It's now a good 2 weeks ago, but slowly the memories are fading.
I guess that is one of the safety mechanisms of the human
psyche. When I someday retire - I believe - I will look at
the human psyche and the matter of the process of change more
closely. But now, back to the actual topic.
I had signed up for the 24 hour race in the Olympia Park in
Munich - totally convinced that nothing could be as hardcore
as my odyssey at the 600km Brevet.. I don't want to spoil
the ending… but I will mention here that it was worse!
It was to be my last big unit before the P-B-P and so I stood
at the singles starting line on Saturday at 1pm. The weather
was great. Well, the weather was great for spending the day
lazing at the beach, not for spending 24 hours in the saddle.
Oh well, he who says A, must also say B. I had scouted out
the track with Thomas earlier and from that point on, I knew
that when I had imagined a comfortable weekend on my bike,
I had been more wrong than ever before. I thought 4.6m/7,5km
through the Olympia compound with 311 vertical ft/95hm would
be a roll in the park, but no… The track was extremely varied
and finding a rhythm was impossible… rolling out was not in
the cards.
Oh well, it was what it was. As I had mentioned earlier, the
start was at 1pm and after about 6 hours fun-time was just
about over. The continuous change in rhythm was really starting
to get to me and I began yearning for a Brevet, where you
ride in the same direction for hours and it's monotone, even
meditative. Here, however, concentration was always of the
essence.
Thomas almost up at the top…
……and on his way down again
The atmosphere along the track was indescribable. Late into
the night - I really had no sense of time, but I'm guessing
til about 3am - spectators were there to cheer us up even
the steepest slopes. It was awesome.
I would sometimes see our Pirate team of 4 briefly from behind,
when they flew past me on their way to 4th place. I didn't
really believe the isolated words of encouragement, "it looks
good", because I felt like shit, but they did work. Ron's
picture taking that began around the same time did it's job
too. However, at 5am, it was over. Done. I had to take a break
- I was dead tired and slept uneasily until my father woke
me at 6:30am as promised. The last 6.5 hours ended somehow
and I finished at 1pm. Never again!
.....at least not until June 28/29 2008. I'll be starting
again then.
What was I talking about?
Gruß
Andreas