Meine Eindrücke: Route: 42.2 km along the Middle Rhine from Oberwesel to Koblenz. http://www.inlinemap.net/route/48261 (not exact)
Race report: It rained most of the day and sometimes during the race, the road was always wet so most people used rain wheels. Some top skaters were missing, perhaps because of the World Cup race the next day in Ostrava, CZ. The speed during the first 4 km was unexpectedly slow, not faster as 30 km/h I think. As some of my friends and teammates were around me I didn't try to get into a better position which is more dangerous during wet conditions. Then the speed increased and several groups formed, the one I was in probably consisted of ca. 20 skaters, among them 4 friends. We were going faster than before, but not as fast as I would have liked. I joined 2 or 3 break aways but we were not successful, not enough cooperation and also because of the head wind.
After 20 km the pace of group picked up, probably at this point a group of ca. 15 skaters joined ours from behind, on one hand I liked the higher pace, on the other hand there is constantly fighting for positions if the group gets so big.
At km 29.5 there were 2 turns before an highway on ramp, I had no problem with the first one and thought I had a good line for the 2nd one but my wheels started slipping and I crashed. Fell on my right elbow and the right side of the hip. Luckily none of the 30 skaters behind fell over me. For the first time I wore arm protectors with abrasion resistant Kevlar at the elbow part in a race, it helped only a bit as the crash created a whole just below the Kevlar part. There was no hole in my race suite at the hip but I got a 6 cm in diameter abrasion there which is very painful when showering or changing the bandage :-( When I was up again and picked up my water bottle from the ground I slowly went uphill onto the highway and saw that the group was at least 100 m in front of me. Surprisingly I fought back to the group during the next ca. 1.5 km. Just rested a bit at the end of the group when a couple of hundred meters of cobblestone came in the next village, it was so slippery that I could hardly skate and lost some ground again but made it to the group again without problems. If you are not in the top 10 in such a group, there is always slowing down followed by sprinting at the end so I fought back in the top 10 where my teammate Phillip let me in.
We got into the inner city of Koblenz with many slippery potholes, bumps, road markings and debris from trees. I decided that I don't want to risk another crash during these conditions and I told Phillip to switch places with me so that he has a better position for the sprint of the group, which he eventually won (66th).
I finished 93rd , I am fine with top 100, in 1:19.38 which is nearly 2 minutes faster than in the rain in Suzhou, CN 2006 and more than 5 minutes faster than Forchheim last year. Results (team category): http://results.mikatiming.de/2009/mittelrhein/index.php?page=1&ageclass=&content=list&event=ICP&format=excel&lang=DE&num_results=100&search_sort_order=ASC&sex=M&top_results=3 Despite there were less than 20 professionals this time only 4 Germans made it in the top 20 like in Berlin in April. My teammate Stefan finished 33rd. Dmytro, Patrick and Ingo didn't start due to illness / injury. Men's team: http://www.german-inline-cup.de/german-inline-cup/teams/fug-speed-team.html The girls were ok with 8th and 12th place. http://results.mikatiming.de/2009/mittelrhein/index.php?page=1&ageclass=&content=list&event=ICP&format=excel&lang=DE&num_results=100&search_sort_order=ASC&sex=W&top_results=3
Reports by the team who won the men's race: http://www.zepto-skate-team.com/article.cfm?id=594 (German) http://www.zepto-skate-team.com/article.cfm?id=593 (English)
We all were frozen and decided to drive home asap. Driving back home took 6 instead of 3 hours for 360 km because they closed the Autobahn after an accident near Stuttgart Leonberg just a few hundred meters in front of us. I was at home at 2:30 am and was really tired.
2 Kommentare:
Meine Eindrücke:
Route: 42.2 km along the Middle Rhine from Oberwesel to Koblenz.
http://www.inlinemap.net/route/48261 (not exact)
Race report:
It rained most of the day and sometimes during the race, the road was always wet so most people used rain wheels.
Some top skaters were missing, perhaps because of the World Cup race the next day in Ostrava, CZ.
The speed during the first 4 km was unexpectedly slow, not faster as 30 km/h I think. As some of my friends and teammates were around me I didn't try to get into a better position which is more dangerous during wet conditions.
Then the speed increased and several groups formed, the one I was in probably consisted of ca. 20 skaters, among them 4 friends. We were going faster than before, but not as fast as I would have liked. I joined 2 or 3 break aways but we were not successful, not enough cooperation and also because of the head wind.
After 20 km the pace of group picked up, probably at this point a group of ca. 15 skaters joined ours from behind, on one hand I liked the higher pace, on the other hand there is constantly fighting for positions if the group gets so big.
At km 29.5 there were 2 turns before an highway on ramp, I had no problem with the first one and thought I had a good line for the 2nd one but my wheels started slipping and I crashed. Fell on my right elbow and the right side of the hip. Luckily none of the 30 skaters behind fell over me.
For the first time I wore arm protectors with abrasion resistant Kevlar at the elbow part in a race, it helped only a bit as the crash created a whole just below the Kevlar part. There was no hole in my race suite at the hip but I got a 6 cm in diameter abrasion there which is very painful when showering or changing the bandage :-(
When I was up again and picked up my water bottle from the ground I slowly went uphill onto the highway and saw that the group was at least 100 m in front of me. Surprisingly I fought back to the group during the next ca. 1.5 km. Just rested a bit at the end of the group when a couple of hundred meters of cobblestone came in the next village, it was so slippery that I could hardly skate and lost some ground again but made it to the group again without problems.
If you are not in the top 10 in such a group, there is always slowing down followed by sprinting at the end so I fought back in the top 10 where my teammate Phillip let me in.
We got into the inner city of Koblenz with many slippery potholes, bumps, road markings and debris from trees. I decided that I don't want to risk another crash during these conditions and I told Phillip to switch places with me so that he has a better position for the sprint of the group, which he eventually won (66th).
I finished 93rd , I am fine with top 100, in 1:19.38 which is nearly 2 minutes faster than in the rain in Suzhou, CN 2006 and more than 5 minutes faster than Forchheim last year.
Results (team category): http://results.mikatiming.de/2009/mittelrhein/index.php?page=1&ageclass=&content=list&event=ICP&format=excel&lang=DE&num_results=100&search_sort_order=ASC&sex=M&top_results=3
Despite there were less than 20 professionals this time only 4 Germans made it in the top 20 like in Berlin in April.
My teammate Stefan finished 33rd. Dmytro, Patrick and Ingo didn't start due to illness / injury.
Men's team: http://www.german-inline-cup.de/german-inline-cup/teams/fug-speed-team.html
The girls were ok with 8th and 12th place. http://results.mikatiming.de/2009/mittelrhein/index.php?page=1&ageclass=&content=list&event=ICP&format=excel&lang=DE&num_results=100&search_sort_order=ASC&sex=W&top_results=3
Reports by the team who won the men's race:
http://www.zepto-skate-team.com/article.cfm?id=594 (German)
http://www.zepto-skate-team.com/article.cfm?id=593 (English)
We all were frozen and decided to drive home asap. Driving back home took 6 instead of 3 hours for 360 km because they closed the Autobahn after an accident near Stuttgart Leonberg just a few hundred meters in front of us. I was at home at 2:30 am and was really tired.
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