The Mountain Race track went from Neckargemünd, at 420ft/128m, for 7.3m/11,8km up to the Königstuhl ("king's seat"), at 1864ft/568m. The first mile and a half made up the steepest passage, after which the incline was easily managed on the large bit. I started from the front line and was able to take the lead immediately. At least up until the first ascent.

That's where I was passed by a few small groups of people, some of which were on cross bikes. I put the pressure on during the more even passages and was able to make up some of the places, ending up in 9th overall, after 34:40min. Now, it was time to wait for the runners and my teammate Nina....

Nina:
Since the starting shot for the runners was fired 15min after the bikers', but we had the same distance to cover, there was a considerable wait ahead.... The run started out pretty speedy, since there was a short downhill passage, before the 1.2m/2km steep incline that Ubi Blutsventje described. I made a conscious effort to position myself near the middle of the field, so I wouldn't blow my load prematurely, since it's really easy to be swept away by the tempo of the front runners.

The first half was relatively unproblematic, but then my legs got noticeably heavy. Apparently I had started off a little fast after all, because at the end I just lacked the strength for another push. After 1:07:09h, I finished 5th (age division W30) and was pretty exhausted (and pale).

We ended up in 8th place of the mixed-team ranking (1:41:50h), in which 1st through 4th place went to female bikers with male runners. One of these was my Princess Tanja Wittig of the Maestro Team Wein, in 4th place.

A sportsmanlike gesture on the side: Stefan Knopf (3rd in the MTB-Marathon German Championship, Seniors1) was in the lead, when he got a flat tire on his cross bike right before the finish line. Florian Eitel of Team Bergstraße, in 2nd place, caught up, but left the win to Stefan Knopf, which netted him a fairness award at the ceremony...

We'll be back, chain to the right and anchors away.

Ubi Blutsventje and Nina of the BSN-PINK-PIRATE Team

Ubi Blutsventje, the racing reporter
BSN-PINK-PIRATE Team
ubi@pirate.biz
www.bikesportnews.de
www.pirate.biz
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