Schwerin Lakes Everyone Cycle Race 2016

I took part in this event last year, but only for the short lap, the 50 km. It was mine last year too first racing event at all.

After this year at the Cyclassics in Hamburg I have already completed the 100km lap, of course I also registered for 91km in Schwerin (plus 6km to the start and 6km back to the center after the official timekeeping). The advantage of this race:

My alarm clock rang at 5:30 in the morning. Quickly showered, washed, dressed and off we went. I had already stowed the bike in the car the evening before, you don't want to stress yourself out on the day of the race ;-) Of course, it's still easy to get through at that time, from the center of Hamburg it took me 1 hour and 5 minutes to reach Schwerin Castle , so that I was even 20 minutes early at the accreditation point. The gentlemen there were very precise and although the stand was full, they said that I could only pick up my documents at 8:00 a.m. So I enjoyed the view of Schwerin Castle and the beautiful lake at sunrise.

Shortly after 8:00 a.m. I went back to the registration tent and lo and behold: a snake! So the accreditation took a little longer. Around 8:30 am I was done and went back to the car, got my clothes and changed my clothes in the shower trolley. It was still pretty cold in my short rifle, sweater and leather jacket stayed on for a while - must have looked funny 🙂

Now I screwed my front wheel back on and fumbled the start number including the transponder onto my handlebars with the help of the much too short cable ties. I then pinned my race number to my jersey. So! Now I changed completely, because it was still cool I put on the arm warmers. That was also a good decision, I rolled up the arm warmers after about half the distance.

In the meantime I had rolled onto the event site with my bike and was now headed towards the starting block. I lined up pretty much right in the middle, later I found out that I could have gone a little further. The starting gun was fired about 5 minutes later than planned. For the first 6km it was said: roll to the start with no more than 20km/h and then there was a flying start. The field was very civilized and everyone followed the guidelines.

After 6km you could already see the starting gate with the famous threshold for timing, from now on it really started. As long as the field was still close together, I slowly but surely worked my way forward until I had found "my field". In fact, I have to praise myself, I strategically designed the race very well, managed with my strength and still fought my way forward.

The route was great! Apart from a few very tight corners, there really is nothing to complain about.

I felt like I was driving the race of my life. Of course, the group with the 10 to 20 years younger club drivers was in front of us, but I was directly in the next group and that was the whole race.

As is the case in races, the drivers become more and more unfocused as they get tired and in the last 20km the drivers in front repeatedly braked, that should have warned me. I knew there were only 2km left and I still had enough strength to use the mountain before the finish for myself. 1,5km from the finish it happened: I saw the people in front of me flying to the right, left, on the ground and in the air. Braking was no longer possible! As if in slow motion, I flew 10m through the air, my shoes slowly came off the pedals and then came the hard impact and the subsequent sliding over the asphalt......

After a few seconds of absence, I came to and rolled onto my side. Pain: Yes. But nothing really bad. I got up and the first ones started cycling again. My bike had flown 7m further and was stuck in another bike, the driver was just pulling the racing bikes apart. My quick release had come loose and the brake levers were a bit bent, but otherwise everything was ready to ride. Three wheels were completely destroyed (rims were broken) and one driver was bleeding profusely. Fortunately, marshals who had heard that there had been an accident came immediately. After about 5 minutes, I and an over 60 driver continued and the goal was behind the next curve. Crap. The Lord told me that he had never been so far ahead. Well, neither do I 🙁 but there's still 2017, so we'll make things right again.

In the end I was 37th in my age group and 133 overall out of 800 starters in the big round. That day I would have finished at least in the top 10, maybe even in the top 3. It probably wasn't meant to be.

Unfortunately, there are always these falls, in every race, and now I've had my first too. I hope it was the last one, we'll see.

But the race was great and I'm quite happy with my 36km/h average if it hadn't been for the fall...

Ride On, Ray.