Last Sunday I was racing in Gilau again. I love this race because the view is spectacular, I love to climb high in the mountains. The weather was perfect, the Merida tires had a thick wall so I didn't cut them and my brakes lasted until the finish line although I was breaking a lot (I had to buy new pads) but at least I didn't fall like a lot of other riders. I saw a few guys in the ambulance and I even saw somebody falling in front of me. The first downhill was very hard, there were a lot of rocks on the road, but the other descents weren't easy either.
I was climbing a lot better than a year before, but I still had to push the bike on some hard climbs. I am starting to like my new race tactic, I start slow and I can pass people almost till the end. I started a little too slow but I warmed up on the first climb after some muscle pains (from the lack of the warm up). I passed a lot of people and I was feeling good. I lost some places when I stopped for water and bananas but I recovered a few positions on the next climb. I was loosing positions on the descent but I was very careful, I think this was the first race this year without a fall.
I wasn't in good shape, I had some cramps but I was eating a lot of bananas and I was enjoying the ride. I was even singing on the last descent. A bug bit when I came out of the forest on the last descent about 300 meters from the finish line. Maybe it was a bee but I'm not sure. My leg is still itching and I had a huge red spot where my skin got a bit hard. I didn't cut my tires this year, so I finished in 3:33:00 85th overall (from 330 finishers) and 36th in my age group from 117 finishers.
The only thing I didn't like is that I've got some large gloves in the signup package, and the rubber wristband was big also. Beside that the course was beautiful, it was the best organized race in the country and the pasta and the watermelon was very good after the finish. I hope I can race again next year :)
Stats:
- time (riding): 3:30:27
- official time: 3:30:00
- distance: 46,53 km
- average speed: 13,2 km/h
- max speed: 51,4km/h
Some pics:
on the first climb
going down
I was happy to finish and my leg was hurting from the sting
it was a nice ride
receiving the finisher wristband
happy
yummy
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