English Race Report Heubach

Yesterday it was the 2nd round of the German Bundesliga in Heubach, close to Stuttgart. Thousands of spectators had found their way to the small village in Baden-Würtemburg. Conditions were muddy and slippery, add the best riders in the world and a very hard course and you'll get a really spectacular race.
My start was quite good and I was in the middle of the field after the first climb. Constantly advancing in the field. But on the second lap a got some problems with my rear derailleur, somebody hit it in the start and after that it didn't really work. Had to stop for 5 min and then my race was over. I hade expected much better but sometimes shit happens and now I'll focus on the World Cup in Offenburg the upcoming weekend.

My teammate Marco Schätzing did a solid race and ended up 34 th in the elite category. In the U23 category Matthias Wengelin started really good and was 3rd after the first climb. But he probably blew himself and had to lower his pace. He ended up 21th.

Team Presentation Marco Schätzing

This time Marco is up for the team presentation. The funny guy in the team. A lot of energy and always ready for a practical joke. But also dead serious when it comes to racing.

Name: Marco Schätzing

Date of birth:11.12.1984

Nationality: GER

Girl/boyfriend: Claudia (was my nurse in the Hospital when i was injured after a bike crash ) Carpe diem!

Favorite food: Rump Steak

Favorite drink: Strawberry Milk Shake

Favorite movie: I don’t have a TV i my appartment

Favorite music: Alexander Markus (Electro Volklore)

If I wasent a bike rider I would work with: ...-out a break at an optical store (usual work)

My strength as a bike rider is: Sprint

When Im not riding my bike I like to do: hiking, other sportive things in nature, meet with friends

Countries I have visited: western and southern European Countries, America and SWEDEN

A country I would like to visit and why: New Zealand, because I heard it is beautiful

A stupid thing that I have done:crashed the car of my parents in age of 8 years!!!

A smart thing that I have done: started crying afterwards

A romantic thing that I have done: a picknick on top of a mountain at sunset

Three things I would take with me to a lonely island (except the bike): Haribo, Sunglasses and Sun protection

Three words that describes me: han heter Marco

A part of my body that Im extra satisfied with: my mustache

Finally my favourite quote: Alter Schwede!?

Sundern-Hagen Race Report

This weekend I raced in Sundern-Hagen. 55 km and 1200 hm, and almost only gravelroads. I rode in front with a group of 5 riders in the beginning of the race. After only 10 km a rider stretched his legs and got a gap that consistently grew. So after a couple of km I decided to join him. We two rode together for like 10 min before he had a flat. That left me alone after only 15 km. Two things to do, either wait for the group to join me or give it everything and try to hold them of. Ofcourse I chose the second alternative.
I managed to hold them behind me and could cross the finish line as winner. A good feeling. A big thanks to René that helped me and Günter with bottles, extra wheels, bike wash and more. Günter did a good race and ended up 4th in Senior 2.

Today I'm travelling to Sweden for approx a week before it's time for my first race in Turkey. But before that I'll do a marathon in Sweden.

English Race Report

Last weekend it was the first round of the German cup in Münsingen. This was the first big race for the xc-crew in the team.

On Saturday Matthias and Marco participated in the sprint race. They both did a good race. Matthias finished 9th and Marco 6th. Good job fellas!

The next day it was time for the xc races. Matthias was first out and started at 10 am with the other U23-riders. He did a good race but lost some places in the last lap and ended up at 13th position. I'm sure that he soon will find his form and therefore be able to fight in the top again.

Me and Marco started at 2 pm together with approx 90 other riders. In opposite to Marco's great start I did as usual, and was far behind after the first lap. But I managed to motivate myself and fought hard to make up some lost ground. After the first lap I was down at 57th position, but when I crossed the finish line I did it as 29th. Marco lost some of his speed at the last two laps and finished 32th.

Now I'm back in Imgenbroich and have just finished a training session. Weather is as usual here in Eifel, cloudy and cold. But according to yr.no warmer and sunnier weather is coming.

In other news, I have now updated my calender. Had to do some changes because of my lack of UCI-points.
This weekend I'll do a marathon in Sundern-Hagen. Hoping that I can be a little faster in the start or otherwise I'll have to pass approx 1300 riders and that is a bit to heavy even for me...

Team Presentation Sascha Heinke

This time it's the endurance man from the team that you can read about.

Name: Sascha Heinke



Date of birth: 28.11.1985



Nationality: German



Girl/boyfriend: Yes, my girlfriend Susann



Favorite food: Eierkuchen (Egg cake)



Favorite drink: Spezi (Cola and Fanta)



Favorite movie: SAW I



Favorite music: Fantastischen 4, 80s



If I wasen´t a bike rider I would work with: Cars



My strength as a bike rider is: Endurance, good I all weather

conditions, teamspirit, motivation



When I’m not riding my bike I like to do: Meet friends, eat good



Countries I have visited: Italy, Spain, Holland, England, Belgium,

Poland, Czech Republic,Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, France



A country I would like to visit and why: Canada, because of the

landscape



A stupid thing that I have done: Once I parked my car at the

disability parking space

  

A smart thing that I have done: The first to help in a train accident



A romantic thing that I have done: Ask my girlfriend…



Three things I would take with me to a lonely island

(except the bike):

Girlfriend, playstation and a massage chair



Three words that describes me: Reliably, funny, endurance-oriented



A part of my body that I’m extra satisfied with: My right thumb



Finally my favourite quote: "Stark zu sein bedeutet nicht,

nicht zu weinen! Sondern wieder auf zu stehen und weiter zu gehen!" 

(To be strong does not mean not to cry, but to get back and go further)   

Sascha is the current world- and europeanchampion i 24h mountainbike racing. His goals this year are to do good att the marathon tours, for example Trans Germany and Trans Schwarzwald. A good guy that knows what he wants and most probably will get there.

Team presentation Birgit Söllner

I have done a small presentation of each and everyone in my team, so from now on you'll be able to read about the crazy people that I work with. Starting with the only girl in the team.


Quick questions:

Name: Birgit Söllner

Date of birth: 27.08.1973

Nationality: German

Girl/boyfriend: Stefan

Favorite food: Food from Italy

Favorite drink: None

Favorite movie: None

Favorite music: Everything except techno/hip hop

If I wasen´t a bike rider I would work with: No idea, haven’t thought about that

My strength as a bike rider is: Mountains

When I’m not riding my bike I like to do: No time left when I have worked, trained and raced

Countries I have visited: Almost he whole of Europe and the US

A country I would like to visit and why: I would like to travel around the world because of all the intresting cities

A stupid thing that I have done: Hopefully not so many things so far

A smart thing that I have done: That’s up to others to tell

A romantic thing that I have done: Privat :)

Three things I would take with me to a lonely island (except the bike): My boyfriend, a good and thick book and Espresso

Three words that describes me: Never give up

A part of my body that I’m extra satisfied with: I like every part

Finally my favourite quote: Aus allem immer das Beste machen (Always make the best of the situation)

Birgit has a background as a roadcyclist. She have for example finished 7th in the ladies Tour the France. Now she's riding marathons for the team. She took a lot of victories last year and will most probably do even better this year when she have more experience from mountainbike competitions.

Cyprus training camp

We have now been on Cyprus for one week and things are slowly coming together. We now know where to wash our clothes and bikes (sadly not the same place). We have found a good bakery and some good coffee places.

Last weekend it was the first race for the season in Voroklini. A cross country race, category C1. I ended up 23rd among 100 riders after a very slow start. Hope to be a bit quicker this weekend when we are going to do 3 races, the first one only 7,6 km long.

Today it's a rest day, and very well planned, it's raining cats and dogs here and we have thunder as well.

The new bike is very nice to ride and has a good feeling. We're testing them hard here with races and training and I'm going to report more about how it handles further on.

Stay tuned!

A weekend in Westbay

This weekend I visited my parents in Västervik. It's way too much snow there for bike riding, but somehow I managed to do 5 h on saturday and 4 h today. I had company both days with Izor which is a friend of mine that also competes in mountainbike.

It's always nice to come home and ride your old training routes, although I hardly remembered them.
It's also nice to let your parents take care of you when you arrive home after a training session, when all you want to do is to lie down and die... Big thanks to you!

Soon I'll be going to Cyprus for some serious training and competition. Hope to be in shape!

Hard weekend

After a really hard week of training I'm now looking forward to a relatively calm week. Did two distance sessions this weekend with a friend from my hometown and some other cyclists from Jönköping. Went really well dispate of hard training last week.

As you can see further down I got a picture of my Drössiger-bike that I will use on Cyprus. And then, when we travel to Germany we will get the carbon frame as well.

Looking forward to Cyprus and the warmth there. I'm really a bit tired of the cold climate here in Sweden, so shorts and sunglasses will do me good!

First real report

As earlier said I'll on my blog write in both swedish and english. Because of lack of time and patience I won't write every report in english, but you'll get a good insight in my life on and close to my bike.

This weekend I've had some calm days. To cold to train outside on the bike, so I tried to do some intervalls in the basement and today I've been skiing, cross country.

Soon I will leave this cold weather behind for 3 weeks on Cyprus. But more reports from that trip will follow later.

Altough it's colder than in hell right now I give you a picture from last sommer.

English test

I'll try to write some of my updates in English.