Archiv der Kategorie: 2010

There are two major races in Germany for non-professinals, the Vattenfall Classics in Hamburg and the Velothon in Berlin. Thousands of would-be racers gather each year to finish or to crash.

By introduction of Fab, the newest addition to the Positivo Espresso Euro Klub (PEEK), I came to Berlin to attend the Velothon 120 km race. He also allowed me to stay in his flat and took me to the Saturday afternoon school party at the local Waldorf School which is run by the hotel group of the same name. David M from RGT Enterprises, Japanese Importer of Assos, AX Lightness and other bike porn visited a Waldorf School in Switzerland as well in his youth, so it cannot possibly be a bad place. Although I need to remark that artists, psychologists, lawyers and teachers do not necessarily qualify to operate a sausage grill. Unless one compares it to the effectiveness of Japanese road works.

Berlin was quiet the afternoon when we prepared our bikes and made a training ride to the Wannsee lake. Little did we know that the same evening Germany would become the new pop music capital of the world when Lena won the European Song Contest in Oslo with her song „Satellite“:

My fellow countrymen and women may have learned how to write pop songs but the level of English is still on par with Gestapo officers in early 40ties Hollywood movies.
And even less did we know that only one day later our country would be without head of state, all this happening in the town where I was just racing. OK, something similar happened in Japan this week as well, when Prime Minister Hatoyama stepped down for taking the blame of choosing the wrong shirt for an appearance at his garden cocktail party. Rumour has it, that this was a preliminary design for the next edition of the Tokyo Cycling Club team jersey.

So while major events around the world were causing dramatic changes, I was drinking some red wine in the garden of an old school friend from Moenchengladbach in preparation of the race the next day.

When I was waking up the next morning and looked out of the window, it was raining. Heavy rainfall was forecasted for all of the day with 96% probability. So I did what every decent optimist would do in such situation. I checked other weather forecasts on the web for more optimistic information, unfortunately to no avail. As I have told Fab many stories about my bad weather cycling adventures in Japan (Sado Long Run 210 in 2008, Yokohama Bike Navi Enurance in 2008 and 2009), perhaps slightly exaggerating one or the other detail, I was in no position to bail out. Luckily the rain stopped and we collected our third team member, Tibor S , Herr Professor; as these days I tend to prefer to be surrounded by men of equal or higher academic credentials.

So we drove into the city , just in front of the Brandenburg Gate where the race starts. Fab and Tibor lined up for the 60 km race which had an earlier start and almost the same finishing time as the 120 km race 1.5 hours later. These guys were pretty relaxed and after hearing the German National Anthem, they started to roll out in start block D. The road was pretty crowded whereas almost no spectators were watching. So I manged to get on my bike, sprint to the Brandenburg Gate and shout some encouragements when Fab and Tibor were finally coming in.

Finally Fabian hang on to one promising looking wheel which turned out to be a huge blunder.

I then went to drop my bag at the official bag dropping station, repaired my flat tyre (yes, that happened as well) and prepared myself mentally for the race. I desperately hoped that it would not rain but the probability of staying dry was low.

At 9 AM I was in starting block D (just as my JCRC classification) which turned out to be a mistake. The starting blocks are organized by indicated average speed. Quite modestly I noted 36 km/hr on my race application, not knowing that speed of sound minus 12.5 km/hr would be about the average velocity entered by all 120 km riders. Quite some hobby riders around me, not even sporting racing bikes.
OK; there was also start block E and F, but this was where apparently three years old with supporting wheels and people who have lost their bike on the way to the race were standing. So when the race started I tried to move up the front as soon as possible. The C block has started 5 minutes before us so I might have a chance to close in on them. Wide streets filled with many slow riders hampered my efforts first, but once the general speed picked-up I was surprised that only after a few kms the first groups formed and that already the first gaps between the groups were opening. I jumped from one group to the next, sometimes trailing a group of riders behind me, but after a while I had the feeling that I was perhaps with one of the first D block groups and there was no other group in sight in front of us, so I stayed with them.

As it is in such races, it turned out that basically I stayed with some of these guys for the rest of the race. There were four riders from SPARKASSE ERZGEBIRGE (Savings Bank Ore Mountains) who were leading the pack and a tall guy with a Caisse d’Espargne jersey who standed out so I used them as my orientation points. Erzgebirge is the part of Germany where people are so bored in the evening, that they produce the famous nutcrackers, even when under socialist rule.

I was close to ask the nutcrackers if I could ride with them in one group, also promising that I would stand in the wind from time to time, when the first hills of the Gruenewald, the major mountain ridge of Berlin appeared just in front of us. So instead of asking, I thought I might convince them by riding to the front and leading them up the mountain. Which I did and I did a really good job of climbing up this steep mountain (I guess Jerome’s hill is more demanding) and when on the top I looked back and the peloton was way behind me. So instead of presenting myself as a good team player that could ask for post-merger integration, I showed up as the ultimate idiot who squanders his powers senselessly within the first 20 km of the race. A photograph, waiting to capture the amount of sufferings on top of the hill took this photo precisely in the right moment.I took it easy on the descent down and was overtaken again by some of the other riders in my group. Two of them decided that it might be a splendid idea to crash just in front of me at a speed of over 40 km/hr and gently slide into my line. Luckily I didn’t brake but managed to overtake the pile-up on the left side.

Even on the climb we were overtaking the first groups from the C starting block and now it became difficult: I had to be very focused and concentrated to ride in the peloton, but also not to land in one of the slower C groups we were overtaking. Quite some times I found myself in the middle of one of the slow C groups, while there was already a gap to my original D group opening. So I was forced to sprint back to my group which I luckily managed every time.

In hindsight, that was he best part of the race: Seeing the gap, getting into sprint mode and making an all out effort at 45 – 50 km/hr to establish contact to the group in front. Then hang on and recover.

The speed was quite fast, constantly in the 40 to 45 km/hr range at this point of the race. Then it started to rain and I prepared myself for getting wet. But miracle, oh mircale, it stopped raining after only 15 minutes or so. And then we were on the highway back to Berlin, a long flat and straight wide road where I had the chance to eat some powerbars and get new energy. Also the speed had dropped quite substantially and it was now very easy to stay with the field, even while eating and drinking.

And then we came back into Berlin city, as more traffic islands popped up everywhere and one has to ride really, really, concentrated in order not to crash. Also the speed wasn’t that fast any longer. I was just happy that I didn’t crashed and that the weather stayed dry. There were also more spectators watching now and with just three kms to go I made myself ready to ride to the front of our group and start the sprint. We made a left turn into the street of June 17th which is leading to the Brandenburg Gate and for the first time after the start I had the feeling that I was racing in Berlin. My eyes were glued to the rider in front of me almost all of the time and now suddenly I could look up and realize where I was.

I positioned myself well, but there was no sprint. Later I learned that it is expressively not allowed to sprint at the event (except when the first riders from the A block move in). I was happy to finish in 899th position (out of more than 4.000 riders) with an average speed of more than 39 km/hr (the actual distance was less than 116 km) and in 2:57:41 hr.

Done. I went to the bag drop station where two bored girls waited to pick up my things.

„Can I get my bag please?“ „Oh great, your the first guy to show up here to pick up his bag. Wonderful. Do you like some cookies?“I got some more stufff. Please note the standard size safety pins and the „Hey, my body is full with pills“ type peppermint box.

Seems I was first in something. Then I took the subway to Fabs house, now it was raining. Fab and Tibor did well in the 60 km considering their lack of training (Fab did two weeks) and coaching (one day). So we decided to set up a training camp in Mallorca for next year.

And then I returned to Bremen which was not as easy as I thought. Jumping out of the train there it was raining. Of course

PS Later I learned that the complete PEEK was assembled in Berlin during this weekend. Juliane and David were travelling to MELT at Ferropolis and stayed in Berlin for one or two nights. Time to gown a moustache and make the trip to London.

I have to say that I am mighty impressed by all recent posts about long rides to the West of Tokyo. Everybody is in very good shape and will set no record times for Itoigawa. Not that I could write about similar adventures yet, but as long as I haven’t found a team in Bremen and established a blog in German I thought that I might as well post on the Positivo Espresso blog to give some insights into German cycling. Which is quite exotic. Last weekend I attend a 219km brevet (or bike marathon, as it was called).

I could leave the office comparatively early on Friday night and made my way to the local bike store at the edge of the town. There I could buy some parts to prepare myself for the brevet the next day. Most important; Watertight shoecovers, as spray rain was forecasted for all of the race day. I also bought a lock for my bike which looked as it has been milled out of a block of pure cryptonite. On the safety scale of the manufacturer from 1 to 10 it ranked on level 8, which I thought would be appropriate for Bremen. I wanted to confirm this at the counter and created great flabbergastation: „You want to leave your bike parked in the city with this lock? Are you completely out of your mind? Don’t you know that the police recommends at least this type here?“

And with this words the salesman lifted something on the counter which seemed to be suitable to lock a Soviet attack tank to a blast furnace. It was not only heavier than my bike, but even hard to lift up from the counter. Lesson learned: Take the tram into the city.

I also bought a family-packages of Snickers, muesli bars, bread etc. as I was so afraid of getting a bonk due to the complete absence of convenience stores within continental boundaries.

I woke up in time and of course it was already raining. Neverthless I rode the bike out to the start. Finally, some „real“ bikes were there, I noticed a Trek, some „Principia„, but surprinsingly no Canyons or Red Bulls, the two biggest German direct mail order bike brands. I paid my 20 Euro registration fee and got a start number (Sekken) and wanted to fix them on my jacket. There was a basket with safety pins …. I should have taken a photo. While in Japan safety pins for pro bike use are maximum 2 cm long, made out of cross section-optimized lightweight steel and all of the same type, these safety pins were massive. I haven’t seen these type of safety pins since Bill Grundy interviewed the Sex Pistols in 1976. If German bike locks couldn’t stop a Soviet tank – these safety pins would.

Everybody was very nice. And very old as well. There were a lot of cakes, sausages, sandwiches and drinks perpared by some older ladies which all looked like my mum. This is in sharp contrast to Japan, where they all like like my mother in law.

Anyway, at sharply 9 AM the tour started and I made myself on the way with the first and stronger group. Most of the riders were my age but there were also some fast younger guys with us. There were also a lot of tatoos to be seen, mostly on the lower legs. And I was happy to note that the typical body shape of the riders were much more like the one of David, Jerome or me as opposed to the bodily hulls of Ludwig, Fumiki and Alan.

Now the pace was quite fast, always in the range of 35 to 40 km/hr except when there was a turn or a road to be crossed as we had to adjust to the local traffic. After a while we had a fast group of about 25 riders and we were riding in a very organized fashion, taking turns at the front. Every rider stayed in front of the peloton for about 3 to 4 minutes before he felt back and made place for the next rider. Very efficient and organized, very German indeed.
And within no time we came to the first check point after 50 km.

After having experienced this very controlled riding for more than an hour, I thought that the whole group would start together agin from the control point, but there was no organisation at all. Some guys started, others tried to hang on, some didn’t and when we finally formed a group together again, we were only 18 riders left. Again the pace was quick and it was almost impossible to get back to the group once one has lost contact. At one point the front rider and me in second position went straight whereas the rest of the peloton made a right turn. When we found out we had a very hard time to close the gap again. It was strange to experience this difference between effective riding in the group and utterly chaos in group formation.

The second checkpoint was already at the 80 km mark and I utilized the time to clean my glasses. And when I put them on again I noted that most riders from the fast group had left already or where in the process. I hurried up to catch them and I was lucky, I thought when two other young riders from Hamburg University Cycling Team came from behind. Cool. I thought I can hang on to these guys and they will lead my back to the group. I am not exactly sure what has happened next, but they zoomed by at 60 km/hr and I had not even the slightest chance to stay in their draft. Now completely on my own I lost the contact with the group and could see them disappearing on the horizon.

Alone in the rain, without any draft I knew that the remain 140 km would be very much harder than the first 80 km. Luckily at the next light another rider who has lost contact closed up to me and we rode together, changing the positions every 5 to 10 minutes. Apart from the rain and the wind the ride was OK – there was not much to see and there was virtually 0 elevation meters to be made. Later, when I cheked the bike computer it had noted 227 m elevation diffference for much more than 200 km of riding. I guess that would be the same as riding 200 km on the Kawasaki Keirin bank. The Luenburger Heide, a natural reserve, we crossed, was a sandy, barren landscape. Parts of it were used by the British army for tank shooting practice.

So for the next 50 km I rode with this guy, older one, not very talkative. Then at 130 km we came to the next control point and the guy asked me if I wanted to east some hot soup which was served inside. Sure, I said and went inside. What he didn’t say was that he didn’t wanted to eat soup and bat wanted to go ahead, so when I came out again he was nowhere to be seen. Another group of riders was just incoming and wanted to take a soup break as well, so I thought,what the heck, I go on my own and when they overtake me I go with them.

That was a very bad idea. Becuase I thought that we would return the same route as we have come, but in fact there was a much shorter, official way back. So I tried to find the markers from the way out and had to stop quite frequently to check if I had not overseen a marker at a crossing which took quite some time. And there was no other rider on the road who could help. Of course I had no map as well. And after a while I got completly lost. No markers at all. And for the next two hours I rode in circles … Wohnste, Klein Wohnste, Hesslingen, Zeven, villages no living sould has ever heard of and which I crossed multiple times. Until I gave up to find the markers and oriented myself on the markers of the Bremen-Hamburg-Cycling Road.

This would lead me back to Bremen, I thought rather naively. Well, there are plenty of markers but sometimes on crossings where one is desperately needed, there are none. So again I lost the way many, many times. Beside, as German cycling starts at tyre size 700C x 35 in general, some stretches of the cycling road were unpaved dirt roads leading through forrests as showned in the Brother Grimms. Scary, not a house in sight, only forrest and fields, no cyclists, no human souls at all, sometimes a raised hide for hunters on the edge of a clerarance .. is there someone inside watching? Aiming?

But slowly I was coming closer to Bremen. While I did the first 100 km in 2:51 minutes, the second hundred km almost took me more than 4 hours.
Finally I arrived at the oputskirts of the city. I navigated my way to the goal and made it barely before the cutoff time at 6 PM (or nine hours). Most of the riders had already left – the fast group came already in after 6 hours.
I set a new record: 261 km for a brevet of 219 km, I think that is not only a record distance-wise but also pretty stupid. And of course it is the result or riding unprepared. But on the other hand everybody was quite nice to me at the finish and I got some cake and sausages from my mums.

Summary: Nice to talk about later, but very, very hard while doing. I found some better looking stretches of road yesterday, but photos of the weekend tours on the PE blog made me very envious: blue skies, warmth, mountains …..
Lesson learned: If the sky is blue in the morning and the temperature warm, phone the offide and take a holiday. This will only happen once a month anyway. From May to September.

Sorry no photos.

Map of the ride.