Rad Weltpokal

Day one of racing has come and gone. I went throught the routine of getting my number and making sure all was ready to go before kicking back until race time. About an hour and change before start time, there was a knocking at my door, Mike Olheiser and his brother Dave had arrived.

Mike didn't think he was racing, but I told him he was registered and so he might as well. In under an hour, we got everything up to the room, slammed Mike's bike together, sweet talked the race official into giving us his number even though "Nummerausgabe" was already closed, pinned his numbers on and got to the line with a few minutes to spare.

The race was pretty aggressive from the start as usual and a group of three rolled away on the first lap. As all three were Italians as we'd later find out, the chase never got all that organized. I rolled off with a couple small groups, but nothing worked well enough to stick, even the group of 14 or so that got clear. With conditions being fairly windy, the field shattered completely and a lot of riders dropped out. I started cramping on the third time up the climb and knew I would be doing much of anything after that but riding it in at what ever pace I could manage. I lost contact with the 2nd chase group (Mike was in the first) and noodled in alone.

I didn't think the second group was as big as the results showed, but in any case, I exploded after sticking my nose in the wind early and often. There were only 50 some odd finisher and we started with 100 or so. The purpose of the first race has always been to have some fun, shake off the cobwebs from the day of travel, and open up the legs a bit before the time trial on Wednesday . . . done, done, and done.

After the race we got cleaned up and headed out for some food. It being Sunday and all, none of the grocery stores were open so it was a good opportunity to hit one of the local spots for some traditional Austrian grub. I had a lovely Wienerschnitzel plate and a mixed salad. A beer of two also sounded like a good idea to help flush the legs or something. We wandered around until it was time for awards, Mike collected his trophy for 6th, and the day was done.