Leonie and I are back at the Ossiacher See for another year of the Tour de Kärnten. There are big changes this year. We have moved camping site to Ideal Camping on the other side of Ossiach. Yes, I know. Gasp indeed. Oh and Leonie isn’t riding, she’s running instead. And we’re camping with Robert who we met at the tour last year. It’s all pretty chilled so far.
Anyway, the first stage was the 40 km time trial around the lake. I unsteadily rolled down the starting ramp trying to push a gear that was too hard for me to start in. I had an average speed of 40km/h until the first right hand turn. Then things became less optimal. The lights were red as I approached so I had to slow going into the turn and directly before me was a big fat tractor. Emphasis on fat and also on slow. The tractor bumbled along at 25 km/h and there was no way I could pass due to the oncoming traffic. I followed the tractor into the next turn and it cruised slowly around the lake in front of me. No chance of passing it. I drafted it for a while. It seemed stupid to slow down. The next downhill was all about braking again. It started to rain heavily for a bit. At some point the tractor got away on an uphill.
I benefited from a tail wind on the way back which was nice. Just before the finish two cars passed me and then proceeded to drive very slowly. As I was coming into the finish line and we had been told that we should follow the road rules without exception I didn’t ride past on the left. Instead I slowly rolled across the line. This cost me a couple of places. Mehh. Not that I was going to win but anyway.
Unfortunately my Garmin Edge 520 died about 3/4 of the way around. It’s probably a feature. But it required a hard reset to bring it back to life and it turns out it hadn’t logged my ride. Thanks Garmin.
Above: We are camping with Robert at the Ossiacher See in Austria.
Above: In my advanced age it would be better if I ride the race with an E-bike. After I had issues with my road bike before the race the friendly staff at the bike shop loaned me this bike for the night. I was tempted to keep it.
Above: Unfortunately no sprint photo as there was no sprint due to some annoying motorists at the finish line.
Above: The start of stage 1.
Above: Following a slow tractor in the rain.
Above: For some reasons two cars passed me just before the finish line and then braked. Why??
TdK 2018 – Stage 1 – 40km TT Time: 01:03:42.5 Dst: 40km/150m Place Category ??/??, Overall Men ??/??