Day 6 Friday
The cool morning air felt refreshing as I left the stuffy hotel, sleeping indoors after a few days wild camping always feels a little claustrophobic. But the nice bed, shower and access to electric had done my moral wonders and my clothes were smelling fresh again. Sadly breakfast didn’t start until 7am, which seemed like a waste of 1-2 hours cycling. But, like many things in life you just have to think GOOD. This meant an extra hour in bed giving me a wapping 7.5 hours sleep, a new record for the week and the perfect start to the race phase of my trip. Day 1-5 had been the “Don’t be stupid” phase. Now it was onto “Don’t be soft”. I’d hoped to pick up the pace somewhat in phase 2 but I didn’t exactly have an extra gear in my legs. I was already cycling as fast as I could, the only thing I had in reserve was more discipline to spend less time faffing around and wasting cycling time, and of course, it was time to cut back on my sleep hours. I hoped by dropping down to around 4 hours a night I would still be fresh enough to keep the same pace but would have an extra 2 hours a day on the bike.
I left the hotel at 0730 and had work to do, Sven had almost caught me in the night, Lukas had sneaked past, Patrick had caught up and slept in the hotel next door, Peter F was near by as usual and Fatih was also hot on my heals. Peter S and Detlev were far off (70+km) and I wasn’t sure if I’d catch them, I could only hope that they wouldn’t pick up speed the next days and that just maybe I could sneak up on them with my longer days in the saddle.
Racing nowadays is interesting in itself and dot watching has become a great hobby of many. But its fascinating in this modern age that racers can track each other live too. Some don’t care and just ride, but many wip out their phone at each break and see where everyone is. The last couple of days I’d bounced between position 15-20 in the rankings (far higher than I had ever dreamed possible) and I hoped to stay in the top 20. The top 10 were now days not kilometers ahead so they fell into the alien category and were not worth thinking about. Everyone from about 12 to 25 was fair game and equally likely to pass me if I slowed up. The race for the human top 10 was on.
About 20 minutes after leaving the hotel I was feeling good and moving fast (for me) as I rounded a corner in the woods I saw another riding, one I didn’t recognise. It turned out to be Lukas (DE), he’d just started riding too but was looking a little more worse for wear than I was. I felt a little guilty that I was so fresh after investing 100 euro in a hotel, steak and beer, but thats life.
I hadn’t spoken to Lukas since the pre race bbq, we’d had a good chat that night so I slowed down for 15 minutes to catch up with Lukas and hear how his life was looking now on day 6 compared to day -1. Lukas was tired and cold after a night in his bivvy but still upbeat about the race and how he was doing. “this is my first race and the first days were a shock, I had to wise up quickly”. Lukas was so humble about his short comings those first couple of days yet positive about the rest of race. It was a pleasure to listen to him, he had indeed wizened up quickly. 15 minutes into our chat we passed a hotel, he saw his chance for a good breakfast and to get warmed up, I saw my chance to get ahead of him and compensate my late hotel breakfast. Lukas eventually finished 23 hours behind me and I suspect this won’t be his last race, I also suspect he’ll have fatter tires next time :).
A little later I crossed to border into the Czech republic again. I felt thrown back to Asia. It seems the cheap Chineese junk shops can pop up anywhere nowadays.
The route passed through some ghost town villages and onto a short stretch of (probably) EU sponsored prestine asphalt road through the woods. Patrick O caught up to me and we had a brief chat before he bolted off in front of me at the first hill. This wouldn’t be last time I’d see Patrick the next couple of days, and wouldn’t be the last time he bolted off up a hill and race away from me.
The next couple of hours is a blur of run down towns, ski resorts and chilly weather. Eventually arriving back in Germany for a supermarket lunch.
I pushed on, now getting worried about the wear on my pedals and the ticking noise coming from both of them. I arrived in Gruntal late in the afternoon hungry and tired and made a b-line for the promised bike shop, luckily they were still open but about to close, and were kind enough to adjust my pedals.
I could finally relax after a couple of days worry about having to push my bike. I headed to the supermarket and stuffed my face, packed something for dinner then head off as quick as possible, Peter F had left the supermarket as I had arrived, maybe I could still catch him in the night? As I pedalled up the first hill my pedals still didn’t feel right. After a quick inspection it turned out that the play on the pedals had nicely masked the worn bottom bracket. The bike shop had just closed….Fuck it, just ride……
More hills and forrest into the warm evening then a random sign at the poi that showed a water spring. Could it be true? Is this a joke or the work of a trail angel?
Indeed it was true, a trail angel had put 2 crates of beer in the spring to cool them off for passing riders.
Had it been an hour or two later I would have camped at the spring and maybe drank a little more. But is was still early, so I had a bottle of Hell with my dinner then pushed on until dark.
The evening was cool so I thought I’d take a chance and sleep in a hut instead of my tent, hoping that it was too cool for the mosquito’s to hassle me much. Sleeping in the hut would save me 10 minutes in the morning. The plan worked perfectly and just after 4am the next morning I started my surprise attack, the chase was on.
Stats: 158km 3000vm.