Last weekend, the Skoda Velodom 2015, the 99th edition of Rund um Köln, was the home game of our NRW team.
A race in the city, with which one is very connected, is of course always something special and so it was not only the announced very good weather on the race day that provided the so-called little bit of additional motivation.
We were particularly pleased that parts of our team from Thuringia, Saxony and our Stefan from Berlin arrived on Friday evening.
So we had enough time on Saturday to show our teammates and friends our beautiful city of Cologne. I think it was great fun for everyone involved.
After the rest of the team members from Bavaria had arrived in the afternoon, it was time for our obligatory little trip, combined with picking up the starting documents. So we drove upriver along the Rhine via Rodenkirchen and Wesseling easily in the direction of Bonn and back again. On a glorious summer evening, we had really earned dinner at the Italian restaurant on the banks of the Rhine.
On Sunday morning, as planned, at 9:30 a.m. the starting signal for the race over 125 km through the Bergisches Land was fired.
The race was supposed to take a rather strange course for me, unfortunately also due to a few falls. But this gives me the opportunity to report from the point of view of a helper.
This time set up a little further back in the starting block, in an extremely hectic and excited field of riders, unfortunately, after a good kilometer at the entrance to the Rheinufer tunnel in front of us, there was a major crash, in which I unfortunately fell with Stefan and Bernd just behind the riders who were lying down standing came. Daniel got it a little harder because unfortunately he also went down. But everyone was able to continue the journey and so it was now time to bring our spearheads back to the front quickly. This worked out quite well so far, but shortly after we had reached the front of the field, Stefan also had a fall and he first had to swap bikes with Manfred, which of course wasn’t the cheapest solution due to the different dimensions, but it was Unfortunately, there was no other way at the moment.
Accompanied by Alex to the front, I heard Stefan calling from behind that he needed my bike. So I pulled over in no time, changed my bike and now I found myself on a much too big bike (Manfred's), but in that one Knowing that Stefan and I ride similar attitudes, I knew one of our strongest riders was well taken care of and was still at the front of the race. That was the most important thing at first.
I continued my journey like a little boy on dad's huge bicycle, and so for me personally the first approach to Bergisch Gladbach Sand ended any chance of being able to play a decisive role in the race again.
Of course, finishing the home race is somehow still a matter of honour.
So I decided to leave this option open and waited for Manfred (on Stefan's much too small bike :-), driving more slowly.
After a brief consultation and the positive answer to my question as to whether the bike was still reasonably rideable, we decided to ride past a larger group in order to swap bikes in front of this group up in the sand and then start the race with this group to drive to the end. So Manfred had his bike back and I had at least a more suitable one, albeit one with a few injuries.
After Manfred and I then continued the journey in this group and in Forsbach also turned left onto the Bergische Runde and not to Cologne, I managed to escape to the front again on the Hoffnungsthal climb and I worked my way forward from group to group, if only for training reasons and a matter of honor :-).
On the way I met many familiar faces and friends from the region as well as fellow sufferers from other teams with similar roles in their teams. We helped each other a little and so I got to Cologne a bit late, but there was a great reward waiting.
With Ronny Freiesleben, our team provided the day's winner from a top group of six. With Christoph's strong 6th place (sprint of the chasing group), Alex on 7th and Stefan on 10th, we also won the team classification of the day and are now the overall leaders in the team classification in the GCC.
So once again the commitment was worth it for us as helpers.
It was another great race weekend and I competed in a race with three different bikes for the first time :-).
Now the GCC is going to take a longer break until July 25.07th. continues at the Nürburgring with the toughest race of the season.
Until then, best regards,
Your Thomas.