Having put 2018 behind, it’s time to start talking about what 2019 has to offer. As some of you might know, one of my goals in cycling has been to do a stage race in Europe. Just before the “then life happened” events in autumn 2018, I decided to go for it. So I signed up for Haute Route Dolomites 2019, a 3-day long stage race taking us over some of the incredible climbs of northern Italy. The event will take place 7th-9th of June, and that is my main goal this year. Having said that, my main objective is to ride a week long stage race in Europe. This I hope leads the path to were I want to go. 2019 is the year, when I’ve been road cycling for 10 years, so I wanted to make it more than just any previous year.

Signing up for Haute Route Dolomites also meant I needed to take training more seriously, put in more hours during the winter months to be as fit as possible in June. So I got myself the Wahoo Kickr Core smart trainer to simulate the climbs and to be able to do proper low cadence training. That would also make racing on Zwift more fun. I was thrilled to get the new trainer, and after some fitting (it’s not 100 % fitted for my Canyon Ultimate CF SLX 2016 -bike) I got the system up and running. Many seemed to have problems with the trainer, but knocking on the wood here, I have had no problems so far with it. For those of you with issues, please read the DC Raimaker article about it. Pictures of my “paincave” and the setup might be published later.

So I participated in a Zwift race (it really is a lot of fun, and painful as heck), and it really is so much more interesting with a smart trainer! Then we started looking for a new apartment, and found ourselves a new home in November. In Turku, closer to the city center. It all meant a break in training, and not long after, I started a new job. This made my end of 2018 very challenging training-wise.

But a smart trainer was not the only thing I did. The second thing was to invite myself on a training camp to Calpe together with SKB Racing. They are all all fit, fast and lean guys, which will make me if not the slowest, one of the slowest guys in the group. That has been a good motivator for the beginning of 2019. The training camp will take place between 21st to 26th of March.

Looking at January, I did well time-wise, and still as of today, I am on track with my goal to reach 350+ hours this year. While January was good, February hasn’t been as positive. I’ve been really busy at work, and to be honest, the dark long winter has taken its toll on me. So really have been lacking the energy to train I could have wished. I haven’t been ill, but just been completely drained. If I somehow manage to avoid the influenza, I am convinced I will be able to ramp the training up again, and of course the training camp will give a nice boost as well.

The goal for this year will to reach a FTP W/Kg of 4,5. It means I will need to lose some weight and improve my FTP value as well. The bar is set high, but it is as it should be.

More talks about the Haute Route Dolomites and the upcoming training in the upcoming posts.

Until next time!

Pedalare!