(it takes damn long to get copies made from an SLR) After Jan started alone at last year's 24 hour race in Munich/Olympiapark, I decided to join him this year and so the two of us participated as a Pirate team.

After we marked our territory in the biker's camp, we warmed up Pirate-style, decided on a route and made our battleplan: hardcore at the beginning and then with psychological strength and constancy during the night in order to kick ass in the field. Something seemed to be wrong with our plan though, since we spent 24 hour screwing around somewhere in the middle of the group. But we kept at it with our motto: we're here and we're gonna make it through the 24 hours.

So Jan was up first and did a few laps around the 3.1m/5km, 393.7vertical feet/120hm course at full throttle.

Of course he started off like a bat out of hell… it's not a surprise that my legs were plagued by fantastic cramps after the first few laps. Here's a hint from a "really sharp tack": just continue on nice and easy". This actually helped. Every thing was in great shape again after the help of those weird magnesium tablets. Well anyway, that 3.1m/5km course was pretty tough. I kept track of my gear shifting: 35 shifts per lap, so that's about 1400 shifts in 24h/starter. Then some uphill, some downhill, a short BMX course, some crunching steps and a shoulder pass… the "wave riding" downhill from the swimming pool kicked some of the dare devils asses.
I guess they hadn't installed any brakes (?), shit outta luck… but the parts suppliers and their stands weren't far away.

There's little old me, still in high spirits in a phase on Saturday, taking apart the competition. ;-)

How did the two guys on the tandem take those turns????

At one point it got dark and the SIGMAs had to be mounted. It was awesome whooshing through the Olympiapark in the dark!!! All the way at the top the Swiss were constantly ringing their giant cowbells. But even they took their leave at 4am. The darkest part of the race had begun… no spectators, no shouts of encouragement, only a few lonely lights that continued coming down the path. Jan and I really did shitty switches that night: One would get off and wake the other… of course this wasted a lot of time… but tiredness makes you sloppy. We both slept two day before, even though our legs were getting really heavy… in the end it was all "only" enough for 30th place in the double team ratings. But at least we were still able to walk in a straight line. ;-) We also left the POLICE-Team in the back ranks. Huge praise goes out to our fantastic attendants, who really took care of us for 24 hours and kept our spirits up!!! And this is what one of our outstanding attendants looked like the next day after no sleep whatsoever:

My conclusion: an excellent event, with a tough, but awesome course and luckily some sunny weather.Oh yeah, Jan and I made it back without any defects or crashes. Maybe next year we'll show up in Munich with a few more people?A hint to all you seamen and seawomen out there!

Gruß, Greetings, Ahoy, yawn and snore

Thomas und Jan