Well, we had finally put back one goal: Our proven by the Cyclassics Sunclass-Road Racing Team should now so at the season final race of the Everyman series of the German Cycling Cup attend: Traditionally this is the Münsterland Giro and traditional place on the day of German Unity instead.
Unfortunately, Jan would not participate and our female newcomer Angela was prevented at the last minute, and it finally came in handy that Steve recommended a dedicated triathlete who would be willing to ride on the vacant starting position. And - as a bonus so to speak - he promised me a lady on a Cervélo.
Well, who can then say no?
We all looked forward to Swann.
And so we make ourselves comfortable on Saturday at about half past eleven at the Hamburg main station. The team Sunclass almost complete: Florian, Heiko, Steve and myself. And Swann, which comes with a sleek Cervélo S1 rolled aero bike, grins at us and a "Hi guys" shines in the round. better way to start such a race weekend but did not, I think.
The IC comes on time, we get in and look forward to.
The Radabteil with only two wheels almost "blank" as to call. As we drive normal tickets we have no reservation, but since nothing is registered, no problem. I think. Nope.
The Lord has me Schaffner schoolmasterish way out that would be long-haul booking duty and he had the right to refuse carriage.
"But this is nothing but a reservation?" I insist.
He shakes his head. Only "the exception, as" we can ride.
German Railways - I just do not understand you!
But anyway, after 2 hours we reach Münster, buy our single room in the team hotel, the comfort only 200 meters from the main station is located near the old town and go us first to the Italians - carbohydrate loading.
The pizzas look like this in the Mocca d'Or delicious that I spontaneously decide to pasta and a Tonno. If revenge this morning? Well, I do not anticipate.
And let nothing come to the pizza - because that was simply exceptional!
We are running half an hour to the university, is organized in the cafeteria where the race accreditation and transponder output. Florian is only today evening against 21 clock, the register must I, and Swann get the confirmation from Angela - re-register from 55 km to 125 km on the program. Our application is not a problem. The boys and girls are even Siezen, but not surprising, because with over 30, I now belong to the category "Masters" and there will probably be gesiezt ex officio.
When registering by Flo they ask me for an authorization.
"What authority? But I have the confirmation?" I say.
"Well, we must be sure that you can register it ...", said the kid behind the beer table set.
"Um, should I call him for you, then he can personally tell you this ...", I offer.
The boy considered. Then he pushes me towards the paper on which we write that we do not take the operator in the liability: "Okay wear, here's just a name ..."
scribble in a disguised handwriting I his "Flo" out.
Swantje application is similar strange: For here they need a written authorization. I say to the men: "Well, as I said, what we have written - but here, I can call them on the phone ...?"
"Um, okay, then it goes so wrong." Swann gets her transponder and its launch site in Block B. We can take all the 125 km together in attack. Great.
The next morning we will meet 7:30 for breakfast. The night was a disaster: the good location between main station and old town Thanks be to keep the drunks always seem to just under our window to yell at himself. of Turkish guys who are hunting for girls ".! Hey Snail, snail SNAIL IN THE FOREST!" over a marriage dispute, "What else behind guckstu I AM THE MOTHER OF YOUR CHILDREN, YOU ASSHOLE!?" up to a battalion full of drunken Brits, stop the clock at 6 in the gay dance club crowd with loud "Fuckyaallyoufuckinbastards!" roar, we get the whole cross-section of a standard party präkariaten offered Saturdays.
I also get the estimated 1.5 hours of sleep.
a deficit, I am not notice. Like everyone else I am too excited to turn up. It wafts familiar beat of old NDW Mucke through the streets, in the starting blocks in at the expected 4,000-racing driver and a spokesman there every few minutes for a countdown. The sky above is blue. 24 degrees and sunshine are announced - madness! When choosing clothes, we were spoiled - for me, the short sleeve jersey with arm warmers and long pants, my colleagues prefer shorts.
We will see.
The atmosphere is perfect. Just behind Block A - where we doggedly attacking the driver points the German Cycling Cup standings suspect - we join in the assumable as quiet block B in the back one. Swann will approach it calmly.
Flo, our St. Pauli hardcore Bolzer has another strategy: "So guys, from the beginning right after the front, then songwriter safer."
Aha.
me, I feel quite good, although I know that I have been the Cyclassics - and they are now being expected to have been one and a half months around - have not trained seriously. Heated we certainly have not. Rather, the foot with bad jokes, talking hot, but then the guys do nunmal - the chat doubts henceforth. But in the back of my head facing dawns a little thought. And so I'm happy, two bananas, a power bar, and a half Iso-liter high-dose drink and to know as much as 5 bags of gel Nutrixxion in my jersey pockets.
which I will use even more!
some point the speaker tickert 10-0 down, then someone should give the green light. However, we hear nothing - no matter, now we can finally start! It billows in the expectation of us, the anticipation, the racing fever breaks out.
Although we can first take just 15 to 20 km / h, quängelt slowly, almost in slow motion and jostle out of racing dragon-roundabouts and 90-degree turns from the city.
And then, suddenly, everything speeds up like crazy.
The hunt is on - on the big hunt!
And as it goes off. Flo made good on his announcement and sprints forward. I follow him, Heiko and Steve behind me. Swant I see no more until after the finish.
The field collects, separates the wheat from the chaff, good legs forward, bad back. Here you are, and what am I doing here then forward?
Flo turns away, and to, see if we come from. Heiko on my back, I was four or five positions behind Flo. The pace is high, never below 36, more like 40, 42 km / h around. Still the road is wet, spray flies in my mouth, I now think must have open to get enough oxygen to pump into my lungs. managed 15 kilometers, Heiko comes before me, Flo's move somewhere further in the lead, I am getting first Heiko. Oha, I think that is so funny today!
take all this very disciplined - no grumbling, no ass holes that pass from the right, not a nervous gap Springer, all good, clean sports - cyclists, who can.
But this is also the tempo high.
find at kilometer 20 I at position 3 of our group again. Heiko before me, I will be back wheel, think before one who makes the wind up the pace. Shit!, I think if that goes out now has to Heiko in the wind. Heiko And if goes out, it's my turn. And I do not think 500 yards out there in front - 100 snorting race cars in the neck and I have to drag at 38 mph? "No way!" I decide, and scissors. Let me get on the right of the peloton and arrange myself in position 15, 20, a. A bit ashamed I am already - after all, everyone should do once in the wind and what his group. On the other hand, I think, almost 70% of the guys wake lollipop. Permanent spinning do over there at most 10 or 15 people.
Heiko also comes after a few miles with me. Breathless, he exclaims: "What, already empty?"
I must nod.
It is 13:30 when I crossed the finish line come. Completely finished. Leached. The last 50 miles I've driven with ongoing seizures. Not even on the large sheet I could want - 25 km / h max, more was not possible. The cramps begin above the knee. Thighs, calves - every turn a cramp.
The "winning photo" we grin. But just to have survived because we are happy.
Flo has caught twice. is the first time he shot down, lies down at full speed and scars on his elbow. Knees and hands, plus a strap from the helmet pulled down. Evil. Full of adrenaline - after all, he is at this time, only 4 minutes behind the leaders - he bolzt with Over the Edge and full risk goes, with more than 40 in a curve, it does not create and crashed a second time
He can also now that we are at the finish, grinning: "Hey, cool - I'm not dead!"
Yes, being dead, he could have. for me, I can remember, as I must leave my block approximately at kilometer 40 B group. Flo has long been out of sight, Heiko, I can still see very very short forward pass, then I leave all to me - with the high 30's section, which is down here, I can not keep up.
And if they do, then I would have shot down no later than the first climb, waiting at Coesfeld to us - here the field is broken by the brutal 800-meter ramp. Chains jump on the smallest sprocket, driving gets stuck in a vertical asphalt - we connect ourselves groan up the gradient.
the roadside stands Mel, my dear, dear old friend. She sees me, waves and smiles. I am glad to see them waving, short, but must then connect again. Strangely enough, I'm
the slope particularly light-footed high - faster than most of my Mitrennfahrer. That struck me even at the Cyclassics ...
has reached the top, we get a great view of the Muenster area. Is certainly no time to enjoy.
the finish I contemplate my clothes - splashes of mud on the glasses, drop your pants full, sweat shirt and gloves. Witness a battle unparalleled. At kilometer 50, they have - totally incomprehensible - the food they built. No one will stop. Also I do not. Lasse drinks, bars and bananas right, and fighting. For 10 kilometers, as a single driver. Before me, about 2 miles, and only a lone fighter, exhaustion Fake, Leftover, renegades of the peloton.
me back on the horizon, the next large group. But that day is still time. It is time for me once: teeth together and rankommen lee!
I find a Group of 15, 20 racing cyclists. Find lee also may accelerate again. The sometimes rough-and counter-wind is optimally shielded. Soon I was again 36, 36 things on it, even to a Cervélo-Klönschnack ranges of breath.
adopted at kilometer 69, my partner and whistles ahead - and sets off.
Oha!
While Swantje their well-deserved and obtained pasta blurt out the guys racing the stories as if there were no tomorrow, I try something off the troops to go around: I still painful cramps go through your legs. What a pain! to torment it is for me from 90th km My water is all. The second banana can not even swallow, I must throw away the half. My group, I've already lost - the Kärmpfe a share and help here either give up or only - reduce speed.
I crank on the little sheet with more than 25 km / h through the country. People clap at the roadside condolences. As I was passed by a group, fingering one of just a Geltütchen, it dissolves his bike computer, which falls on his thigh, which is currently in a strong upward movement, the computer kicks in the air and over his shoulder and I get that with full force into my face. Batsch! A get scrubbed. Incisors have there? Yes. Oh, cool - at least the pain distracted up here because of the spasms from below ...
Somewhere they have built a jacuzzi at the racetrack. There are even road bikes on the road. Whether I sit inside with easy? No, pull! Driving!
another 35 miles? Never!
The sun shines on the sweaty jerseys. We are happy and content - in the background to be honored and winners go the pros on the route. It deafened brass over to us and we can mess around again. My pain has also become more bearable - we slowly get our minds free to think. thinking that my last 30 Km is difficult. For I have only one thought: "GIVE UP!".
it was that bad before. Really. In my almost 24,000 kilometers in the (racing) is Radsattel me so came under a low point before. Just now I Tänzler again almost effortlessly, the second, even worse mountain classification, this time over a 1,000 meter long ramp up, now I can not. And I do not think I'm done - no, because of the pain we are all here, no, I mean that I'm really in every single turn of the handle a cramp.
spasm right.
spasm on the left.
spasm right.
spasm.
spasm.
fight.
broom wagon. A blog post from the Broom wagon I had never, I think. Even something ... and yet, I'll bite. "Let it calm approach." I would urge me in silence and let pass me by about 300 racing cyclists. One pushes me to even and says, "Come, hang ran out the back!"
nice of you, but I CAN NOT.
it is contemplative, almost thoughtfully, as we sit just before leaving for large showers still in the meadow. What a race, right? How cool was it again please! Even before I was a very different way: I think 18 km from Münster on a house, there are two girls. I ask breathlessly, I fill a water bottle. "With or without a bubble?" She asks, smiling.
I'm speechless. "The main thing to the brim ..." I stammer, trembling. Even in the state I have cramps. I hardly notice once more. Krämpft me ass!
I only want one thing: to arrive. Please! Only I will arrive. And if need be, as the last, I do not care, but I want to finish an!
The last mile I'm all alone. Viewers are already gone. The distance stewards who initially rejected quite enthusiastic with their flags the way they sit perched on the fences, turn brown, they have their noses from the sun and fantastic views raise more than the finger to me stragglers the direction to have.
finished completely, not even able hochzureißen only one arm, I leave for 3 hours and 46 minutes and 125 kilometers in spastic twitching legs over the finish line.
No shiny - but still a victory.
The doner kebab man gives XXL with fries. Flo drinking his fifth beer. We joke in Minster Sun - heroes of the race, fighters spoke of the North - Road-Jedis. We have disputed the Münsterland Giro. And not so bad as it turns out: Heiko despite the two crashes and Flo of Flo are just 25 minutes after the winner of the race to the finish. In a larger Group coasts Swantje that goes in the women's ranking at number 21, a not 30 seconds after me and Steve is just a minute behind me and crossed the finish line.
The shower we enjoy, the people from the hotel, asked me today tomorrow, because even if we would start with the classic car race (?) Let us use the rooms to 14 großzügihg clock. Something one has seldom. We smell like peach, after bitter and soft gels, depending on how you like it. A very different gel that is left for me, I take home with you: of the five power gel I had taken only four (the first a mere 20 kilometers after the start), and therefore only four, because I came home with no water to hinabzuspülen also the fifth.
How we sleep babies on the train, we doze through northern Germany, against the sunny home. From what the dream might only two?
From next race. Sure!
interfere Since then only peripheral that I had thrown away in the hotel, the train ticket for the five of us and an interesting discussion developed with the conductor. But that's another story ...
remains finally to say: The race was awesome! A wonderful track has offered everything you could wish for racing cyclist: Fast descents, nasty steep ramps, long flat pieces to make uniform speed, winding curve sections (on cobblestones) to require the driving skills and - although unfortunately only noticed peripheral - a landscape that is beautiful to look at. a great organization in terms of line management, and post team. The only problem is the completely absurd food stand after 50 kilometers - the times you had better posted at km 80 or 90 ... Well, 2011 is another year!
The atmosphere in the box was perfect: no bump, up or assholes, not for beginners, and Rechtsüberholer Radrowdies. All have been at any time night, I had only a fall to watch. I can say: Even if I use my own performance is anything but happy am, it was an awesome weekend, was fun with you guys & gals from Sunclass-road bike team with you and 4000 other cyclists.
And hey - how awesome that feeling is when I evening at the "crime scene" on the couch and the blood is still hot and flowing thought flashed through the cramp-ridden arteries, according to a Einstundenvollbad - that can always empathize with only those who for so dozens of kilometers has given everything.
And beyond.
Statistics Münsterland.Giro 2010:
dangers 125 km round with 984 men and 32-Race Ladies
Finished ranked 751 (of 984) and 217 (of 281 in my class) after 3 h 46.09 min with an average of 33.2 km / h
Our Sunclass Cycling Team 49 of seat reserved 63 in the team standings.
And next year - we'll be back!
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