Cycling News: A report from our Velomotion – powered by Centurion team rider Lennard Heidenreich. The young talent, who was only 20 years old, won the Prince of the Mountain classification of the Zillertal Bike Challenge this summer, but unfortunately had to drop out of the DM due to a defect while being in a good position.
DNF - Did not finish - that's all I can bring back from Furtwangen in the Black Forest from the German Marathon Championships. I'm still quite disappointed, because my goal of finishing in the top 25 at the Marathon DM this year would certainly have been achievable. But a broken chain thwarted my plan just after half.
120 kilometers and 3100 meters in altitude, those were the key data of this year's Marathon DM. As with almost every ambitious hobby, amateur or professional marathon racer, the Black Forest Bike Marathon was on my calendar with a red exclamation mark. I managed an almost perfect preparation phase with mercilessly hard training and no phases of illness and so I set off with my daddy and Hannah on Saturday morning in the direction of the Black Forest.
In the evening we realized that we were pretty much the only ones who had chosen the low budget option after paying the hefty 50 € entry fee. This meant for us: only arrive the evening before, sleep in the gym and leave right after the race. The night on the sleeping pad was pretty bearable and so it wasn't quite as bad as I feared getting up at 4:30 am on Sunday, having breakfast and getting ready to race. Due to the darkness, warming up was not possible without lights and just as little necessary as the first eight kilometers were all downhill anyway.
I felt great and quickly found my rhythm. My group also functioned quite reliably, so that we gradually made up one or the other place and were well on our way to the top result among the top 25 in the elite men.
Then, at kilometer 64, it happened: when accelerating out of a left-hand bend, I suddenly stepped into space. Luckily I didn't fall. The lug of a chain link was pushed open completely. And that after less than two races and without switching gears! The race was over. I roared my anger at the forest in frustration. All the many hours on the bike, in the gym and elsewhere should have been for nothing???
Of course I could be happy with my performance as it definitely points in the right direction, but I would have liked to have turned it around this time.
In a rather bad mood, I pushed and rolled to the Katarienhöhe aid station. I tried to make the best of it. Gave my drinking bottles and gels to friends and rolled back the eight kilometers to Furtwangen. If you want to get something good out of the whole thing, then it is the fact that my chain broke in pretty much the best place and I only had negative altitude meters in front of me. I was also able to see the final sprint for the German championship with my own eyes, which I probably shouldn't have witnessed without the defect.
It still doesn't console me that much, but I know that the next Marathon DM will be in nine months and so that it doesn't get too boring, I'm making my goal of the top 25 from this year the top 20 for the next year.
In the next two weeks there are still three Mitteldeutschland Cups and a marathon on the schedule before the season at the Langenbergmarathon ends in three weeks for me.
You can of course read here at Velomotion whether I might have a bit more luck on the race track there.
Until then, all the best to you and don't break the chain
Your Lennard
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