Spain 2005

After Reinach, Martina and I booted straight (well, not quite straight – first there was the adventure trying to find an UBS bank and then there was my Autobahn pee stop…) to Offenburg , Germany where we slept in a cute hotel called Hotel Zauberflöte (Magic Flute).

Race day dawned cloudy and sprinkling and I expected a full-on downpour to begin at any moment, since that’s what the forecasters had been predicting. I felt like I had a little, dark cloud following me around, when it turned out the coffee machine downstairs wasn’t working and the only other option was instant (ha)!

We enjoyed our breakfast anyway, and despite it being a Sunday, we did find a little café that was actually open and serving REAL coffee!

Off to the race course, a few kilometers away, where streets were closed and policemen were busy preparing for the expected 15,000+ spectators. Early races had already started, so I couldn’t get on the course, which had been described as very technically demanding – scary even – with a section called “North Shore Drop.” Sounded like a fun course to race without having ridden it before!

I was feeling pretty bagged, just thinking about the race, but I was excited to check out the riding in the Schwarzwald… and then Martina came back from scouting out the feed zone (or perhaps more like scouting out what that fabulous smell coming from the concession tents was!), she informed me Michel, my good friend from Belgium, was there (as later evidenced by screams of “Teddy Bear!” from the sidelines – I didn’t choose the nickname, okay?).

Okay, to the race details! Once I heard we had to do two start loops, plus five laps of the five-kilometre course after racing the day before, and that it was going to pour, I thought it was going to be a gong show. I had a fast first start loop (which is what I’ve been working on), but the second time up that short, steep pavement climb my legs suddenly reminded me they had already worked hard the day before. I tried to maintain my intensity and stay up there, but it wasn’t happening. I settled into a pace I could maintain and enjoyed my first “blind” lap of the course. There were several steep, rooty descents, which were super fun – not really comparable to the North Shore , but fun nonetheless.

Martina was awesome in her role as race support, but I wish she would have felt well enough to join me on the course. I raced through five fun, twisty laps and finished 12 th. Not too shabby for the second effort of the weekend!