about a year ago i tried my luck – and my endurance – at the salzkammergut trophy in bad goisern for the first time. there were a couple of interesting outcomes: i had already expected that the number of training kilometers i had ridden would not be enough, but i did not expect to suffer as much as i actually did on the second climb. i had also expected to be rather at the end of the field, but i was hoping to leave a few more competitors behind me. last but not least i was expecting to take a little less than 5 hours and 40 minutes for the 53 km.
that left me with a few objectives for this year. first of all: train more. secondly improve on my 2005 time, and finally leave a few more people behind me.
i am not sure i managed to train that much more, but i must have done something right, because the ‘grabenbachtal’ – most of the second climb – was not as tough as last year … as far as 600 meters with partly more than 14 degree climb can be anything but tough.
most importantly, though, i did improve on last year’s time: this year it took me 4:41.20, i.e. i shaved almost one hour off last year’s performance. plus i was able to overtake a few guys on the first climb, some on the long downhill back to the valley, and even a few on the 9 km back to the finish line. i knew those heavy suspension elements and tyres i had to carry up all the way would come in handy at some point. or hoping, at least (i did feel a little stupid when i looked around among my competitors who were almost exclusively sitting on light hardtail bikes; probably some 4-5 kilos lighter than my own dear freeride bike).
and thanks to the edge i now know that my average speed was 11.9 km/h (not too bad), my max speed was 62.9 km/h (yes!), on the climbes i did on average 7 km/h, while on descents 21.7 km/h. unfortunately i forgot my heart rate monitor, which could have provided some more interesting insight. anyway, here is speed over time & climb. see? 😉
and in case you want to see where i lost the time.
basically everywhere, i guess. to be more specific: while i was struggling up ‘grabenbachtal’ the best of the 53 km class were already back in goisern. the 204 km guys took a little longer: the fastest guy needed 10:15.40.
still, i believe it is a victory that i can walk & sit (!) today.
btw: my dear brother in law, richard, also improved last year’s time by about an hour, and beat me again by 20 minutes. something to work on for next year, then …