The fourth race of the season was on the program on Sunday, the German Cycling Cup made a stop in Leipzig. The team is still on the road to success, Patrick Hanhart won the short distance, the team also won the team classification. Manuela is second in the long distance and defends the yellow jersey! Marion Wittler also wins in her age group. This time Andreas Lischka and Jürgen report on their very personal races noble helper Gap.
short distance
The preparations already started on Saturday: 7:00 a.m., check the equipment, pack your bags, because then it was time for me and my teammates Patrick, Pascal, Matthias and Cosima to stow away the equipment and make our way to Leipzig. After all, it was a good 400 kilometers that had to be covered to get there.
Am Old fairground Arriving in Leipzig, the starting documents were handed out before we checked into the hotel. In the evening we discussed the race tactics for the coming day over a meal together.
On Sunday we had to get up early. The starting line-up was at 8:45 a.m. I wasn't doing well at all. I had stomach pain. Maybe I should have skipped the pasta for breakfast.
Punctually at 9:00 a.m. we left the city neutralized. In the course of the race, there were repeated falls directly in front of me on the edge of the wind. However, the gut feeling improved after every kilometer driven.
In the race we were able to fend off all attacks and went on the offensive in the last kilometers. This resulted in a peloton of 20 riders. Patrick, Pascal and I were in the lead, so we set the pace up to 1000 meters from the finish. My legs actually felt quite good, so I wanted to give Patrick the sprint. Unfortunately, I didn't get into position and was only able to contribute to the team ranking. This race in Leipzig is one of my personal favorites because it's well organized and secured.
At the end of the day I proudly walked onto the podium to celebrate 2nd place in my age group. But that icing on the cake was the team's victory.
long distance
Because Manuela that Yellow jersey of the overall ranking in the GCC, it was of course important for us to defend it - even though we didn't have the race in Leipzig in our annual plan.
So Manuela had to travel to Leipzig the day before a planned class trip to Berlin, Felix after landing from training in Mallorca and I had to travel to Leipzig on Saturday after a customer event.
We were then at the hotel between 18 p.m. and 1.30 a.m. and agreed to meet at 7 a.m. for breakfast. In the morning there were the starting documents, which Manuela had received at the last minute the evening before!
During breakfast we discussed our tactics. Then it was off to the start. There we opted for the DT-Swiss wheels with the flat rims because it was quite stormy outside. Everyone knew it was going to be a tough 125km.
Punctually at 9:30 a.m. the starting gun went off and we left Leipzig with an hourly average of almost 50 kilometers. The field therefore shrank quickly. I had trouble driving around the slower drivers to keep up with the field.
Manuela stayed confident in the first third, Felix took her out of the wind if necessary and I was armed with Hutchinson spare tyres, a pump and tools: the living material truck to make sure that Manuela made sure that Goal achieved!
About halfway through, only two women were left in the field. Because I was further back in the field to be able to react if Manuela had technical problems, I had to keep closing up the holes that the strong wind had caused in the field.
In Leipzig it was very hectic on the last 5 kilometers. Everyone wanted to go forward. However, I had done my work and was able to watch the finale from behind in peace, unfortunately Manuela went a little too early into the wind during the sprint and so Katharina was able to sprint past her with 100 meters to go! The Yellow jersey was able to defend Manuela anyway!