Riding the pink zebra – Mallorca 2013, Part II

Even though I had been to the island five times before, 2013 was the first time that saw me “working” as a tour guide. Generously, Arne Dyck of triathlon-szene.de had taken me aboard as the guide for the fast bike group of his two week training camp. We had some 80 athletes stay with us in those two weeks and especially the first week was a blast. We flew over to the island and in this one two hour flight left winter behind for good. For the first four days we could not spot one cloud in the sky and some of us got severely sun-burned. “My crew” in camp week one as we came to call it followed the “Pink Zebra”, my soon to be replaced 2004 ABG-made Merlin Fortius. “Pink Zebra” was the bikes code name in camp this year as it was pink zebra style with a Pretty & Strong hub set from Chris King (http://chrisking.com/prettyandstrong ) as well as some pink tires, cable housing and zebra style handle bar tape and saddle.





The regulars in Group 1 from left to right: Seven, Steffen, flo, Ralf, me & Peter

This “beautiful” bike lured a group of around six to eight riders into riding with me during camp and it seems they seemed to enjoy it quite a lot. We had some serious fun chit-chatting about just about every tri or bike related topic you could imagine as well as other topics that are not quite fit to be made public here. Sadly, not everyone could stay for the whole two weeks and so we had to let them go. Thanks Peter, Ralf and Steffen for the fun… and the massage voucher which I made good use of on the second rest day. As they were Tims Ex Team I thought it only fair to hand each of them a small good bye goodie from TIMEX. They really laughed at that! The second week then presented a real challenge in the form of a new guest: Markus O. I had already been told that he’d arrive in shape as he’s taken some down time from his job in investment banking and put some energy in a good race at Challenge Roth this summer. In addition to Markus three other guys were added to our group and so there was some new and fit legs among us. Arne had told me beforehand that Markus would bring a competitive edge to the rides and even though succeeded in taming the dynamics of the group most of the times we still attacked the longer hills “every man for himself” to wait at the top. Markus and I then tackeled the longest climb on the island together. And just as I was told, is was quite an event. I averaged 303 Watts for 48min climbs which saw me arriving a the top only 20sec after Markus. Cudos to him! Regrettably the second half of camp week two was dominated by bad weather and we had adjust our rides accordingly.


Still, over the two weeks Seven, the most consistent rider in my group and I got in just under 1.500km in on the bike. And just when I considered another 30k loop around the hotel in really wet conditions I received a sign: Just 50 meters before we reached the hotel I got the first flat of the whole camp. Right then and there with a big smile on my face I called it a day or rather a “camp”.



The first flat after 1.470km right in front of our hotel.



„There is always a bigger fish!” - Mallorca 2013, Part I




 

The quote above was taken from Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace. And it sums up the funniest experience of my 2013 training camp on the island of Mallorca. It was at the end of the first of the two week training camp that I was talked into participating in a bicycle drag racing event called Thunder Wheels Racing (http://thunder-wheels.de). So only 20 minutes after finishing a five hour bike ride through the Tramuntana mountains of Mallor-ca I was facing a one on one elimination competition over a course that was just 400 meters long. Never before had I started any race whilst already clicked into my pedals and someone holding onto my saddle for a sprint start. Adrenalin kicked in when we lined up for the first round. My opponent looked like a real bullet: a few pounds too heavy but equipped with mighty thighs! So when the countdown commenced 5-4-3… my adrenalin kicked in. When it ended with …2-1 Go!, he was already five meters ahead! Damn, I had put on the wrong gear and within the first 100 meters the guy got a lead of around 10 meters. Finally I got my gearing right and caught and passed him after around 300m. From then on it was full throttle until the end. I crossed the finish line first, the max effort recorded by the SRM at 1.200 watts. I was glad to really have survived the first round and with thus had reached the quarter finals.

When we lined up for the heat I was told to be careful as my opponent would be a real sprinter and quite probably go for a late pass from behind. Well, I thought, we’ll see how this goes. I then decided to start the race from the drop bars instead of the top of the STIs. Like a real sprinter, I thought! Big mistake! The gun went off and I was leading. I was leading until my opponent decided that it was time for me to move back one spot. And that was at around the 250 meter mark already. He went by in a blitz and I tried to get behind him. I grabbed the bars tighter in one last ditch effort and nearly… hit the barrier on the right side of the race course. Puh!, that was close! And no more chance to catch the guy. I then decided to give him the credit he deserved: I got into an upright position and applauded him for his win. The picture below shows me in the process of. But hey, a max effort of ~ 1.200 watts was not enough to even get on his rear wheel. He deserved to win!

We stayed to watch the semis as well as the finals of the races and just like the guy who had beaten me every guy among the top four was a real road racer not a wimpy triathlete like me.