Nigel Halpern: April 2012

Well, that is the first race of the season under my belt and my first race on Norwegian soil as a member of Handsling Racing (London-based team sponsored by Handsling Media Ltd, Action Cameras, Trigon Bicycles, RST Cycle Clothing, Schwalbe Tyres and the Ace Centre). It was my first time on the team's Trigon RQC-29 bike and I have to say, it goes like a rocket. I just wish I could do the bike more justice!

The race was a 70km road race called the Ulstein Nordea Race. The race starts and finishes from the town of Ulstein; a Municipality in the County of Møre and Romsdal on the West Coast of Norway. Ulstein is in the same county as Molde (where I live) but is still a 3-hour drive, and 2 ferry trips away - this gives you an idea of the challenging topography in this part of Norway which is characterised by high mountains and long fjords. Today, Ulstein is well-known for its maritime cluster that includes the HQ of the Ulstein Group, Rolls-Royce Marine, and Kleven Verft.

Anyway, onto the race!

The race was 70kms and you have to be careful in Norway. For some bizarre reason, Norwegian’s refer to ‘10kms’ as being ‘1 mile’. Fortunately, I was already aware of this when the locals explained their ‘7 mile’ race to me.

Temperatures dropped as low a 3 degrees centigrade while driving to the race but fortunately, the temperature rose as the day progressed giving us a toasty 5 to 7 degrees for the race with a moderate, force 4 breeze, overcast with sunny intervals.

We departed Ulsteinvik Lower Secondary School, above the city centre with a police escort out of the town. The race then launched into action after about 1km. A number of surges came largely from the elite riders from Nesset CK but the field remained together until the first test of the day about 15kms into the race at Leikong. The 9% hill only lasts for just over 1km but that was enough to split the field into pieces. I was amongst the first few riders going into the hill and stayed with them for the first few hundred metres but I was way out of my depth and paid for it big-time later on up the hill. With my HR pounding away at 190 bpm, it was only a matter of time before I hit the wall. I dropped back to a 2^nd group of riders and thought I had done enough to stay with them but after a slight flat section the hill kicks up again and I dropped like a sack of spuds. I only lost the back wheel of the last rider in that group by a few metres but with the effort I had put in to stay with them, those few metres were too much to claw back. As the road flattened, I dropped back and tucked into a group of riders to have a breather and find my legs again. We rode quickly down to Gurskebotnen with speeds of upto 73km p/hr. The road then turned towards Gjerdsvika and it wasn’t long before we had formed a group of 15-20 riders. Most of the group worked well to keep the pace up but unfortunately, there were a number of riders content with getting a free-ride and there was no way that we were going to catch the front runners. We pretty much stayed together as a group to Moltustranda, Tjørvåg, Myrvåg, through the tunnel (an experience in the dark with sunglasses on, and at high speed!).

We returned to Ulstein for the monster hill up Skulebakken (‘The School Hill’) to the finish line. It is only half a kilometre or so but with a 13% incline up the last 100 metres. Apart from the first hill after 15kms, I had found the pace easy going so I had good legs for the final hill and managed a respectable 3^rd in the group of 15-20 riders. I placed 25^th out of 136 riders overall and was 9^th out of 34 in my class (Masters 30-39). I finished the 70km course in a time of 1:56 with an average speed of 36km p/h and an average HR of 169 bpm. My top speed was 73km p/h and max HR was 190 bpm.

I was hoping to do better as I put in a huge amount of work during the winter in what were often awful conditions (constant darkness, snow and ice, and freezing temperatures) but I developed a knee injury in the first week of March and have been suffering with it since. In fact, my other knee went just a week before this race so neither knee works particularly well now! I’m also 3 kilos heavier than during the winter (I was hoping to be 3 kilos lighter than during the winter!!!). My knees only allow me to train gently a few times each week so after hammering it 6 days a week all winter, it has been really frustrating and increadibly dissapointing. I was very happy with my result given the problems that I’ve had for the last 8 weeks or so and the knees were perfectly fine for the duration of the race.

The race was won in a time of 1:48 by Ola Inge Drøpping; a pro-rider from the Latvian team Alpha Baltic - Unitymarathons.com who led in a group of about 8 riders. He was riding for his Norwegian team Nesset CK Elite that entered 3 riders and achieved an impressive 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd on the podium. 18 year old Marius Tomren from my local team Molde CK came 4^th. Great result, well done Marius! No doubt he wanted to get on the podium, and he was mighty close with just 2 seconds separating the top 4, but not easy given that he was up against 3 very strong Nesset CK Elite riders.

Congratulations go to the race organisers Ulstein og Omegn Sykkelklubb and their sponsors. The race was very well-organised. Well done. I look forward to having another go in 2013!

Start line (I’m about six rows down)