On Sunday it was finally time again! The first German Cycling Cup race of the season took place in Göttingen.
After the training camp in mid-March it was the first time that we came together as a team and so when the individual team members arrived there was a joy to see the other guys again after the time that had passed. The bikes were quickly assembled and made ready to go to pick up the start numbers, but above all to cycle a good 1,5 hours through the beautiful Göttingen landscape. Somehow I had forgotten how mountainous it was here :-). After the exit, we went back to our favorite Italian restaurant. In the race briefing at the end of the day, we prepared ourselves tactically for many possibilities of the race and it was therefore clear to everyone what their task should be for the race and that the race was going to be very difficult.
A first race like that is always difficult for me personally. You can see the results of the other GCC drivers or you may have already driven one or the other directly in another amateur or licensed race that we use as part of the GCC season preparation and I try to orientate myself a little bit, what my own form will be like and how I am doing myself. The excitement and nervousness is therefore still a little greater than usual.
On Sunday morning, before the race, we enjoyed a hearty breakfast and talked shop about which weather app would be the best to predict possible rain and why. However, none of this helps and after getting dressed we went to the start.
The race was initially very subdued. Apparently each of the drivers had respect for the last stage of the day - the Hohen Hagen. Only the Strassacker team seemed unimpressed and tried to make the race in the mountains very fast, probably also due to the majority of their own drivers. Florian Vrecko (Team Strassacker) was able to use the preparatory work of the team to put the decisive meters between himself and a few pursuers on the Hohen Hagen. In the aforementioned group of pursuers, however, the only consensus was that everyone was too good to sort themselves out and first of all to reduce the lead in an orderly manner.
So the nice game "Individual Attack" followed. The game goes like this: each rider in the chasing group tries to catch up to the front by himself rather than going there with the other pursuers, but usually ends up with the chasing group varying its pace from extremely fast to slow again and the escapee at the front can at least keep his lead constant and if necessary other riders can come back into the group from behind. Consequently, everyone draws the "Zonk"!
When it was my turn to attack like that, I was able to break away from the very active Jonas Leefmann (Team Drinkuth-Multipower) and another Strassacker driver. A little later, another 5-6 riders were able to catch up, but even in this group it didn't go that well with the presence of three other Strassacker riders. However, we managed to keep the chasing field at a distance and I knew that if we didn't get through with Daniel and Friedrich, our trumps were at the back. From 3km before the finish a new game started: "How do I avoid the lead".
Again, there is at least one "Zonk" when I try so hard not to get forward that I fall. Although this was not awarded at the long and detailed award ceremony in Göttingen, it was at least unofficially awarded and so the chasing group shrank a little again. I still remembered the finish very well from last year and used a moment of my opponent's inattention to start my sprint to the line already 300m away and was able to place 2nd behind Floran Vrecko (Team Strassacker) and in front of Manuel Kirfel ( Bürstner-Dümo Cycling). Apparently there was some confusion further back as to whether to turn left or right and the sprint of the peloton proceeded somewhat hectically.
Now it says; regenerate as much as possible and then it's off to the next race in Frankfurt on Thursday. In addition to the very difficult Feldberg, I personally have fond memories of the race.
Until then,
Your Stefan.
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