Eddy Merckx

He was once known as the Cannibal, a bike racer who won five Tours de France and in 1971 was victorious in half the races he took part in. Eddy Merckx, now 62-years-old with hairy legs and a small beer pouch, is justifiably still referred to as the sport's greatest champion and it was an honour for me and 1350 other cyclists to ride alongside him at Eddy Merckx Classic Radmarathon, held on September 7, 2008.

The 148km race based in Eugendorf marked the end of my mini-comeback season, and after a successful training period and recent good results I was pretty fired up.

However, the first 95km were slightly chaotic as the course was too flat and the speed too low for the bunch to split. Consequently, the lead peloton was well over 100 strong containing many inexperienced and dangerous riders. On one particular descent we reached 90km/h with riders were spread all over the road and oncoming traffic had no choice but to veer out of the way.

After 60km, the police brought us to a halt and told us the event would be cancelled if we didn't stick to the right side of the road.

It was a poor decision to stop us. Many dropped riders caught up, swelling the bunch to greater proportions, and we were just 2km from the first climb. If we'd been left to race, the peloton would have been further shredded and the problem of large groups crossing the centre line avoided.

Ultimately the decision point came on Thalguaegg, with 55km left to race. The hammer went down, and the course became extremely mountainous, splitting the field into little bits.

In fact, the final third of the race contained over 1000m of climbing, adding to the 1200m from the first two-thirds. I found myself in a seven-strong group, and we worked well together not too far down on the leaders.

On the final major climb from Vorderfager up to the Gaisberg I was dropped, but kept to a reasonable pace and after a wild descent managed to bridge back to the others. Then it was a mad, balls-out blast final 8km to the finish.

We caught more riders on the way in to Eugendorf and after a fairly mild sprint, I ended up in 28th in a time of 4hr 15min 51sec.

Philip Götsch was the winner, completing the course in a super-fast 4hr 1min 35sec. Eddy Merckx rode the shorter 110km route, crossing the line with some of his team-mates from his racing days in 3hr 46min.

Couple of news reports from the day; you can see me riding up a hill on the back of our group after 1min 22sec on this one:



And I'm turning a corner with a small bunch around 1min 4sec:



Below: heart rate readings and altitude profile plotted against distance.

Si Fo Mo In Austria

Old courier buddy Simon Foster Moan visited this week, and got rather excited by the roads and scenery. Known as 'Nana-Four' to his friends, we spent the weekend riding the local routes, while Simon commented constantly on the smoothness of the asphalt.

On Sunday, we took on the RC Hallein club run up to Werfenweng, a ski resort about 1000m above sea level, reachable after a 40km ride through the Pass Lueg.

Snapping a spoke on the ascent, Simon was almost ready to pack it in and take the train home. Luckily he had recently discovered the Radler - a local type of shandy popular with cyclists who can't resist the taste of beer mid-ride - and the thought of missing out kept him going to the top.

He had his camera out, and I cobbled together a short video from the stuff he filmed. There's also a short post and photos written by Dietmar on the RC Hallein site.

Festina Radmarathon - UPDATED

Next race on the calendar was the Festina Radmarathon based around Schwanenstadt in the Salzkammergut region on August 15.

I wrote a brief report in German for the RC Hallein website, and for those interested, here's the write-up:

Manche der Freuden, wenn man ein neues Land entdeckt, sind die Überraschungen, nett oder nicht so nett. Ich habe mich für den Salzkammergutradmarathon angemeldet und habe geglaubt es ist nur ein Event für Hobbyfahrer, mit einem kleinen Wettbewerbsvorteil.

In diesem Fall kommt die Überraschung an der Startlinie. Es gab keine Hobbyfahrer, nur circa 100 ernste Rennfahrer, die wie Semiprofis ausschauen. Ich habe ein bisschen Angst bekommen, aber dann waren wir unterwegs und es gab keine Zeit mehr zum Denken.

Die ersten 25km waren unsäglich schnell und die Strecke war mit kleinen Hügeln übersät. Nach 20km war das Peloton total gespalten. Ich habe mich in der zweiten Gruppe mit acht anderen Rennfahrern gefunden.

Die Geschwindigkeit ist hoch, aber konstant, geblieben und wir haben Nußdorf, nach 55km des Rennens, in 90 Minuten erreicht.

Der 766m hohe Berg nach Nußdorf hat einen Wendepunkt markiert. Erstens, auf dem Anstieg, ist der Regen angekommen. Dann wurden manche Fahrer von unserer Gruppe abgeworfen und ich holte mit drei anderen eine weitere kleine Gruppe, die vom ersten Peloton zurückgelassen wurde, ein.

Der Regen ist wieder schwer gefallen, aber nach vielen Jahren in England als Rennfahrer, war ich in meinem Element! Wir haben gut über die hügelige und kurvenreiche Strecke zusammen gearbeitet, und nach drei Stunden und 30 Minuten sind wir 125km gefahren und in der Zielstrecke angekommen.

Ich habe die bemalte Aufzeichnung auf der Strasse gelesen: 5km bis zum Ziel. Die Gruppe ist schneller gefahren. Ein Kilometer: wieder schneller. Fünfhundert Meter, dann 100m. Ein Fahrer der Atterbike Mannschaft hat seinen Sprint begonnen und ich habe ihn verfolgt.

Aber nach weiteren 200 Metern gab es kein Ziel! Wir sind um eine Ecke gekommen und ich habe noch eine Aufzeichnung gelesen: 100m bis zum Ziel. 'Scheiße' sagt der Atterbiker, und ist wieder gesprintet. Ich habe kein Gas mehr gehabt, und bin hinter ihm aber vor den anderen von unserer Gruppe durchs Ziel.

Am Ende habe ich 20. Platz geschafft, noch eine nette Überraschung in Österreich!

Thomas Mair von RC ÄRBO Wels hat mit 3:13 gewonnen. Ulli Öhlböck (Team Müller’s Gasthaus) war Zweiter, und Josef Benetseder (Team Volksbank) Dritter.

Not the best image, but that's me in the black behind the guy from Atterbike

To summarise in English, it was a 125km route littered with little climbs and very few flat sections. I was more than slightly unnerved on the startline when virtually all of the 100 or so starters turned out to be local hotshots and there were even a couple of pros. But once on the road, the peloton fractured quickly and I ended up in the second group. We worked well together, over the major hill at halfway and even through the worsening weather, which by for the final 50km became heavy rain.

The road was marked with 5km to go, down to 100m when a guy from the Atterbike team went for it and I jumped on his wheel. Unfortunately the markings were totally incorrect and we still had another 750m to the line. When the actual finish came into sight we had a small gap over the field and the Atterbiker opened his sprint out again. I couldn't match it, but was still pretty stoked, ending up 20th behind winner Thomas Mair (RC Ärbo Wels).

Beeb Overkill?

There has been significant comment in British media about the extravagant number of staff in Beijing from the BBC, namely from The Telegraph and Daily Mail

The actual figure is around 440, well over the 320-odd athletes representing Team GB. Many newspaper bloggers report an incident from yesterday's press conference with Michael Phelps, the American swimming champion (see report in The Guardian). A Children's BBC reporter asked "just how amazing is amazing? Amazing like Christmas? Like your birthday? Or like winning the lottery?"

Earlier this week, one BBC reporter decided to see how many different sports he could see in one day. Sounds like fun, but was it worthwhile and what exactly came of this intrepid investigation apart from a few amusing comments on their live ticker?

There were similar over-staffing allegations at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. I was there working for a number of magazines, and particularly remember travelling to the triathlon event in the media bus.

"What sports are in this then?" Asked one BBC employee a few seats back.

"Err, cycling, running and swimming?" replied another. "No idea what order they go in though."

One wonders what was the point of sending two journalists half way across the world to report on events they know nothing about. Even more irritating was the fact that these two clowns could have at least done some research into a sport they are expected to describe to an entire nation.

Trattbergerstier

Second race of the season and it really didn't go too well. The Trattbergerstier is only 82km, but takes in 1850m of vertical gain. I got into oxygen debt on the first short and sharp hill, and never really recovered properly. Unfortunately this race finishes on a 20km long climb that rises approximately 900m. The last eight kilometres are particularly steep and unpleasant with five hairpin turns and by this stage I was not exactly enjoying myself.

About 250 riders, including many from my club RC Hallein took to the start.

Halfway up before the steep section.

On the final hairpin before the finish.

Reading from the race: heart rate on the top, altitude on the bottom, both plotted against distance.

I ended up mid pack, a long way down on the leader. My training has been significantly altered since this race, however. After consulting my old coach, it became clear that my upper levels were not getting the work out they need if I am to race at a decent level. The past few years have been all about enjoying riding and therefore basically just cruising around at a medium level. Therefore my endurance is fine, but I need more higher intensity workouts.

It feels very strange to be so far off the standard I once was, not that I was ever that incredible. But it would be nice to get some of the old racing sensations back again. Schau ma moi.

Enzianhütte at the top. They do a good Kaspressknödelsuppe.