What's the deal: all men allocated into 3 heats with 30-33 riders in each - 20 best from each heat qualifies for A-final! Best Q. time = last starter in Final!
What happened:
07.20: Cloudy, below 20 drg, yogurt with branflakes & chocopops, toasted bread with ham/cheese, juice, coffee & bread roll with.....NUTELLA!!! Perfect start & a good day!
08.15: 11 bikes loaded into Das Auto (we have a Crafter Van for our bikes!) Miss Scott inclusive, looking good!
08.29: departure direction Avelelas behind Chaves
08:51: a local farmer stops his van/truck in the roadside I, prepare to drive smoothly around, looks in left mirror for a split sec & catches a black Audi halfway up on my left......BLOCK's the brakes, Horn bottom down & a lot of not nice DK words.....
09.25: arrives at the arena! a small, VERY small mountain village with donkeys & dogs walking around.....
10.42.00: START Long qualification
11.32: get's a Portguese guy starting earlier than me, he follows my back wheel up the hill towards control 7, just before the stop he drops off, he can't keep my pace, YESS!!!
11.41: I'm not ahead on the map & hasen't read the route to the 8th when I punch #7, I stop for a few seconds to read..the Portugese pass me...F*CK!
11.48: I punch the #8th AFTER the P. guy...it's STEEP uphill & I can't closet he gab of 20meters...
11.50: I push 99% & get's closer to the P.guy.....the hill flats out a bit, I push 2 gear up on the back, catch the guy & flies by...YESSS
12.07.25: punch the finish line, Portugese guy is minutes behind, I'm currently fastest in Heat C, I know it's not gonna last, exhausted after a tough race(see details in title) but I'm satisfied...could have pushed a bit harder especially downhill!
13.30: results confirmed, I'm in the A-final on Friday with a clear margin, 9th position means I'll start in the middle of the pack on Friday
13:31: coffee with the DK guys, all qualified, Erik with a clear win(2min) in heat C - a good day!
Notes: Friday gonna be a LONG LONG-DISTANCE!! I'm loosing around 20sec per KM to Erik today, if the same on Friday I'll be riding more than 2.05hrs! The good thing is I feel ok pushing the hills, I'm not the fastest but I'm going!!! Now it's time for price giving for the Juniors who had the middle dist again, as their race Tuesday got canceled due to a misplaced control! Andreas (one of them, we have 3!) got a 6th place & all 4 got into top 17 (gonna be Gold candidates for the relay, just like the seniors!)
Pictures, maps & results here
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