It was a double event, starting with a 70laps=70km nocturne crit in the citycentre of Braunschweig/Germany
It had just rained until an hour before the race and the streets had not fully dried up yet for the start at 21:00
The starterfield of 67 riders consisted of a Dutch team (Jo Piels), a Czech team (Sparta Prague) and 5 German domestic Elite teams, plus individual Elite riders starting without teams.
On a pan flat 4 corner course the speed was super high from the start, topping out at 65.8 km/h !!! At every corner, also because of the wet tarmac, breaking down to 30km/h followed by full throttle acceleration to 55km/h again was soon to take its toll. While I was in mid-field of the bunch I could hear Stu's name announced through the PA and for a while it really seemed that London Dynamo was part of the action. Then Rob suffered a crash when he ended on a tramtrack inside the central reservation of one of the streets, but got back on the bike and was allowed to join back in. After one third of the exercise, so to say after about hundred corners and the subsequent accelerations I began to feel dizzy and 10 laps later realized that I had been riding "in the red" for too long and began to seriously jeopardize my abilities for the main race next morning. The already decimated field began to break up, one Dutch rider took it from the front for 36 laps and was caught back only close to the finale. Rob and Stu did great for hanging in there until the end of what ended as Dutch dominance. Following the nocturne we literally had 7 hours to eat, rest and recover, luckily the hotel which was organised for us by the hosting club "RSV Braunschweig 1923" was just next to the circuit.
Day 2: The Road Race Classic
Next morning we already met some of our competitors in the breakfast room and honestly we looked a little bit like misplaced characters on the wrong film set...They all seemed so incredibly young, it turned out that most of them were there with development teams, preparing and filtering the young guns for their future roles as followers of Kittel and the likes....
Two rider actually approached me and asked who we were and what we were doing there, they were astounded to see a "Club-team" from overseas.
The 143km Road race began exactly as I just had dreamed of it, or better to say had nightmares of it, as mental as the nocturne. We had just come out off the neutralized section and the accelerations began. Just imagine for a moment the images of frenzy during the final 20k of a Tour stage, imagine the pain contorted faces of riders gasping for air while a number of line-ups fend for positioning of their main riders. It is this nervosity in the peloton, this unpredictability and constant change of situation that is really stressful. Yes, that's racing for you. But if you have this in a 90mins nocturne or half an hour tue eve palace its heavy enough, but from the start of a roadrace, knowing there are 3.5-4h of intense and hilly riding to come? Absolutely mental! Then I saw a Dynamo jerseys and felt good. And then I saw a Dynamo jerseys at the front and felt wow, we are mixing it up. And then I saw a dynamo jersey heading off the front (Rob on his little excursion) and more Dynamo jerseys controlling the front of the field! By the time we hit the main climb (which we had to take 7 times) we had done just about 45km and I was cooked already. Not a big surprise as temperatures were soaring well above the 30' Celsius.
The peloton began to crumble on the first time climb already, when my HR exceeded the 95%HRmax we had just done half of it and the steep 800m where still to come. At the top I found myself a bit distanced somewhere between dropped riders and the peloton and it looked like a possibility to get back on. Other riders including Ray had gone back up to me and it looked like a little Grupetto with chances to work together. On the following 75km/h descent we were giving it beans to close our gap to the peloton using all tricks for further acceleration to give each others a push while sitting in the slipstream of the pushed...but unfortunately by the time we were approaching the climb for the second time our Grupetto had dissolved and I was on my own chasing the peloton, which was approx 200m ahead of me at the foot of the climb. What then happened is kind of really awkward. I caught one rider after the other who were dropped by the peloton, but nobody went with me. I must have climbed the second time as fast as the peloton because I could see them with the same distance when they reached the summit, I was still approx 200m behind. But when I eventually arrived at the top too, I couldnt see anyone. Even on the following descents there was no trace, they had gone and I still had 90km of riding ahead of me. As I hoovered up more dropped riders I did try to convince them to join me and fight back on, but only got shaking of heads as response. Lap after lap I saw more riders sitting at the roadside in the sun. But having had lots of old friends and family on the roadside, giving up was no option, I had to finish this race, too much I would have felt embarrassment to get off the bike and all of those people having lol.
The support I received was tremendous, I got applause every lap, I got bottles with electrolyte drink from the DS of Team "North Germany", I got chilled waterbottles at the summit handed by my father and brother, and I got the encouraging smiles of my mum. So why giving up? Because 99% of the lap I was on my own and there were no riders anymore to catch. I remember at 4 laps to go I almost shouted at the guy with the lapboard because I knew I had already climbed the hill 4 times, so he should have shown 3 to go. The following lap he showed 2 to go and I realized he realized his mistake. Then last lap and I felt kind of ok and my mum on the summit also shouted "last lap" to me. Arriving again at the roadjunction with the lapboard I was guided towards the route back to Braunschweig, 0 laps to go, just 22km to the finish and I was even given a jury car following me. The final 22K were like a timetrial for me and I did managed to mobilize every bit of remaining energy, hydration was ok as I must have consumed 8 or so bottles en route. I had no idea where I was, how far behind the peloton or how far ahead of any chase group, real no-man's land. On the return journey I imagined to be a solo breakaway and the field was chasing behind me, this helped tremendously to find some motivation. Suddenly a lead car overtook me and motorbikes and a jury member informed me that the head of the race will overtake me and I would not be allowed to hang on to them. That's how I eventually arrived at the finish with only 2 mins behind the leading breakaway, awsome I looked like having taken 16th place. It turned out that Lee actually was in 19th position until he was misguided by some marshall, he must have been very close behind me when that happened, when of course he was effectively 10km ahead of me. Luckily the jury got all of this sorted and Lee got his deserved placing, I was just the placeholder for him for a few minutes
Rob also managed to stay on and came in at 23rd. For myself I had finished the race although I still cannot believe how in this world the lap count got wrong, at least it wasn't my fault, my count was the same as the race officials count and the same as my family's count, somewhat mysterious.The race was won by a Dutch hattrick, they had 5 of their 6 riders in the top 25. The best German rider was on rank 4.
In summary this was a real highlight of the season. The two races were organised totally professional, on both days we raced practically on closed roads, particularly sunday must have been very difficult for them to fully close 10km of main road network with major regional connectivity. For us team the planning for this participation started back in November last year, the negotiation with the organisers "RSV Braunschweig 1923" were pretty straight forward as this club was one of my ex-clubs I was racing for until 1990.
The Team, from left:
Rob Reid, Riko Sibbe, Stuart Spies,
Lee Comerford, Simon Barnes, Ray Wilson
Battling up "Amplebener Hill" 7 times
obviously was not an easy task.
Arriving back in Braunschweig after 147km,
solo ride for the final 80km, approx 30th place.
Totally spend!