The rain in the night had vanished by the time we got up and it was clear and sunny for the last stage of the 2017 Tour de Kaernten. This was a 13 km mountain time trial with 1200 metres of climbing. We rode to the start line on the opposite side of the Ossiacher See from where we are camping. The race started in Bodensdorf and ascended Gerlitzen. The route was very nice with views down to the Ossiacher See. But we weren’t there to look at the views. No, no.
Unlike a normal time trial we started in blocks of around 20 people. I was suprised that my block didn’t ride hard from the start and I rode away from them at an easy pace. I started to put more effort in and not long into the race someone from my block passed me and I didn’t see him again. Another guy from our block closed in but I managed to hold him off to the top. The rest of the bunch vanished somewhere behind me. A bit strange.
I was happy with how I went but I seemed to slow down a bit in the middle until I got a bit more sugar into me. It flattened off near the top which might have accounted for the extra speed rather than the sugar. I got a nice finish sprint in to cross the line in around 1 hour 5 minutes.
The winner rode an insane 46 minutes and Leonie rode it in around 1 hour 25 minutes.
I decided to trim some weight from my bike so there’s no exciting Go Pro today.