The race that was not a race…
Anna and I headed to Weinfelden, Switzerland where we camped over the weekend. We went for a bit of a ride on Saturday through the rolling hills and on Sunday I did the Säntis Classic while Anna enjoyed the sun and a book.
Above: Anna, sporting her Team T2* top, rides along the roads that meander through the meadows around Weinfelden.
I should improve my German comprehension or perhaps just generally pay more attention to what I read. Anyway, the Säntis Classic is a 130km ride with 1800 metres of climbing. It starts in Weinfelden, near Lake Constance, in Switzerland and heads into the mountains to the Schwägalp pass. After the pass the majority of the climbing is over and it’s a fast descent and overall downhill for the remaining 60 kms-ish. It’s very scenic and makes a great ride. It is however not a race. The open category gets 45 minutes in which they may leave the start line at their leisure. The time is not recorded. It is not a race. Boo hiss.
Above left: Posing near the start line. Above right: On the climb to Schwägalp.
Despite this slight dissapointment I rode off with a bunch of around 180 starters at 8 am. I moved to the front and was happy that the front guys seemed to want to ride at a good pace. The sun was out. Not too hot but not too cold. I rode with the “pirate team”, guys in black shirts with skull and cross-bones, for an hour or so before a couple of the team dropped off the back. As we neared the start of the major climb one of the riders broke his chain. I rode on alone until two guys we had dropped earlier caught me up. I rode with these two for the rest of the race.
One of the guys was German and the other came from somewhere ending in -stein… I was stronger than the other two as we started the climb but as we got to the last 12 km I started to fade and they edged away. Luckily they stopped at the pass to grab a tasty snack from the support stand and we started the descent together. Mr Stein and I took the majority of the turns pulling to start with but it wasn’t long until Mr Stein was spending 80% of the time at the front. Our German friend told us he was hanging on by the skin of his teeth. Yes there is an equivalent phrase in German. We rode like this to the end crossing the line in 4 hours 10 minutes. I resisted the urge to outsprint Mr Stein… He had after all done the majority of the work. The organisers had estimated the first finishers would take 5.5 hours… Pah.
Anyway… I’ve rode in this area before while cycle touring with Gina in 2006. Below is proof.
Above left: Me presenting the pass. Above right: Gina at the pass.