MOL Cup Criterium in Neuenhagen,  (2nd Pl. in my age group, 10th overall)

This was my one and only race of 2018, after the Berlin Velothon disaster back in May. Too much stuff regarding our relocation to Berlin, too much bother with the new job and generally not the time and energy to work on form, made 2018 a more relaxed year in terms of competitive cycling.

Towards the tail-end of the season and following a fantastic summer I wanted to give it one go and went to this small event on the opposite side of Berlin. Riding there by bike was 28km but as it was Berlin Marathon day it was almost impossible to cross the city with anything else than U-Bahn. As I watched the Marathon myself, I left it too late to leave home for my own race and had to race to Neuenhagen in order to not miss my start. I arrived there about 3 mins before the start, much more than warmed up from my "race" out here, got my start number and had to ask another fellow racer to pin it on my back. I think he managed just on the bang and off we went. The thing is, it wasn't such a small event as I expected, there were about 80 riders on this short circuit and all age groups mixed together. So I raced against a lot of 20-30 year old.
It was a very active race with plenty of attacks and the average speed panned out at just above 43km/h, luckily all breakaways got caught back and entering the final lap I had a plan. I just needed to get myself out of a totally hopeless position to the front of the peloton, easy as chips. Believe it or not, I did manage to get into the final bent first and shellshocked the flock with an explosive sprint with 400m to go. Too far out, unfortunately, as I couldn't sustain it to the finish and only got in on 10. Place. But for me it was sensational, it felt almost like victory although it was silly of course to start the sprint and also so early, but at the same time exhilarating.