Merrell King Winter
Knosen SKII Are the Winners
Rob Howard / 11.01.2014
After a race in which they lead for most of the time Team Knosen SKII crossed the finish line just after midnight to win the Merrell Kong Vinter race 2014.
The winning team was Torbjorn Gasberg, Simon Grimstrup and Jonas Borsoe, but there are 4 racers on the finish photo as they brought along a friend! That was Swedish racer Jonas Andersson whose team had dropped out early in the race – after which he asked if he could join the Knosen team to which they replied – “Yes, why not?” Borsoe said, “He rode just behind us and kept up OK, but he was hard to talk to as we don’t understand Swedish!”
For Borsoe it was his first race win, in the company of two very experienced racers who have had victories before. “I was the apprentice,” he said. (Gasberg is a fomer MTBO World Champions and both he and Grimstrup have won Danish Cup races before.)
“He kept up well,” said Gasberg, “but he didn’t like the high ropes course. Near the end we saw he was shivering and wondered if he was cold and he said he was just scared! He had done really well as often when people are scared they slow right down, but we didn’t even know he had a problem until near the end.”
Gasberg was a bit frustrated at spending 10 minutes looking for CP100 on the ride back into the finish, but Borsoe said, “That was just bad luck and you found 101 other checkpoints without a single mistake after doing all the navigation!”
The team had been very cold during the rain in the daytime and said they lost a lot of energy and slowed down ... but not enough for anyone else to catch them. The teams behind them must have suffered more and all will be grateful that the Masters course was shortened in its final stages. The organisers shortened the high ropes section a little and took out some controls on the last ride, a whole bike/run section and half of the last foot orienteering stage. It was a significant cut but well managed as the leaders took just over 16 hours, close the original predicted time.
Skandia Adventure finished second, just 40 minutes behind the winners, and Estonian AR Team are reported to be in third place approaching the finish. The remaining teams on the Masters course have until 6am to finish the race before it closes.
SleepMonsters
