I did it!!!

I did it!!!

I've got to the end of the race!!!

Got there in one piece!!

Got there without technical or physical problems!!

And got there before the minimum time!!!


The day started rainy! As expected since this is Göttingen!! Racing in the rain is not the best, specially for road bikes ... before I left to the start point the rain stopped, but the floor was wet basically the whole race, what makes you take a lot of care when going down.

1438 participants, it's hard to imagine that number of people together hehehehehehe

The "professional" people went in the front and the "normal" people in the back. There were no pelotons in that part of the race, just an eventual wind shilding. The climbs were harder than last week even though they were the same :-)

After the second climb I decided to go as fast as possible, there was no good reason to save energy anymore. Got to the finish line (83.7 km) in 3:33 minutes and at my limit!! Couldn't go a km further! hehehehehehe

I got impressed with two things in this race. The first one was the number of people in city bikes, just having fun, and they can be fast (Germans start cycling before they start waking, therefore they have very strong legs for cycling). The second one was the support of the people. In every small town, in every climb there were people to clap, incentivize, to really put you up, even though the first ones had passed there more than an hour before!! Very nice!

I had a great time!!!

After I arrived there were some friends waiting, pictures and a lot fun, we had the arrival of the last stage of the Tour of Lower Saxony and I could see Alessandro Petacchi cross the line in first, just in front of me!!! He's a machine!!! :-)

Finally there!

So! After a week of rest training (only 30 to 45 minutes with low rate) the day of the race arrived!

Tomorrow is the race I've been preparing myself for the last 10 weeks. The Tour d'Energie. A 80 km road race that comes before the last stage of the Tour of Lower Saxony.

Today I've got the material (T-Shirt, transponder for chrono, number ...) and everything is ready!

Let's see how it goes tomorrow!

My tricot with the number!

All the way!

Finally managed the whole way of the race!!! eeeeeeeeeeeeee :-)))

This week I spent part of it in Berlin with some friends and when I came back the rainy days were the more commons ... so not too much biking and no climbing also! :-(

Than came easter hehehehehe

Friday afternoon a light 2 hours ride to loose the legs.

Saturday the race path!! Got the two class 3 mountains! The first one, after around 40 km, it 5.5 km long, and I managed to go up at about 12-14 km/h. Of course there were smaller or shorter climbs before. The second climb is shorter but harder and also happens after 65 km, so you're really tired when you get there! I managed to go up at 8-9 km/h ...

At the end it was 76 km in around 3:25 hs, an average of 22.3 km/h. I got home totally destroyed! :-)

Yesterday and today, really rainy and didn't feel like getting all wet!

Things are getting ready for the race.

The average allows me to get to the end, specially because with almos 1400 participants you can always find some group with your pace to make a peloton against the wind. When you're training you're mostly alone and there's no shield, you have to do all the effort.

Gotta find a friend with car to follow with water and some food, so that I don't have to carry it all the way.

It will be fun! I'm sure of that! After the race there's the arrival of the Tour of Lower Saxony, with, most probably, Alessandro Petacchi in the final sprint!

This week is just resting, so, light rides around with no climbs :-)

Almost all!

This week was a bit "bumpy". Not too much training. During the week I got a specialist to review my positioning on the race bike. And now I'm trying to get used to that.

Also shown got some clear signs of a thing called "over training". Over training is the point where your body starts to tell you that you're exaggerating on the training :-) The typical sign is when you start finding excuses not to train, or when you wake up in the morning wishing it's raining so that you're not able to train ... that kind of thing. I'm dealing with it.

No climbing, for no special reason.

Today I did most of the way of the race of the end of the month. Just skipped the second category 3 climb, because I was already too tired and with some pain in the right knee. I did 70, of the 80 km of the race with an average of 21.3 in 3:15 hours. That's just above the minimum average ... that way I would be allowed to get to the end. Since I'm not competing for positions, but to be able to finish the race, that's fine. :-)) It's harder than I thought!

Back and racing!

Back from the Canary islands, after taking another good look at the way back from the observatory to the town and be dreaming on doing that by bike some day!

On thursday, as always, climbing. And the nice thing was that there was a bigger group of people than usual! It was funny :-)

Some small time cycling with the road bike, but the rain mostly prevented longer times.

A friend from the institute invited me to a short race on a city close to here, on sunday. The race was 36 km and we had no rain, against the forecast :-)

It was the hobby category ... 42 people ... I lost contact with the peloton in the first km, they really have a strong rhythm. So I spent the 36 km facing the wind, which turns the thing a bit harder :-) 7 gave up and I was the 34th, basically second to last hehehehehe, at least I finished it, isn't it??

Some modifications on the bike posture and trying to get an appointment to a full posture review before the bigger race!

This week is intensity! Tomorrow! :-)