Leserinnen liebe, liebe Readers,
My name is Jannis Peter and I'm a junior athlete at SSV Gera in 1990 and I'm competing in the U19 age group this year. Below I would like to give you an insight into the first month, January, of my new season.
The year 2018 started for me with a BDR railway course that lasted from January 2nd to January 6th. This year's federal squad got together there and completed several training sessions on the cycle track in Frankfurt/Oder. But our group was specifically divided in two. One part only ran a few programs on the track with the normal points bike, while the other part, consisting of six athletes, prepared for the international country comparison in Apeldoorn with the time trial bike. I was in the second group and we did a few different programs over the five days to prepare as best we could for our upcoming competitions.
After the trip home on January 6th, the week that followed was only quiet training and school. But on Thursday, January 11th, I could already be happy that the school week was over for me, because then the journey to Apeldoorn was on the agenda. Around 18 p.m. we reached Apeldoorn in the Netherlands and then we only had food and moved into our very nicely furnished bungalows. The following day, after lunch, we drove to the train station and completed a small training session. In the evening of the day, the team pursuit with my colleagues Max, Hannes and Luca was on my schedule, where we achieved a solid 6th place. Individual mass disciplines took place the next day. I was quite satisfied with a 7th place in the elimination round. On the last day, the one-man pursuit was on the agenda. I wasn't entirely satisfied with 12th place, but that's something we can work on and build on.
In the two weeks that followed I only had school and intensive training, which wasn't too exciting, but it should be mentioned that on the weekend of the 20th and 21st I had a more or less serious crash in training due to slippery roads. My bike suffered a lot because it showed a lot of damage, including a complete fracture on the right side of the fork and my derailleur and rear derailleur broke off completely. But it is much more important that nothing happened to me and that I have not suffered any health consequences.
Appropriately for the end of the month, I went as a participant to the six-day race in Berlin from January 27th to 30th. On the first day, a points race over 60 laps was on the agenda for me and my partner Max Gehrmann. This means that everyone drives 30 laps and changes halfway through. I had to start and as soon as I warmed up I could tell that it wasn't going to be great that day. Legs were tired from the journey and a fast race made it difficult for me to score but Max proved he had great legs and we still finished 5th in the first of the four days of racing. On Sunday we had to get up early because our race started at 09:40 am. It went much better that day and Max and I took a good 2nd place and were able to move up to 18nd place in the overall ranking of 2 teams. The penultimate day should be our best, because in the evening program with a Madison race over 30 minutes we were able to win, but it wasn't enough to take the lead. On the last day there was another 40min Madison race in the tender and Max and I had planned to drive a lap out to win the overall ranking, but we didn't succeed. We were able to get a good 2nd place that day and were thus a strong second in the overall ranking.
That's what I call an extremely good start to the new season and I hope that it will continue like this.
Your Jannis 🙂