The highlight of the this years cycling season is the Tromskraftprøven ("Troms Power Test"). With 165 km to go, the race is by far the longest and hardest in the region (map). I was really psyched down after the earlier record attempt where I had to step off half-way. But I knew things would be easier this time. I decided to try and keep up with the best even if that would mean that I had to race too hard in the hills.

Again the weather cleared up and I decided to leave the winter clothes behind. Even if the temperature was only 9 degrees Celsius, and would probably be about 6 degrees Celsius at the highest point of the route. I loaded the bike (and myself) with 2.5 liters of sports drink (600 kcal), 2 energy bars (440 kcal) and 2 gels (278 kcal). Thats a total of 1318 kcal. However I would estimate the enegry consumption for such a race to be about 5000 kcal.

We were 120 riders starting from Finnsnes. The pace was easy in the start, but it was a nervous atmosphere. I was terrified by all the inexperienced riders that were fighting for positions in the front of the pack, and after the first little hill, we had a crash and 3-4 riders went down. Luckily I was on the other side of the road when it happend. After the first major hill, the pack was reduced to half, and things got more quiet. I actually struggled with the first hill after Buktamoen, and got nervous. The legs didn't feel right. We had 2 more and even worse hills to get over the mountain, so I grabbed a Gel and hoped things would get better. The next hills went OK, and I was happy be be in the lead group when we reached Nordkjosbotn. In Lavangsdalen a group of riders were pulling extremely hard in order to bring back a break away. I was suffering quite hard, but managed to stay with the group through the final hills. Finished together with about 35 other riders in the lead group. Got 8th in my class at 4:14:09, only 3 seconds behind the winner. For me that's a new personal best by 21 minutes.

So I'm very happy with the result, the weather and the race. Espen Amundsen from our cycling team won the race, so we're really proud of him and the rest of the team that helped him.

(picture taken by Roy Sørensen. It's me on the right. Not daring to look up to see how far and steep the hill really is)