TrailStories

Last month was my second gravel race. Like Houffa Gravel last year it also was a race of the UCI gravel world series. This time at the Wörthersee in Austria. I went there because a friend of mine who lives in Austria asked me if I would acompany her. Looking at the track it again did not exactly fitting for my strengths. One lap was 50 k long and had one 150 m climb in the first quarter. The rest was more or less flat. I didn’t know before the race how technical it would be. Three rounds had to be raced.

I struggeled with my fueling during the race for basically forever. I used a combination of gels and Clif bars. That’s fine but it is also crazy sweet all the time. After a couple of hours I couldn’t get anything of it down anymore. Additionally Clif bars are huge and surprisingly hard to chew when all your blood is in your legs and you have to breathe like a maniac simulatniously.

07.04. Wörthersee Gravel Race 144 km (race report)
27.04. Schönbuch MTB Trophy 48 km
01. – 07.07. BC Bike Race 227 km
08.09. Alpine Gravel Challenge 100 km ?
15.09. Brezel Race 110 km ?

Last year I finally wanted to participate in Raphas Festive 500 challenge. I knew that it would probably be a bit difficult because out of the 8 days I had family comittments to attend on four of them. That meant I had to make the 500 km in only four days. On my first long ride on the 27th I did 106 km, bit I was crazy exhausted. I couldnt even finish the ride I had planned. I had to jump in the train 20 km early. I was so demotivated - I just didnt think that 106 km would be such a problem for me. So I took the 28th off. But because of that I only had 280 km at the end of the 29th. That meant I would need to ride 280 km on the 30th because this was my last day I could ride. First I planned to ride to Freiburg but that was a route I didnt know at all and it had 1300 meters of altitude. That’s not that much but in comination with the lengths I got scared. So I decided to ride the local river here 100 km up and the same way back home down the river.

Today I raced my first Gravel race - The Houffa Gravel in Houffalize Belgium. And oh boy, Gravel is different than MTB - a race report.

Let’s have a short retrospective on the biggest moments in cycling of 2021.

I just did an FTP test to dial my training plans in according to my current power. The result were 260 W. One year ago I did 233 W. The last time I was around 260 W was in March of 2021. I hope that means I can “easily” gain another 30 Watt until March and maybe get over 300 by July when the Transalp starts. 😬 But maybe the relatively good result today is just because I was super well rested after a more than four weeks long off season.

This is still preliminary. I hope to find a MTB race in spring that’s not on 7th of May. And maybe I will do one or two races in August and September.

13.04. Schönbuch MTB Trophy 48 km
05.06. Albstadt MTB Classic 46 km
12.06. Hero Dolomites 86 km ?
04. - 10.07. Bike Transalp 500 km
13.07. Albstadt Bike Marathon 83 km
18.07. Württemberg-König 1,94 km
31.07. Nordschwarzwald Trophy 80 km ?
26.09. Mesa Parts Trail Hype 60 km ?
03.10. Albgold Trophy 88 km ?
10.10. Tremalzo Bike 51 km ?