Finally, I had an almost-home-game, at the Allersheim MTB-Cup on July 2nd, so I spent a week training in my old home the Weserbergland, which would come to an end with the race. The rides during the training were a lot of fun, finally I was alone in the forest again (that isn't really an option in my current home of Stuttgart, also I was allowed to ride paths that were less than 6.5ft/2m wide ;-)). I registered for the short distance; 15.5m/25km and about 1968 vertical ft/600hm.

I stood way in the back of the starter block and was pretty tired (my 18 month old bioactivated alarm clock wanted me to get up at 5am....). So, I had to start rolling up the field from behind. The track was the same as in previous years - first there was a long ascent, which gave me many chances to pass other bikers - and I quickly made it to the top third. The first downhill run was advertised with the sentence "Caaareful people!!! You can go up to 37mph/60km/h". Well, I topped out at about 29mph/47km/h and that was enough for me.

Then the track went up and down over wide forest trails and a few super sweet single trails ("Guys why are you getting off your Fullys???"). Then came the last loop into Silberborn - a hardcore tarred ascent that is deadly for tired legs - which ended in an upland moor - so there was a boggy trail full of roots for about .9m/1,5km - but after that there were only 2.5m/4km of "just do it"-downhill.

I came in 5min earlier than the year before and got to stand on the number one podium. :-)

Greetings,

CLaudia