The penultimate race in the GCC, the Rothaus Riderman in Bad Dürrheim, is over. A race weekend with many meters of altitude and strong competition from a total of 18 nations is behind us.
It all started on Thursday. After work, we quickly packed everything together, loaded it into the car and off we went to meet up with the other guys from North Rhine-Westphalia. There everything was loaded into the team bus again and then finally off towards Bad Dürrheim. At 23 p.m. we reach our destination, greet the other team members quickly and fall into bed tired.
Friday starts relaxed. The 16km long individual time trial doesn't start until the afternoon, so there's still time in the morning after breakfast for a leisurely exploration of the route. From 14 p.m. it gets serious and the tension increases. Such an individual time trial is something special, the specialists in this discipline love it, the rest rather dread it. I don't like it at all and I'm always glad when it's behind me. Stefan drives to a sensational 2nd place behind Manuel Kirfel (Bürstner Dümo) and thus ensures the first podium for our team this weekend.
On Saturday the starting signal will be given for the king's stage with 109km and 1600m elevation gain. The pace is incredibly high right from the start. The mountain riders really push the pace on every climb, so that the field quickly breaks up into many small groups. After about 60 km, which feels like only uphill, I have to let the lead consisting of 30 riders go and then find myself with Friedrich and a few other riders in the second group. In the front there is still a lot going on, the group keeps falling apart and in the end there are only 4 men left at the front. Despite a slight cold, Christian is in 3rd place. Very strong... The day's win goes to Marek Bosniatzki (Bürstner Dümo), followed by Michiel Minnaert (Granfondoteam.be).
At the start on Sunday morning, the hardships of the previous days are noticeable. The legs are heavy and the body is crying out for rest. But 95km with 1270hm are still waiting for us. At 11 o'clock sharp the starting gun is fired, it starts hectically and after 5 km it suddenly bangs behind me - mass fall - 5 of us get it, luckily none worse, but for Daniel and Manni the race is unfortunately over. Like the day before, a fast race develops, but the mountains are not quite as long today, so that a 50-strong lead group stays together for a long time. In the end, two drivers manage to pull away. Christian Müller (Bürstner Dümo) secures the day's victory with a strong performance in front of his flight companion Nils Kessler (Team Strassacker). The Swiss Lorenzo Monighetti wins the sprint from the chasing group.
In the end we certainly couldn't achieve all of our goals for the Riderman, but that's how it is sometimes in sport. With a solid team performance, we secured third place in the team ranking and thus also defended the lead in the GCC. So it remains exciting.
See you in Munster...
Best regards,
Christoph.
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