Danish DH cup - Finals

The last round of the Danish DH cup took place this past weekend in the north of Jutland at a place called Rold forrest. This was the second time we were going to race at that venue. The track in it self is rather basic, with a lot of man made jumps and obstacles. The hole way down the track you are scrubing jumps, pumping holes and pedaling every were you can which is sick! The weather made the race quite interesting thus it had rained all week and the to weather prognoses said it would rain sunday as well.

Saturday practice

Since I had already wrapped up the overall title at the last round I came into the race with a mindset of having fun and putting down the best runs I could do. So I cracked on with practice which went really well on the damp track. I was still running the High Roller II´s which keeps getting better and better. Even though it is almost my home track since I live about 30 minutes drive away, I do not ride there that often. So I put in some good practice runs, with my dad who was attending to his first DH race.

Second race run

After a little delay the race began in the quite sunny weather in contrast to the bad weather they had forecasted. Run no. 1 went okay, I hit all of my lines but i had a little mechanical which cost me some time. Nevertheless I came down with a 3.5 second lead. After the first run we had the obligatory one hour practice on the second track. The 2 run went good i had a solid run with minor mistakes coming down about 1 second faster that second place, which gave me the 6th win out of 6 race in the Danish DH cup this year.

6th round podium

Mathis Lystbæk - Mike Thisted - Sebastian Jensen - Rasmus Reding - Rasmus Jensen

Overall it was a good weekend with good racing and a good season ender. Personally I still have one more race, which is the final round of the German iXS cup which takes place the 24.-25. this month in Thale.

Overall Podium :)

A big thank you goes out to Stefan Hovaldt for taking all of the pictures.

- Sebastian Jensen

Danish DH cup - Ry.

The second to last round of the Danish DH cup took place at Ry this weekend. Ry is located close to “Himmelbjerget” which is the highest “mountain” in Denmark approx. 170 meters high. The track is super fun to ride, it has some steep and technical bits and some pedaling to round of with. Furthermore the track only gets used one time in a year - for the DH cup, since it is private property so nobody can train on it before the race. And the dirt is also really loose, which is sick.

Training went pretty good, I did not get so many runs in as i had liked, but if felt home on it. I was trying out the new High Roller II in the muddy/loamy conditions - I was pretty surprised how well the cleared the mud and the corner grip in them. Nevertheless the racing went good on the two tracks we had practiced on. The first run I had a few mistakes, that cost me some time, but I came down in first about 2 seconds faster then second.

Christian on his way to his best result yet.

Before the second run we got about an hour of training on the second track and some time to get something to eat. The second run went good I hit all my lines pretty good and only had one pretty big stall. I came down 3 seconds faster then second so I extended my lead to 5 seconds and won it! Even though iI felt under-practiced I decided to have fun on the track, which payed off. Since I have won all the races, so far in the Danish DH cup this year, I also took the overall title with one round left! Kasper Nancke the team freerider and Christian Lynaes the team mechanic also attended at the race. Kaspers runs were good enough for a 4th even though he crashed two times. Kasper is currently sitting in 3rd overall going into the last round i Rold forrest near Aalborg. Christian posted his best result in the cup so far, with a top 10, which he was super happy with.

Kasper Nancke pinning it through the rocks.

Overall it was a good weekend, with a good track and happy times. I have only got two planed races left, so I am looking forward to giving it my all and round up the season in a good way.

Mike Thisted - Sebastian Jensen - Theis Koch

Thanks to PSFOTOGRAFI.DK for all the actions pictures - http://www.facebook.com/psfotografi and Mikkel Groth for the podium shot.

- Sebastian Jensen, 222Racing.

24 t DH i semmering

Bad Willdbad

En aften tur i muder

Slettestrand DH cup!

The fourth round of the Danish DH cup was on a new venue in North Jutland. The course is not that long but it has some very fun a steep sections with some good ruts. The forecast for the weekend said that it would rain all saturday and there would be some showers on race day. The forecast held pretty much and the track got really good.

Kasper putting the last pedal stroke

Saturday Kasper and I got some good runs in on the two courses. When we felt confident on the track we headed back to the hotel and jumped in the pool and got a good dinner and a few beers.

Sunday morning we got up fairly early so we could get a couple of runs in before the first race run. For the race I had raised the front end a bit since the track was quite steep, which I think helped a bit. Come race time Kasper and I warmed up and put in a solid first run Kasper posted a 45.5 which was the 4th fastest time and I posted the fastest by about 2 seconds over 2nd. We were both happy with our runs and felt confident for the second run. After an hour of training on the second course we once again got in a warm up. Kasper had a good run coming over the finish line in 37.9 ending up on 5th spot. My second run was the worst of the week blowing feet of and staling in turns but it was still the fastest on the last course. I ended up first with a 3 second gap to 2nd place which I was happy with considering the circumstances.

Sebastian Jensen pinning it.

Kasper Nancke - Rasmus Reding . Mike Thisted - Sebastian Jensen - Mathias Lystbæk

Photo´s by Stefan Hovaldt!

At the end of the day it was a super good event, a good course and a fun weekend of racing.

- Sebastian Jensen

One race and a Jam!

Fyn DH cup:

The third round of the Danish DH cup was held on Fyn at a place called Ruehede. A fairly flat and not that difficult track, where keeping speed trough berms and rock is important. As usually on Fyn it was raining almost all weekend so the track was quite slick.

Kasper and myself was going to race on sunday, so we got one day of training in before the finals. Saturday went good, we got our lines dialed in and knew where the track going. So we went home to Kaspers apartment and go a good night of sleep.

Sunday morning we arrived at the track a couple of hours before the race began so we could get some runs in and get a feeling of the bikes. As usually ind Denmark we were running the Maxxis EXO tires for fast and lighter rolling. The Marzocchi suspension was also stiffened up so the Legend and the Last pedaled better.

At 12 pm the race began so Kasper and I warmed up together. Kasper was up first on his home track and posted a fast time of 47 seconds which he was happy with. The next time he posted was a 45.7 which meant that he ended up 2nd on the day and defending his 2nd from Randers. Kasper is now sitting in 2nd spot in the overall. Last up was myself with a good run coming in fastest on both my runs and ended up #1 and #2 for 222Racing.

Overall it was a good weekend of racing and good times. The next round will be at Slettestrand a new venue.

Kasper Nancke - Sebastian Jensen - Rasmus Reding

222Dirt Jam - Fyn:

The actual first round of the 222Dirt Jam was held on Lars´ pumptrack which is a super fun little pumptrack with some jumps. The format of the event is pretty chilled with a catch up race, with a timed seeding. Until the race we had lots of fun on the fresh prepped track. Come race time we had to do two timed laps on the track, where I was the fastest by a couple of seconds. First up was the faster riders against the slower. In the end I was in the final which I won. Overall it was fun day with a good vibe. Next round is going down on Mols on a new build pumptrack.

Photo´s by: John Hyldgaard and Lars Mortensen!

- Sebastian Jensen

Dirtmasters!

The last two week´s i have been fairly busy riding my bikes and preparing for exam´s. So ill start with Dirtmasters in Winterberg which is a super cool event with a lot of different MTB events and exhibitions. In fact it is the biggest freeride festival in Europe.

Bo, Christian and I arrived Wednesday night so we had a day to relax before practice started friday. After we had got our number plats and walked the track we headed up for a few runs. The track was super dry and flowing well. The track was quite short some the times were going to be really close. Practice went well and I was having tons of fun.

Sebastian Jensen

Saturday morning Bo and I got up early to avoid the sun burning us in the long queue since some 500 people was racing DH. I got 4 good runs in before seeding later that day. I also changed some lines since the track was good bed in for the better. After the early practice we went down to the pits and got some food and chill a bit before our seeding runs. Bo seeded in 6th in the masters class, which he was quite happy with. I seeding in 66th spot, 9 seconds of the pace in Elite men, which I was not that happy with, but I had some left in the tank for sundays race.

Bo Andersen

Sunday we got up early again to got some runs in and dial the last things in. Practice went well until I crashed hard into a tree on my last run. I was pretty sore after the crash I could not pedal that well but I was okay.

Come finals the bikes were running good and I was felling quite confident that I could put in a good time and get a top 30 which was my goal. Bo was also felling good and was hoping for a top 10. First up was Bo who put in a good effort and ended up 11th. After Bo´s run there was a big crash in the rock garden just after I had warmed up and the race was delayed about 45 minutes which influenced on my starting time. Nevertheless I got going and had a okay run riding some sections on my heels but it was okay. I ended up in 46th spot only 7 seconds off the winning time. I was only 1 second from a top 30 which was pretty annoying. But the positive was that is was only 7 second off the pace where is was 15 second off last year, so that a good improvement.

Bo´s Banshee Legend

Overall the weekend was good I had lots of fun on and off the bike enjoying the good weather and the festival atmosphere. I´m looking forward to next iXS in Ilmenau in about 4 weeks and hoping to get in the top 30 there!

- Sebastian Jensen

DH-cup Fyn

3. afdeling af den danske dh-cup.

Tredje omgang af cuppen gik igen rigtig godt for 222cycles teamet. Et løb med god stemning, perfekt temperatur og regnen holdte sig heldigvis væk fra Fyn i år. Træningsdagen forløb fint med kun et par enkelte små styrt imellem. For mit eget vedkommende tog jeg det meget stille og roligt, da Fyn er min hjemmebane, så jeg kørte kun lige, hvad der var nødvendigt og fik trænet de små ændringer, som var kommet på sporet. Senere på dagen kom Sebastian også til Fyns land for lige at få kørt det hele på plads til cup dagen.

Om søndagen ankom vi til skoven et par timer før racet gik i gang. Der blev lagt hårdt ud fra morgenstunden, hvor Sebastian og jeg selv skiftedes til at ligge efter hinanden for lige at få presset hinanden lidt og få indøvet noget fart, inden cuppen gik i gang. Bjarke var også dukket op på dagen, og viste som altid kæmpe overskud ved at kører både op og ned. Han fik også en del nedkørsler, hvor han så ret hurtig ud, før racet, men desværre, da tiden talte, skred cyklen ud for ham i starten af sporet. Da jeg selv kørte gik det godt. Jeg kørte stort set fejlfrit i mit første gennemløb og fik 2. hurtigste tid. Den hurtigste var som sædvanlig Sebastian som, som altid kører et par sekunder hurtigere end os andre.
Andet gennemløb gik endnu bedre end det første. Vi alle 3 forbedrede vores tider og det resulterede i, at Seb vandt afdelingen, jeg blev nummer 2 og Bjarke blev nummer 10 (med styrt).

#2 Round of the Danish DH cup

Sebastian Jensen prejumping the last drop.

The second round of the Danish DH cup was held at a new venue in Randers this past weekend. The forecast for the weekend said rain, rain and rain and so it was. The track was not that difficult, there was a couple of turn and a bunch of jumps and drops. Nevertheless it was a bunch of fun to ride. Compared to other danish courses it was good since they only had a couple of months to build it. Props to the builders!

Kasper Nancke pinning it.

Saturday practice:

Both Kasper and myself were on new bikes. Kaspers last parts arrived before the race so he could build up his new Last Herb DH. My old bike was stolen, a couple of days before the race. So Bo and I build up my new bike friday night just in the for the race. I would like to give at big shout out to the people who made it happen!

Practice went well and we got our bikes dialed in for the race on Sunday. We were trying out some funky lines in practice and having a lost of fun. Both Bo and I opted for the Maxxis EXO´s again for a fast and lighter rolling bike.

Bo trying out a offcamber line in practice.

Sunday practice and racing:

Sunday started out fairly chilled with a couple of runs to dial in some lines and get a feeling of the bike.

Bo was up first to race since he hadn´t ridden the first DH cup. Bo´s first run went good until he crashed in the middle section and picked it up again and ended up posting a 50,7. For his second run Bo wanted to get down without crashing and came in 6 seconds faster, which he was fairly happy with.

Next up was Kasper. He was feeling comfortable on his new Last. Kasper posted a 44,550 for his first run and went into the hot seat. Second run was good but .5 of a second slower but was good enough for a 2nd place and his first podium of the year.

Since I won the first round I was seeded first and therefore to last to pin it down the hill. My first run went good with on real mistakes and came down in 42.13 which I was happy with. My last run almost the exact the same only .35 slower which was the two fastest times of the day over 5 seconds faster than 2nd place. 1. and 2. for 222Racing was pretty good and were looking forward to doing the same at the next round.

Kasper Nancke - Sebastian Jensen - Mike Thisted - Mathias Lystbæk - Mikkel Groth

Thanks to Simon Nejst and Lars Mortensen for the pictures.

- Sebastian Jensen, 222Racing