It goes very fast. After the season opener in Cologne, the Tour d'Energie in Göttingen followed almost six days later.
Most of the drivers from all the men's (federal) states arrived on Saturday. So does our Merkur-Druck.com team. However, we had to realize on the autobahn that our planned exit on the day before the race in the vicinity of Göttingen would literally fall through the cracks. So it was time to pass the time. Since almost the whole team was together, this was easy. Only Alexander Loos was missing from the round, but in a few days, when we start in Frankfurt, he will also join us.
After the afternoon went by without cycling, we found ourselves punctually at our local Italian restaurant in Göttingen for dinner. This is not only an integral part of our race preparation, but also always allows us to share our experiences of the week and discuss and analyze past race situations.
The organization of the next day was discussed with our supervisors, who we cannot thank often enough for their work. Back at the hotel it was time to fasten the bib number, have the transponder ready and sleep.
The alarm clock rang early as usual. The view out of the window brightened the mood. At 10:00 a.m. sharp, we finally made our way to the starting line.
A huge field of riders was waiting here to hit the roads around Göttingen. Already in the neutralized phase we were cheered by a number of spectators. The race in Göttingen has not only been characterized by good organization for years, but also by a very large number of cycling fans on the side of the road.
In the first few kilometers, the pace suddenly increased. Already on the first climb the field shrank considerably. Nevertheless, the established teams continued to attack. The Strassacker team in particular tried to decide the race early and to prevent a sprint. This played into our hands, because we too wanted to weaken the competition and exploit the strengths of our team.
Before crossing to the executioner of the race, the High Hagen, it began to rain. Suddenly the street was wet and the shoes were soaked. The descent was very slippery and therefore dangerous. The leading group, in which we were represented by six riders, didn't want to leave anything to chance and kept the pace high. Finally, Stefan Räth, our Berlin all-rounder, managed to rip a hole and set out to start the longest escape of the day. However, since the Strassacker and Bürstner-Dümo teams did a great job of following up, he was unfortunately unable to get out of sight of the field. Shortly before the summit of the last mountain he was asked again. He underlined his good form when, immediately after the end of his flight, he parried the decisive attack over the hilltop by Manuel Kirfel, who had been the leader in the overall standings up to that point, and joined the new leading group.
This group survived to the finish. We were also very well represented here with four drivers. Which should pay off. In the sprint, Daniel Knyss prevailed over his direct competitors for the overall ranking, Sandro Kühmel and Marek Bosniatzki (both Bürstner-Dümo). Thanks to the further good placings of Christian Dengler, Stefan Räth and Till Baltes, we were also able to win the team classification.
The race showed us that we had a very good preparation for the season, for which we would like to say a big thank you to Enrico Poitschke and the Rothai Sports team. In addition, of course, our biggest thanks go to our sponsors Merkur-Druck and BKK-Mobil and all partners who make this great success possible for us. In a few days, on May 1st, the next big race is coming up. Until then!