Unlike last year the first stage of the Tour de Kärnten was the Ironman Runde. For some reason my results on this stage have always been worse than the other stages. This is strange as the circuit should suit me. It’s got only 1000 m of climbing and is approximately 80 km. It’s either that my legs aren’t used to the intensity on the first day or that I place myself poorly in the bunch. It’s probably a bit of both.
Still the stage was enjoyable and the weather was nice. My legs were despite the slow-ish pace fairly tired after 60 km. I guess this reflects my lack of racing so far this year.
Above left: Stage 1 (Ironman Runde) was relatively flat (approx. 1000 m of climbing) over about 80 something km. The weather was fine. My legs were happy. I wasn’t particularly speedy but had a good group until the last climb up to the new finish at the castle ruins on the hill. Above right: Unlike last year they finished up at the top of a hill by a funky castle.
Tour de Kaernten 2014 – Stage 1 – Ironman Runde: Time: 2:32:21.4 Dst: 81.15 km Avg: 31.95 km/h Max: 77.27 km/h Rank: 73th overall, 32nd category