this have been the first words I heard at the registration for the Glocknerkönig-Race, in the austrian Bruck !
It started on th 7th of june ! You gotta beat the Großklockner. But this years race stood among real dark clouds, in the truest sence of the word. The weather couldn´t been more worse. It was not raining, it was pouring cats and dogs. But who care´s, Pirates love the water, don`t they ? ;-)

No way – just kidding – It was real sux and depressing at all, to get on your bike in all this rain and in this cold just to ride this kind of mountain-race !
Start for the Großglockner 2009 was early in the morning at 7 o´clock ! You had to master 27k and about 1700 DA(Difference in Altitude) Even the weather sucked after all, the event had a new record of participants, 2500 starters ! Naturally most of the riders were real ambitious, cause who would do such a thing, especially in under this weather circumstances…!?
Carbon was everywhere you take a look… On the day before, we talked over the best time from last year a 1.16h, an average about 24 km/h. At this course a fantastic time and barely inmaginable… My goal was, to get under 2h, this is a good time, and because of some earlier good places from myside and the cute talking from our new club member Renate Heil, i were allowed to start from the 1st starting block, normally only for riders under 2 h from last years race…

I felt strong and I love long mountain courses. Bit by bit i moved forward and kept on passing other riders who started to fast in the first part and lost their breath on the last meters.
Sadly my bike computer drowned after 3k´s cause of the rain, so I was suspecting I had some meters to go, but when suddenly I could see the finish-line. Right on top of the mountain in 2500m it even started to snow and it got colder and colder…
Under brawly applause, I crossed the line after 1:39h. I hardly couldn´t belive it, how fast I´ve been, about 20minutes faster than planned. I was really proud of myself. Just after I finished, change of clothes and getting down, cause the temperatures were real freezy. Its an awesome feeling when you´re on your way down, looking at the others still climbing up and throwing admired looks on you…

Best time of the day, was set again by the last year winner Andreas Ortner from the Corratec Worls Team. While there´s no seperating in this race from pro`s, license or hobby-riders, you´re all in the same list. I finished 138 with my time among 2500 starters and reached 74th place in my age-group,Master 1. I´m really satisfied with all this. I still got some power to go at least 3k´s.
Well, next year I gotta catch the 1:30h

That´s it from the Hillclimber

PIRATE Jörg