Trans Schwarzwald - how it went for the Sundayriders

Stage 1: Pforzeim - Bad Wildbad

The race begins:

Having just returned from the very tough Ironbike two weeks previously, with Jane not sure of her form and insisting she was going to take it easy. I was prepared for a holiday of cycle touring through the Black Forest.

After a nice 8k of neutralised zone, we stopped and prepared for the race start proper. Go, and everyone got off and walked the first uphill. Once over the top,we with met some fire road where kb kicked off with jd on his wheel. Jane soon responded and I began to yo-yo off the back. At the next fire road climb, Jane took the front and I found my climbing legs to just about hang with her. She'll soon ease up. I thought, she hasn't got the km's in her legs. 4 hours 24 minutes later I'm still hanging on as we cross the line in 5th place of the mixed category. Still she won't be able to do that tomorrow.... We are 25 seconds behind the 4th placed Bad Wildbad team.

Stage 2: Bad Wildbad - Bad Schapbach.

A lesson taught, a lesson learnt:

We get a good start on a steep asphalt track, putting distance into everyone around us. After a bit of up and down with me hanging onto Jane's wheel, I notice her body language change and the pace quicken slightly. This can mean only one thing........another mixed team ahead! They turn out to be the very strong 3rd placed team who put 25 minutes into us yesterday. My idea is to hang on to their wheel as long as we can, Jane has other ideas. And, in the true belligerent style of a young Lance Armstrong attacking 'le Patron'. She launches an attack on the next rise, they immediately respond and after about 10 minutes flat out, we drop back with a bloodied nose ;) and they rocket off into the distance. We'd like to think that we gave them a scare, but in reality I think we amused them :-) This has pushed me into the red and we have to ease a while to recover. On the last climb, a hike section, I hear a female voice. I see one of the mixed teams and JD. Jane puts puts on a spurt and rides the ridiculously muddy technical downhill(that has lots of people over the bars, notably our own Jim :-)) into the arena to finish 4th mixed. 46 seconds in front of Bad Wildbad. We are 4th overall mixed by 21 seconds!

Stage 3: Bad Schapbach - Wolfach

'Apply pressure relentless pressure, no mistakes' - kb

The Bad Wildbad team came past us just after the fist climb today, with JD in tow. She gave us her wheel and pulled us back to them. We rode with them from now on, Markus puting in strong bursts whenever the trail was flat. Jane's descending improved a lot today and in some instances they were holding us up on the way down. At around five km to go Jane began to weaken a little, changes in pace don't suit her very well, and they began to creep away slightly. At two km to go they made their move. As they attacked all out on the last climb I saw Markus jump off his bike and pull at his chain. He'd jammed his chain around the bottom bracket. Pressure applied mistakes made; now we attacked. He saw us coming and picked up his bike and ran. As we passed him Petra was waiting at the top of the last technical descent, he shouted for her to go, go! Toooo late! Jane had spotted this and cut the corner into the downhill, getting in front now she couldn't hold us up. We came out of the descent onto a small road and a few hundred metres to the finish. Jane was gone in a flash and I had to chase hard, we looked at each other and wondered if we should wait for them and ride back together. We settled for offering commiserations once we'd crossed the line ;-)

Stage 4: Wolfach - Schonach

Hitch a lift on the pink train

Today's stage looked to be the stage for us, a nice hilly profile of six km climb to start and an 8km climb in the middle. We now had 90 seconds on our fifth place rivals Bad Wildbad. We decided to ride with them and let them work for it. Somehow we managed to get in front of them on the first climb and just before it became tight singletrack for the next three km, Jane pushed hard to get past a very slow team struggling as the climb steepened. Result!! No one would be able to pass them for 3 km's. We pushed hard now to get some distance on the other paired teams and then cruised the rest of the stage, staying out of the red and taking it easy, and at one point hanging on to the back of the Pink Ladies as they hammered past on a flat bit. In their haste to catch us our rivals took a wrong turn and lost time(suspiciously JD was with them:)

Stage 5: Schonach - Engen

Out on the wiley and windy moors we'd roll and fall in green....' kb

116 km a bad stage for us. Not the distance,but the profile. A pimple at either end with around 40 km of rolling stuff in the middle. This was a stage for the strong riders and flat landers. We expected to lose time on this stage and maybe even 4th place. We got over the first bump well with our rivals nowhere in sight. On the early part of the flat section some of the bigger boys and girls started to pass us. Then Bad Wildbad passed us going very strongly, slosely followed by the mixed swiss team of Max and Birgit. This was the oldest team in the race, and Max is bulit like a horse and sooo strong on the flat. We just had to watch them go. Some time later, Frank and Irina of the Vaude team eased up to our wheel. They waited a minute or two, must have decided that we were having a bad day and attacked. I was very impressed because it was sooooooo slick. Irina came through very fast on the opposite side of the track alone. When we didn't react Frank sprinted past and slotted straight in front of Irina, who hadn't changed pace at all. And they were gone... fabulous! We kept to our plan of damage limitation and rode steadily, begging for the hills to arrive soon.

Stage 6: Engen - Grafenburg

Team tactics - putting a man up the road.

This stage starts with a six km climb, good for us, but at the top of the climb the race is stopped. There is a wild bull on the trail! After ten minutes, the race slowly resumes and we pass the most beautiful fluffy long haired 'teddy cow 'corralled behind an electric fence. This effectively removes any advantage we had just gained on our rivals. We set off hard, knowing that bad Wildbad are close behind. We hold them off until the flat section around the midway point, when they come barrelling past on the otherside of the trail. Jane immediately jumps onto Petra's wheel and tucks in. I take a little while to bridge the gap, Markus is pulling us along at 40 kph! I wonder how long we can hold this,and how long Markus can too. We hit the bottom of the next steep climb at this speed and they slow up dramatically. This catapults us up the climb and we hit it hard. We meet Jim and Paul here and ride the rest of the climb with them. At the top they give us a tow and we start to put some time into Bad Wildbad. At the check point I sprint ahead grab a bottle of water and Jane rides straight through, Paul and Jim stop to eat. Ten minutes later they catch us again and report that they hadn't seen Bad Wildbad. They have though, pulled the Belgian mixed team up to us. We let Paul and Jim go, and ride for a while with the Belgians. We drop them on the last climb of the day and they come in behind us, but in front of Bad Wildbad.

Stage 7: Grafenburg - Niederhof.

float like a butterly...... Mohammed Ali

Our rivals, Bad Wildbad are seen riding up and down the hill at the start. Warming up, for one last ditch attack? No point, Jane is absolutley flying today and I spend the whole stage just hanging on to her wheel! There are two small small glitches: when we take a sharp left hand bend and there's a small patch of gravel in the centre. I see Jane's front wheel slide and then the back. She recovers the slide but must have grabbed a handful of front brake and is almost stationary when the bike endos and pushes her to the ground. She's back up quickly, but has lost a bit of confidence on the next couple of bends. Then a couple of km away from the finish I see Jane wobbling around and looking at her leg. She's been stung by a wasp! We push on and cross the finishing line, where a glass of beer and a finishers tee shirt are thrust into our hands!



Epilogue: A great race in a beautiful part of Germany. Made all the more fantastic by having our own pit babe the lco, who for a plate of frits and a glass of beer looked after us all week. We met some great people, who helped make it a great trip: Team pink ladies and their pit babe, Rolf and Adrian, Markus and Petra, Frank and Irina, Nel and Michel, Rik, Kai, Sebastian....

Trans Schwarzwald

Sundayriders fourth place in the mixed category!

Skidmarks thirteenth in the masters category!

Julie finished the race alone, as KB had to return home at short notice. She would have finished around 6th or 7th, if her times were counted.

Race fotos here: TSW

A very enjoyable race.

After competing in most of the other 'biggest, longest, highest, bestest, baddest' multiday events, at first I thought I was going to be a little underwhelmed by this race ie: the late starts(10am), the short stages, no mountains to speak of, the fire roads and fir trees etc. I struggled during the race to understand why I was enjoying it, then I realised I was racing! In all of the other stage races, I've really only been riding to finish every ie trying to avoid the cut-off.

Here, I was eating well, sleeping well, recovering and getting up to race the next day. I was enjoying the intensity of the competition against other riders. Up there with the 'biggest baddest...etc for me was the raciest multiday race. :-))

foto lco

Trans Schwarzwald

Tomorrow(Thursday) me and the lco set off for Germany. We will drive to Reims, take the second star from the right and straight on 'til morning. At Pforzheim we will hopefully liaise with Jane, Paul and Jim who fly out on Saturday to Stuttgart. The Mighty D is also arriving on Saturday, but via Munich, I think. Kb will of course fly via some circuitous route involving half the globe:-)

I will be blogging via my flickr account And then move them over to this blog when we return. You will need a flickr account to comment on the fotos, but this is easy. Even Aunty Beryl can do it!!! :-) :-)

OWE

Ando and Daniel have put their story of the Ironbike up with some photos here: the madness has a name...