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The 15th Erz Mountains-Bike-Marathon in Seiffen

Even though I've lived close by for a while now, I had never ridden in the oldest German bike marathon. Why, I don't know. This took place in the toy-town Seiffen, where you can buy all kinds of weird craftsmanship.

On Sunday, 1300 starters, a new record, started on three distances (24.8m/40km and 3281 vertical ft/1000hm, 43.5m/70km and 5906 vertical ft/1800hm, 62m/100km and 8530 vertical ft/2600hm) at the same time, in awesome weather. The day before, I had changed my reservation from the short to the middle distance.

Naturally, doping was an issue here too. (Thomas Nicke was the winner on the long distance once again with a new record time of 3:43.)

Of course, a vehicle control took place before the start. Here, the start itself begins neutralized and then takes off on the main street of the town, without a time recording by transponder, which is a disadvantage for the people in the back of the starter field.

First, there was a lead in lap of 7.5m/12km on wide streets, which dispersed the field well. I wasn't on track in the beginning, because I had to chitchat with my fellow fancy-dressed Pirates, but after about 1.2m/2km, I started making good on the lead in lap, which was easy to do. I was feeling pretty good.

As you can see here, nature is adapting itself to the color of our jerseys. That's evolution for ya.

Shortly before riding out into the country, I had to leave the track on a turn and went down a slope. As we say: concentration is the key. It wasn't horrible though. At least not for me. Soon afterwards, I noticed that I was having problems shifting. Either it wouldn't shift at all or the chain kept coming off in back. Since I couldn't get it under control, I had to give up after the short distance, because I had just lost so much time.

During the last part, we went up a paved incline with an average slope of 20%. There were a lot of spectators and great moderators that the pink jumped out at and who thought us very courageous for wearing it. At this point let me say thanks again to the guy that came up behind me and bumped into me here, forcing me off my bike, but thanks to the help of a nice "grandpa", I was able to launch myself into the fray once more.

However, on this incline, I was most impressed later by an older gentleman, who proudly called out, "And all that at 83", after pedaling up to the top. You've got to tip your hat to that.

On Monday, I made my way to the bike shop for repairs. By the way, one of the owners found the pink pretty conspicuous too. His short, curt comment was: "That's really porno". It's a good conversation starter. I guy in Seiffen asked whether I had ridden in Albstadt recently too, just because the jersey stood out.

Well, til next time with working technology.

Bye Martin



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