finished my first bottle of energy drink and took some gel and water and then headed off for a well-deserved 10km of road which was pretty okay until it started heading up. This was the start of the biggest hill of the day and it was pretty slow but the rain had stopped so it was fine. It switched over to grus and then it was pretty tough going but I still didn't need to switch to the easiest gears. Last week has done a lot for my climbing muscles. Problem was that I had other strong urges at this point because I wasn't sweating but I was drinking AND having caffeine. So the food stop at the top of Skolapperåsen became a drink stop and a run in the forest and piss stop. I spent way too long there.

Directly after that was the singletrack downhill which I really took it easy on. I was sliding and others around me were falling all over so I ended up dismounting and walking down. It was a nasty hill with first aid help at the bottom. So I was happy to see some grus and road after that but it was another tung backe. This part was pretty nice and the nature and mountains around were wonderful to look at. There were some fun downhill and flat parts and even a serpentine road to enjoy.

But at Kjose things started heading up again and yet again I needed to make an unscheduled piss stop. I have no idea what was going on with my body. These hills were big enough to awake the cramp monster a bit so I switched to the easiest gear. There was less than 20km left so it was looking good...until Kringlemyr singletrack. There was no choice. I and everyone else walked the entire way. The mud was up to my arse and after this my pedals were clogged, my shoes would not really clip in and I was just really pissed off. Which is just when another tough hill started.

Finally there was 5km left and there was a group of 7 together on the road part. I passed 4 rather nicely and then it switched to motionspår with 2km left where there were only 3 in front. I was på rulle with one and the two in front both slid on some mud but I and the other guy were still going. I, unlike many others, had mud tires. So at the very last hill I cut in front and tried to get up the hill which was full of people. I made it half way and then dismounted and ran up cross-style. It was beautiful. The other guy was not up for a spurt so I started towards the finish and could not get one foot in the stupid muddy pedal so I did my little spurt with one foot attached.

So, what was the result?
Time: 4:29:58
Distance: 70km
Yes, longer than the horrible 80km last week. Pathetic. All this because of rain and 7km of singletracks you had to walk slowly through. My bodily issues didn't help either.

I would have loved this race if it was dry. So I will probably have to give it another try next year. For now I am just dead tired and very muddy. I doubt my uniform will ever be white again.