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I registered for this race yupp!!

Amazing views! Looks like a mega hill climb! Love the cattle getting in the way!

Hi!

Still 1 week for the race but I'm already in Selva It's then when Di gardena. This is a beautiful paradise! I was having breakfast and met the local cattle haha!
Yesterday I tried the first climb, I think it's the hardest one. 5km and 700 mettres climbing with more tan 35% at the end.
Ok, first 40 minutes it was fine, felt good, no more than 165 bpm and the gradient ariound 20%. Then I reached a steep part, this is loose gravel and the rear wheel had no grip if you stand on the bike. If you sit at the back the front wheel doesn't get grip...Really difficult. Also, the end of the climb was horrible, I was pushing bike in total between 5 and 10 minutes. Nearly 1 hour for 5km...

Just before coming here, as Dolomites is not very technical I put Racing Ralphs at the rear but I think I'll have to change for something with more bite. I'm going to try the ones I had before Mountain Kings but some lugs are gone after demanding rides in Finale Ligure.

http://app.strava.com/rides/10922616
It's 5.6 km but the race book is 4.6km. I think I started a bit earlier than for the race.
Nearly forgot something very important: 28 teeth and the front and 36 at the rear is nonsense!!
Map of the route: http://www.sellarondahero.com/download/hero_map.pdf

I'm very nervous!! Tomorrow 8:30am local time I start the calvary hehehe. There are soooo many top of the range bikes I'm scared!! Also thay have tiny front rings. For example right here a 29er HT cannondale carbon frame, xx sram drivetrain, tubeless ralphs and 36 x 22 front rings. I have 42 x28. Too late now to change it.
I'm going to play my cards, going as light as possible withoiuth camelback or extra clothes and saving as much energy as possible on those climbs.

Elite winners in 4h 30 min expected. Last years winner of my category in 5h 22 min, quite impressive too. Aiming to do it under 7 hours and I should be in the first 25%. Maybe I'm aiming too high.

For those who have loads of free time you can follow the last minutes from 11:15 to 12:15 local time at www.sellarondahero.com or www.gazzetta.it Winners arrival at around 12:00.

I'm taking wifi from the only proper MTB shop here and there're loads of stunning bikes.

Let's fight!!

Best of luck for under seven hours.
Get evil

Good luck Sarpullido - 7hrs - wow insane to the power bonkers. Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

Are you filming Javi?
Lo mejor de la suerte compañero!!!

Good luck tommorrow dude.

Wow wow wow!! What a big event!! It's listed in the UCI calendar!

Race was better than expected. It took me 7h 57 min 42 sec. Finished 28th out of 127 in my category hobby 35-44 yo and hobby overall 62th out of 238. If looking at the licenced category I'd have been 289th of 754. I was 1 hour slower than expected due to huge storm in the morning that left downhill and tricky parts in very bad condition as I was scheduled to start in the 4th group more than 1000 riders had already ridden over the course.
My plan worked perfect! Going very light and keeping heart rate at 140 bpm on easy climbs helped loads. On hard bits I still avoided going to the limit, just trying to keep moving. Felt fresh for the last 15km and went very fast to go under the 8 hours.

Such a good organization! When returning the tranponder you could chose to get back 10 euros deposit or hero arm warmers by gore. ALso you get Sellaronda hero jersey by gore as well for free.

I'm waiting for next year and hopefully with better weather. I've been already here for 10 days and only day race the only one who rained in the morning and 2 or 3 other days in the evening.

Results: http://services.datasport.com/2012//mtb ... da/#Marke0
Official report: http://www.sellarondahero.com/daten/CS_ ... 12_ENG.pdf

I can give you loads of tips if you're interested in doing it. Just be patient from now on I won't have much access to internet
Just bring a very light bicycle in mint condition. I bought a new chain and cassette for the race (and because they were worn out)
For training you need to do long endurance rides and from time to time find hills and do some intervals. Or just ride hills. It's very useful to ride the course or part of it once you're here. Start carbo loading 3 days before (I started 4 days before, too much!) Try steep technical downhill is very good so you get here and see that's too easy and you can overtake loads of people pushing bikes. Finale Ligure insane rocky descents helped me a lot.
Tubeless carbon hardtail is the best for here but seen full suspensions. Day before race talked to a guy on a 29er hardtail and niner rigid forks. I think that's a good choice. Don't forget front chain rings, small 22 teeth would be a good choice.

Now I'm more tired than when I finished. I should've started the recovery before finishing the race.

No much time but I could describe whole race and how was it!!

Next competition...there are 2 on the same dates and planning to do my 24h solo next year.Time shall tell

Well done Javi! Sounds like a wicked race!

Well done

Top marks Javi.. your an animal for doing that race, going to make us look slow when you get beck to the real stuff over here

Thanks!
http://app.strava.com/rides/11591652
It's suppossed to be 4200 metres of climbing but there're 600 metres missing. I know the awful weather can make GPS readings inaccurate but this is too much! I swear I didn't cheat this time hehe