Cyclocross... Euro-Style

So I found out last week that there was an international UCI C2 Cyclocross race here in Niederanven, the town I live in in Luxembourg, right around the corner so to speak. As it was so close I decided to give it a shot… Well, I’ve got four words for you: fast, pain, cold and mud. I experienced a lifetime worth of all of these today! But first things first.

Winter finally hit somewhen last week with snow and all. Over night, we got another dusting but the snow didn’t stay but turned the course into one big puddle; I guess we ended up in about 8 to 10 inches of the stuff. Now, the mud we have here isn’t your typical Texas-mud. Here, it is really gooey and sticky, clinging to everything and making riding a hell of a lot harder than if it was dry. So besides turning the downhills into something more suitable for skis, it also made a big part of the course absolutely unridable. Those who know me are aware that I HATE running, so you get the picture. Not to mention that the bike was about 20 pounds heavier after two laps or so (and I for one do not have multiple bikes parked in the material-depot).

Oh, and did I mention that it was just not cold enough for the darn ground to stay frozen? So mud it was with a temperature in the low 30s. So much for the mud and cold part.

Next up: fast. Guess what: apparently everyone in Europe was bored this weekend and decided to head over to this one race (except the really fast guys from Belgium and the Netherlands). Just to give you an idea: we had multiple national champions line up, among them the champs Germany, Demark, Luxembourg, France and the Belgium champion (without contract, i.e. ONLY the amateur champ…). Enough said.

Add the former three points together and mix in a ton of climbing and what do you get? PAIN. Fortunately, it didn’t last too long. I got pulled after 45 min with 2 laps to go when the leaders caught up with me and lapped me (Figure that: they ran away from me…).

All in all it was a fun (but cold) experience with lots of spectators and a cool atmosphere. I don’t know where I came in but I’m afraid it wasn’t enough to earn some UCI points (not that I expected to get any). Oh, and the fact that cross races are free here in Luxembourg made at least the financial consequences bearable. Still, I think I’ll stay away from cross for a while (at least racing) until I start training at a little higher intensity. Just being pack-fodder isn’t too much to my liking.

Some pics of the fun should follow shortly.

Riding my Bike

I just realized that nearly a month has gone by since I last posted something... How time flies. And the weird thing is that nothing exciting happened during this month that would explain how it went by so fast.

Basically, I spent most of my waking time/ daylight time on the bike with rides ranging between 3 and 5 hours daily over the last three weeks. For most of that time I was in Freiburg, Germany with Christine but I also spend a week or so at home in Luxembourg with my parents. Actually, most of the time in Luxembourg I spent at the house of my parents but without them as they had flown to Cuba for two weeks… but so I had some time to enjoy my childhood home and return to the roads I first started riding on and I must say it is still beautiful.

On one of my last rides here in Freiburg a small group of riders caught up with me and I recognized one of them as an old friend of mine. I used to race mtb with him back in the days here in Germany and we chatted a while. I was so caught up in our discussion that it took me a while to realize that I also knew one of the other riders in the group: Heinrich Haussler, ex Gerolsteiner pro, now Cervelo Test Team, was riding at the front of the group and was setting tempo. What a small world. I didn’t get the chance to chat with him as the group was turning “the wrong way” and I had to split off. But with the amount of riding I’m sure I’ll meet some more celebrities out there soon.

This week is an off week, fortunately. So I’m looking forward to a week of easy riding, a lot of rest and another wedding. Christine’s brother is getting married this Saturday, so we will head to Konstanz near the Swiss border towards the end of the week. There’s nothing better than a party to get ready to get back on the bike on Monday!