After a long while Captain Stedebeker returns to report on a race.
This one is about the Ruhrbike Festival in Wetter.
Last Saturday the Sauerland Pirates, Zimbo, Stedebeker and "Rookie" Marc Johannes, sailed to Wetter for the Ruhrbike Festival.
28m/45km was the mission of all three Pirates.

The race began at 1pm on the nose for us and about 800 other victims. The about 3m/5km long neutralized startshaped up to be kind of difficult. The lead vehicle was going way to slow and the riders stayed dangerously tight. After the all-clear we got the result. At the passage to a narrow country lane a traffic jam formed and the pushing began.

After we got over the troubles in the beginning, the race was awesome and we were able to really swing our grappling hooks on the steep single trail passages. The ascents (4101 vertical ft/ 1250hm overall) were 90% asphalt and relatively unproblematic.

After 15.5m/25km, at a steep ascent, Stedebeker stepped on his pedal and got no resistance. The pedal body of my Egg Beater had broken off of the pedal axle, since I didn't want to drop out again after Nordenau, I took a big rock and temporarily hammered the body back on. I had to repeat that three times during the next 12m/20km.
I still managed to trundle across the finish line at the front of the middle group.

The other Pirates fared much better. After Pirate Zimbo had ripped his pupil Marc a new one during the preparation for the season, the success of the torture method are beginning to show.
After having boarded 2nd place in the Junior Division in Nordenau, he crossed the finish line in Wetter in 3rd place in the Junior Division with a time of 2:29:20 and was able to pick up his hard earned trophy.
When our young Pirate was congratulated by Mike the Bike, he was so awestruck that he almost fainted.

Old Zimbo finished about 2min after his pupil, ending up in a good 32nd place in the Licensed Veterans I Division, where the opposition was strong.
Here, Marc has proven himself to be a contender for a podium placing at the highlight of the season, the P-Weg Race (the Pirate club championship) in September.

Stede