GP Schwarzwald in Triberg

The high mountain events are looming around the corner, which always makes the weekend in black forest town Triberg an attractive option. The Saturday jedermann race, including 3 ascents up the steep Geutsche, is no longer part of the German Cycling Cup (last year called T-Mobile Cycling Tour). I had survived the crash in Erlangen quite well, but pain in my left calf withheld me from doing any training during the week. The plan for Triberg was: see what happens in the race, and gain important mileage in the RTF on Sunday, which I would be riding with Rebecca and Guus.

Upon arrival in Triberg, it became clear that my bike’s headset was not in optimal condition. During warm-up I felt very uncomfortable. The bike was unstable, the steering was awkward and I was wondering whether I needed a proper check-up first, before doing another race with it. Thanks to Rebecca’s help in fine-tuning, I got more optimistic and joined the small field of participants (about 70 for the 69km and three-lap race) at the starting line. There I saw Alex, who had also made his way to the Black Forest.

There’s no time to get into rhythm in Triberg as the start is uphill and straight onto the Geutsche climb. I ran at the front initially, but after the steepest section - when the climb becomes more of a rollercoaster - I had to let the frontrunners go. I fell back to a second group, including also Alex. Basically, from then on I kept feeling uneasy riding my bike, especially in the fast descents, but as soon as the road went up I was able to hurt the other riders in the group. I went solo the second and third time over the Geutsche, but I didn’t manage to stay ahead in the subsequent descents. On the final lap, only five guys came back to me, though. I was confident of beating them in the sprint uphill to the finish, but a cramp decided otherwise and I had to let three guys go. In the end I finished 27th, which felt rather disappointing. My time was also nearly 2 minutes slower than in 2007...

Soit, it cannot be party every time, and in any case spending the whole weekend in Triberg was very pleasant indeed. The area is superb for cycling and the RTF, albeit expensive, is certainly worth the trouble. The three of us signed up for the 175km long Kandel-Runde, which offered the tough climb of the Kandel, and over 3400 altitude metres in total. The ride went very well and we kept a solid pace, too. As we progressed on the Kandel, it got more and more foggy so there was little scenery to enjoy. But reaching the top of the climb was a relief as we knew that the biggest difficulty was already behind us. I had tested myself on the Kandel, thinking of Les 3 Ballons already, and wasn’t unhappy about the pace I could do. The day went on smoothly (apart from Rebecca suffering a short crisis between km 110 and km 125), but unfortunately the sky gradually turned darker and darker until quite a fantastic thunderstorm broke out. That meant pouring rain and scary lightning for the final one-and-a-half hours of the RTF. Bit of a bummer, but the ride had definitely been a great training exercise!