Fat bike marathon, Siberia, Russia 03.10.19
Hello, i want to present for you the race in the heart of Siberia, a very well organized marathon race on the fat bikes in Novosibirsk, Russia 10.03.2019.
Here is the registration form, the participation is free: https://reg.spd.name/event/10/
If you ever wanted to see the Siberian nature this can be very interesting destination.
As I am a good friend of the organizer, we can help you with visa applications, with local transfer in Novosibirsk and generally in the trip to Russia.
There are also ski marathons one week before and after the fatbike event, if you wish to stay longer.
Below is my winning race report from the year 2018:
https://i.gyazo.com/a63c3a356d84ee04...17d81f2c41.jpg
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How did i come to that.
This winter I managed:
- give up skiing
- cycled for a month on Canary island
- participate in the the cult Sunshine cup (report about which, about the engineer’s battle with pro cyclists, was 80% written, but abandoned ((
- seriously demotivated
- survive demotivation, and one day flew to Novosibirsk.
My wife comes from Novosibirsk, we flew to visit our family.
How was the case:
Friday.
- from Thursday to Friday I slept for 5 hours (if only I knew then) I got up at 5, went to the gym on an exercise bike. 80min of spinning, further 5x80 jumps.
- 8 hours at work work, i plan wooden houses in Helsinki.
- collected things and at 9 pm departure. As it turned out, this was only the beginning of a big mega day friday-saturday-sunday.
During the flights we didn’t sleep, my wifes aerophobia + running around on a transfer in Moscow + 6 months old baby + changing 5 time zones = 9 am arriving in the frosty morning of Novosibirsk, aka 4am Finnish time. I decided to consume all the caffeine and keep on my feet.
In the morning started with cola zero, tea, on the family meeting we decided that since everyone is running ski orienteering, I also need it. Of course i did not have the mapholder, skis, poles, and only 1 training with a map for the lats 2 years, but I managed to win anyway, one probably don’t loose skills, and as a junior I was on top of the world ski orienteering.
But this is just a warm-up, at 18.00 we leave with Timofey for a ride on a fat bikes, for the first time in my life, I sit on a fatbike, Timofey is skiing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgJOOHdj...by=utkinmihail
A smile does not leave my face, fatbike is a childish delight! At home in winter I am either on the turbotrainer, or on a full suspension bike weighing 15 kg, and then there are less than 10kg fatbike. I liked it terribly, I just didn’t like the uphills, somehow there are really are a lot of them, and they are high :))
We looked at the first 5km of the marathon and the last 5, Timofey assured me that they will be grinding the course in the evening or at night, and in the morning it would be even harder and fresh velveteen, cool, what can I say.
https://i.gyazo.com/c6e2e54c2f092cb8...ba75915bd7.jpg
The evening before the race, pasta + cakes, very tasty sweets, could not refuse, even though later it will take a long time to lose weight.
But the night before the race, it seemed to begin at 23.00, but not for our baby son, who slept on the plane and was awake in Finnish time. I will not go into details, but I managed to sleep for 2-3 hours! I was already happy about this.
at 8.40 an alarm clock, at 10.40 start. The head does not think anything, I brew 2 tea bags in a mug, I eat my pasta with jam and condensed milk.
Another cup of tea. I think I'm already late for the start. I get dressed and leave on my own. Yesterday I looked on the map it is only 3km to the start line. 10.20 should be in time, I'm going. 10.30 I take out the phone to check whether I am going right way. Of course, Google maps do not work without the Internet. Sadness, I'll go approximate direcion.
10.35 I am somewhere close to the start, several times I turned in wrong turns on the roads to some garages, I do not understand anything, but I find the start, hurray!
Timofey gives a numberbib and a bottle of fruit juice, it is clear that everyone is waiting for me to perform well, at least a struggle for the victory, and I try to get the correct mindset. Yeah, take off my pants, take off my jacket, and another mug of tea from a thermos. Damn forgot the watches. 2 bananas, gels were forgotten at home. I found a watch, it was on my arm .. It's strange, it is not cold in one layer pants, although -16 degrees. The body does not understand what is happening. 30 seconds, 15, start. I remember a clever idea. Zhzhzh Zhzhzh- tires cool sounds.
https://i.gyazo.com/a46e1f3c5b42f39a...f54d5008c3.jpg
BTW, I wanted to drive the first lap all in, not even a lap, but 5km to train the start of XCO, but I just could not do. Yes, I got up and pulled, but this is not the pace, with such a start i would not even sit on the wheel on Cyprus.
Nevertheless, I took the first wheel, and was positively disposed to goo deep in the pace. The track was approaching the uphills, the walls of yesterday seemed to be small hills. But not a pleasant surprise is a wild muscle pain. Not immediately, but I was able to remember that the hell jumps were exactly 2 days ago. Classic. I'll have to suffer.
After a series of starting climbs, I was able to earn a gap of about a minute and was able to afford to go at cruising speed.
Timofey called that the most important thing is to climb the fields 15-16 km, then almost only descent to the finish line. I was spinning on endless fields and landscape Siberian expanses, my eyes were happy, my legs tried to take out my thick body from soft snow sediments.
https://i.gyazo.com/9f0fa2c5498da1c2...b0a3717111.jpg
By the middle of the lap, the gap from the 2nd place was already about 3-4 minutes, which could not but make me happy, and even here my legs let me go full speed. Passing the first lap at a time of 1.17, I decided on the second to try to get out of 2.30 total times, I logically decided that the path would roll, because the whole 1st lap I was the first wheel on the snow. So it happened, but in the ending I had to work very hard when I realized that it was realistic to meet 2.30.
As a result, 2.29! The ending worked for 110%, even got the idea that planned peak of the winter on Sunshine Cup was a bit late.
After the finish, gloggy, gloggy again it is still very cold. The organizers offer to fry sausages on the fire, gorgeous, especially with wine!
I was very happy to hang out at the finish, maybe my watts per kilogram demotivate someone, but here you just have to work, everything linearly simple.
Then I drove to the house, warmed up under the shower and ate nutella with a spoon from a jar, then there was a great dinner and we finally went to bed!
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