It took place for the third time and I was there for the third time: at the Schwerin Lakes Everyone's Cycle Race. This year they found each other 600 participants for the 91km long distance through the Lewitz at the starting line to compete with each other.
For the third time it stood for me Schwerin Lakes Everyone's Cycle Race in September on the calendar. For most of the starters, the race at the end of September is always the last race of the season and, like every year, Schwerin once again showed itself from its best side. not only the location is a dream, the weather - as in previous years - played along perfectly. Even if it is still fresh early in the morning in September, we athletes were fed up with the sun on this beautiful Saturday. Due to the federal elections on Sunday, the race has been brought forward to Saturday, very commendable by the organizers!
In the past few years I have always driven to Schwerin alone and contested the race there alone. This year, two well-known people had agreed to come, but they canceled the week before the race for various reasons. Doesn't matter! Alone you do not have to coordinate with anyone and you are completely independent. Maybe it will work out in 2018 to go to Schwerin with several people.
How to get there
My alarm clock rang at 5:00 a.m. at home in Hamburg Eimsbüttel. I had already prepared everything the night before, so all I had to do was get ready. A quick shower, taking the dog out, loading my bag and racing bike into the bully and off we went at 6:15 a.m. towards Schwerin. On the way to the A24, the tank was filled again, coffee and rolls were fetched and then we started. I love having breakfast in the car. At 7:40 a.m. I arrived at my regular parking lot in Schwerin in the Alter Garten. The car park is right next to the event site Schwerin Lakes Everyman Cycle Race and is the ideal starting point. Unfortunately, I stood in front of a locked barrier that blocked the way to the parking lot. The parking lot shouldn't open until 8:00 a.m., there's always something. I went to the accreditation and picked up my starting documents, after which I was able to drive to the parking lot and prepare everything.
race preparation
Before I changed my clothes, I decided to get my bike ready first. First I pinned the race number to my jersey and then the bike should follow. For my SpeedX Leopard Pro it was a racing debut today, so far I had only done about 300km with my new aero racing bike. When I wanted to attach the start number and transponder to my bike, I faced a problem. Aero road bike = aero handlebars and aero frame. The organizers probably hadn't thought of that. The cable ties were too short for the handlebars and frame. Luckily I found another gentleman who had longer with me. I'll have to think about that myself in the future. The cable ties weren't long enough for my frame either, but somehow I still got the transponder fixed - the start number, however, could no longer be read, so there won't be any photos. My bike didn't lay any external cables to which I could have attached it. For modern racing bikes, organizers definitely have to rethink. Why don't they do it like in Sweden? On the Vätternrundan the transponder simply stuck to the helmet - wonderful!
course of the race
The race started at 9:30 am sharp in the Old Garden, directly in front of the Schwerin Castle. The start in front of the castle is more symbolic, the real start was 6 km later and flying. I was in the first group this time because I wanted to be at the front. It started quickly. On the first 35 km I had an average speed of 45 km/h and the great thing was: I kept up! Something went really well today, I noticed that. After I had fallen into a fall last year - and that just 1 km before the end of the race - I drove twice as carefully and didn't take my eyes off the people in front for a second, that was a good thing! After about 35 km, a driver in front of me fell on a narrow section of the track. I reacted immediately, after all I had learned painfully last year, and swerved to the right onto the field, I couldn't swerve into the field of drivers and endanger everyone else. Yes, that's how you do it! Luckily it didn't happen to me, but unfortunately the leading field was out of my reach afterwards 🙁
What the heck, there's no whining. Back on the road and on with the text. I still saw the leading group, but I also knew from experience that I couldn't get there anymore. The group had a pace of at least 45 km/h and it was not possible to do it alone. So I drove the next 15 km alone with a strenuous 35 km/h average until the next group caught up with me and I got in line. From now on, my pace was still around 40 km/h and very good by my standards, but I knew that a lot more could have been done that day. Above all, I wanted to know if I could ride the whole distance in the peloton. But I didn't find out that day, maybe next time.
From now on I rode in the second group without much effort and without further excitement.
Conclusion
I still like the still very young race in Schwerin. It's getting a little bigger in terms of the number of participants, but it's not too big yet. Because it is precisely this sympathetic number of participants that makes this race something special for me, maybe there are more of these races of this magnitude and I just haven't discovered them until I know that the Schwerin Lakes Everyone's Cycle Race remains my favorite race. Just 100 riders set out on the 208km route with a time between 2 hours and 8 minutes and 3 hours and 42 minutes. But the first 130 participants crossed the finish line after 2 hours and 30 minutes, which I think was pretty good. You can see from the finisher times that most of the starters are very ambitious. I think that's mainly due to the length of the route. 91km is not much and you can – if you can keep up with the groups – fully power up.
Schwerin Lakes Everyman Cycle Race 2018: Not without me! Maybe next time I'll make it to the finish without incident in the leading group. Of course I'm very satisfied with my pace (average speed), one Average speed of 41,2 km/h I don't drive every day either. However, I would have loved to know for myself whether I would have made it to the finish in the leading group. Shame, shame chocolate - hopefully next time!