It’s Thursday evening, we just had a lovely meal at the farm as the first Blasters arrive. Mixed nationalities once again with Swiss, Austrian and Dutch making up the group of enthusiastic riders.
Rooms are divided, beers are opened and as the sun sets you can feel the energy in the air, everyone looking forward to riding their bikes.
Although The Blast is always a chilled out event, most people are stuck in the daily rhythm of being woken up by alarms / kids at 6am, making the 9am breakfast at a Blast really feel like a holiday. During todays briefing we go over the rules of the trail, and guide Nejc tells us some details on the riding of the day. We kick off straight from the accommodation for a warm up loop, then climb to the start of the stages 1 and 2 before lunch. The uplift will help us up again to reach the liaison that will bring us to stage 3.
The Slovenian trails are like in a fairytale. Narrow, snaking in between the trees and surrounded by blueberries!
Every now and then the trail drops and things get steep and loose. Perfect mix between flow and tech!
Lunch for today is Schnitzel and yes, it was huge. With all riders suffering a food coma, the uplift was very welcome!
The days final stage brought the group to straight to the accommodation, where showers, snacks and cold beverages were waiting!
Day two kicks off with breakfast and briefing, and of course the rankings after the first stages! Racing was tight, but the Austrian managed to take the lead.
Just like in the Tour de France, we make sure the leader in the overall is clearly visible. Not with a boring yellow jersey, no thats too easy. We always find something more interesting. Leaders mustache, leaders beard or in this case, the leaders hat!
This day featured more tech and higher mountains to cross, leaving the riders warm and sweaty at the end of the day. What better way to cool off with some underground biking?
With a constant temperature of 9 degrees celsius literally a cool adventure!
Time always flies by, and before you know it you’re saddling up for the final day of riding. Two more timed stages, filled with epic trails almost too much fun to race.
After two wild stages it’s time for lunch, and of course the prize ceremony. Rainozeros goes for the win, followed closely by Volvosurfer, and the Dobenizer.
Before packing up, we still managed to get a nice group picture!