The long Whit weekend was by all accounts an intense experience. Racing-wise, I had no fewer than three appointments on the agenda: Huerth, Lohmar and Zwenkau. The first two in the Cologne area, the latter in Saxony, the East. The tricky thing was that, actually, Zwenkau was the most significant event of the trio, given my high ranking in the German Cycling Cup (fifth overall, first in the M1 age category). But Lohmar offered a course better suited to my cycling capabilities.
First was Huerth, though. Wolfgang Schaaf, chief editor of the immensely popular Challenge Magazin.com, organised a criterium of 35 laps on a 1km circuit containing a slope of up to 6%. Participation was upon invitation and in total some 25 men and 15 women turned up on a warm Saturday afternoon in the outskirts of Cologne. Team Agapedia-Muensterland was represented by Joerg, Ingo, Britta, Simona and myself.
Criterium-racing is a particular form of racing very common in my native region in Flanders. A solid cornering technique is required as well as the ability to accelerate out of the saddle hundreds of times. I used to be quite good in it during the mid-nineties, before I focussed more on long-distance events. In Huerth, my ‘race of champions’ did not take long, as expected. I started towards the back of the group and as the Lexxi and Siemens guys set a blistering pace from the gun I was immediately chasing the facts. A few guys left gaps on the slope, I bridged them two, three times with an extra effort but then I let go. No excuses, I was in the red straightaway and I really wasn’t going to blow myself up with two big races coming up. Once I found my own rhythm, I still did 25 laps as “vorbelastung” for Lohmar and Leipzig. The criterium was dominated by Alex Bauer and Nino Ackermann, who crossed the finish line in that order. Team Lexxi’s tactics for Sunday’s Lohmar race were therefore obvious: Bauer would help the better climber Ackermann to win that one.
It was the first edition of the Lohmar Challenge, hoping to set an annual tradition. About 600 participants on the two courses of 50 and 100km enjoyed perfect weather conditions and a truly interesting course. A little similar to Goettingen, but more irregular. The organisers deserve credit, they did a splendid job for this first edition.
During the first phase of the race, the pace was kept high by several Lexxi-attacks and by Iron Man Alexander Nikolopoulos, my teammate who couldn’t hide his enthusiasm. He was doing his first genuine race of the season and he put the hammer down quite rapidly. Despite the many attempts of riders, everything stayed together during the first of the two laps. Still, only some 30 riders remained in the leading group. As we hit the longest climb at the start of lap 2, the pace increased and Nino Ackermann managed to create a gap together with Torsten Roell of Team Siemens. I didn’t see them leaving myself, but I doubt whether I could have followed at that point. Going up and down, up and down was demanding! In any case, the race was over because after the top of this 5km rollercoaster, Lexxi and Siemens controlled us totally. In particular Bauer, who had been nervous and aggressive the whole race already, was pushing it very far in protecting Nino’s breakaway. Nevertheless, both local teams did an excellent job and they got their leaders up front. In the jedermann circuit that is not as evident as it sounds. Team Lexxi proved their supremacy by taking first, third and fourth place. Ackermann outsprinted Roell and took his first victory of the season. I came home with the first group of 24 riders and finished 19th.
I still had a good feeling in the legs so I wasn’t too pessimistic as I drove to Leipzig for the long race (130km) on Whit Monday.
The sun was greeting us also in Zwenkau for the Neuseen Classics, as the race is called. People said the course was pancake-flat, so my ambition was simply to stick to the front and hope for a good placing in the almost inevitable bunch sprint at the end. With a bit of luck I could even challenge Andreas Bollessen for the leader’s jersey in the German Cycling Cup. Team Strassacker’s Nico Wernicke was also present, though, and the former professional is a very strong sprinter, as he proved last season with wins in Rund um Koeln and Muensterlandgiro. Allegedly, Wernicke is aiming for the overall win in the GCC Series this year.
As expected, the race started in nervous fashion with a couple of crashes on the often narrow roads as a result. I luckily did not get involved in them, also by riding way up front in the group and in the leading slot quite often. The legs felt very comfortable for the first 90 minutes in fact. But then it became gradually clear that the course modifications the organisers had introduced this year meant that there were some altitude metres to be covered! That’s normally to my advantage of course, but here I could have done without. My legs started to feel the efforts of Lohmar and between km 80 and km 100 I was struggling hard to keep up with the pace of the first group that contained about 50 riders. I succeeded in hanging on with them, but did not contest the sprint finish. Wernicke had just suffered a puncture and as I counted only about 40 riders around me, I thought of the Cup points and of staying out of trouble. The final hectometres were quite dangerous, too, and I satisfied myself with 30th place. It was insufficient to grab the lead in the overall standings, but I did improve to 3rd place while retaining the top spot in my age category. Thomas Kapuste beat Sebastian Denke and Christian Schroth in the sprint for victory. My main competitors in the GCC, Andreas Bollessen finished 11th, and Michael McManus 18th.
It was a great race for Team Agapedia in general. Ingo, Holm and Elmar delivered excellent performances and together we won the teamwertung over 130 km!
GERMAN CYCLING CUP TOP 5:
Bollesen 943 points
McManus 915 points
Van de Velde, 911 points
Barkmann, 886 points
Borst, 880 points
Link to GCC
The next event is Erlangen on 1 June.
First was Huerth, though. Wolfgang Schaaf, chief editor of the immensely popular Challenge Magazin.com, organised a criterium of 35 laps on a 1km circuit containing a slope of up to 6%. Participation was upon invitation and in total some 25 men and 15 women turned up on a warm Saturday afternoon in the outskirts of Cologne. Team Agapedia-Muensterland was represented by Joerg, Ingo, Britta, Simona and myself.
Criterium-racing is a particular form of racing very common in my native region in Flanders. A solid cornering technique is required as well as the ability to accelerate out of the saddle hundreds of times. I used to be quite good in it during the mid-nineties, before I focussed more on long-distance events. In Huerth, my ‘race of champions’ did not take long, as expected. I started towards the back of the group and as the Lexxi and Siemens guys set a blistering pace from the gun I was immediately chasing the facts. A few guys left gaps on the slope, I bridged them two, three times with an extra effort but then I let go. No excuses, I was in the red straightaway and I really wasn’t going to blow myself up with two big races coming up. Once I found my own rhythm, I still did 25 laps as “vorbelastung” for Lohmar and Leipzig. The criterium was dominated by Alex Bauer and Nino Ackermann, who crossed the finish line in that order. Team Lexxi’s tactics for Sunday’s Lohmar race were therefore obvious: Bauer would help the better climber Ackermann to win that one.
It was the first edition of the Lohmar Challenge, hoping to set an annual tradition. About 600 participants on the two courses of 50 and 100km enjoyed perfect weather conditions and a truly interesting course. A little similar to Goettingen, but more irregular. The organisers deserve credit, they did a splendid job for this first edition.
During the first phase of the race, the pace was kept high by several Lexxi-attacks and by Iron Man Alexander Nikolopoulos, my teammate who couldn’t hide his enthusiasm. He was doing his first genuine race of the season and he put the hammer down quite rapidly. Despite the many attempts of riders, everything stayed together during the first of the two laps. Still, only some 30 riders remained in the leading group. As we hit the longest climb at the start of lap 2, the pace increased and Nino Ackermann managed to create a gap together with Torsten Roell of Team Siemens. I didn’t see them leaving myself, but I doubt whether I could have followed at that point. Going up and down, up and down was demanding! In any case, the race was over because after the top of this 5km rollercoaster, Lexxi and Siemens controlled us totally. In particular Bauer, who had been nervous and aggressive the whole race already, was pushing it very far in protecting Nino’s breakaway. Nevertheless, both local teams did an excellent job and they got their leaders up front. In the jedermann circuit that is not as evident as it sounds. Team Lexxi proved their supremacy by taking first, third and fourth place. Ackermann outsprinted Roell and took his first victory of the season. I came home with the first group of 24 riders and finished 19th.
I still had a good feeling in the legs so I wasn’t too pessimistic as I drove to Leipzig for the long race (130km) on Whit Monday.
The sun was greeting us also in Zwenkau for the Neuseen Classics, as the race is called. People said the course was pancake-flat, so my ambition was simply to stick to the front and hope for a good placing in the almost inevitable bunch sprint at the end. With a bit of luck I could even challenge Andreas Bollessen for the leader’s jersey in the German Cycling Cup. Team Strassacker’s Nico Wernicke was also present, though, and the former professional is a very strong sprinter, as he proved last season with wins in Rund um Koeln and Muensterlandgiro. Allegedly, Wernicke is aiming for the overall win in the GCC Series this year.
As expected, the race started in nervous fashion with a couple of crashes on the often narrow roads as a result. I luckily did not get involved in them, also by riding way up front in the group and in the leading slot quite often. The legs felt very comfortable for the first 90 minutes in fact. But then it became gradually clear that the course modifications the organisers had introduced this year meant that there were some altitude metres to be covered! That’s normally to my advantage of course, but here I could have done without. My legs started to feel the efforts of Lohmar and between km 80 and km 100 I was struggling hard to keep up with the pace of the first group that contained about 50 riders. I succeeded in hanging on with them, but did not contest the sprint finish. Wernicke had just suffered a puncture and as I counted only about 40 riders around me, I thought of the Cup points and of staying out of trouble. The final hectometres were quite dangerous, too, and I satisfied myself with 30th place. It was insufficient to grab the lead in the overall standings, but I did improve to 3rd place while retaining the top spot in my age category. Thomas Kapuste beat Sebastian Denke and Christian Schroth in the sprint for victory. My main competitors in the GCC, Andreas Bollessen finished 11th, and Michael McManus 18th.
It was a great race for Team Agapedia in general. Ingo, Holm and Elmar delivered excellent performances and together we won the teamwertung over 130 km!
GERMAN CYCLING CUP TOP 5:
Bollesen 943 points
McManus 915 points
Van de Velde, 911 points
Barkmann, 886 points
Borst, 880 points
Link to GCC
The next event is Erlangen on 1 June.
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