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I rise from bed at 7:00, it started to get noisy in the camp after checking with my watch, I decide to do my morning wash and then check the yesterdays ladies results for some analytics. 24 female starters, I managed to finish 14th . Hmmm, with some resonable considerations, I would like to think that a 10th rank should have been possible, so there is nothing to loose, I will start again, today. It’s quite clear, that the chance is only a small one, as the track hasn’t gotten better yesterday, for shure and with the mighty rain from yesterday, all the bumps and wholes are now filled with water, covering everything beneath.
But, despite this only the steep slope counts, if I manage to get there through without any delay, than a real chance exists to improme my result.
So, I mount my starterplatte on front of the bike (which i regularly exchange with the headlight in the afternoon) and fill up the EXC with gas.
The rest goes to the power generator, I do want to boil some water for breakfast. Tea and Müsli bars thats the scarce rest of food we brought with us., but its enough.
Suddenly the Red Bull Unimog lorry arrives and announces that du to a lack on starters the queue is now open for everyone. So, i quickly change my gear and head to the start. As I wasn’t the only one, we now have a quite similar situation to yesterday, with the exception, that numbers are not treated differently anymore.
I sent an SMS to Junior with an update and slowly start to move forward in the queue. Finally, after approx 1 hour, I arrive the prestart area, I start the gps track, but forget the GoPro, and up we go… This time, no start light only the flag shows the start.
Everything works fine, speed looks good from the feeling, and there it is, my slope from yesterday. I manage to find a good track, but as it seems, I had slowed down to much, and as I finally try to shift gear down (i am in 2nd) its to late and the engine stalls. I try to fix the bike there on the slope and to kick start my bike again. Every try, the bike slides down the hill for approx 50cm.. 2 riders later I finally manged to get the engine running again und with 1st. gear I really went the last 3 meters up the hill and I am back into the race.
My next bike must have a bike, definitely 😉
Somewhere after this I remember the Go Pro, and I do switch it on on a flat section, right in time to get my crash recorded in the next wide curve, where I managed to hit the gas to early and therefore drifted to much with my back wheel. Autsch., at least now I know why I carry all this protection gear, as my shirt is only a rag now.
I put the bike back up, it starts with the first kick (fortunately) and on we go. That was the 2nd mistake today.
The rest of the rund is quite uneventfull, I really tried to get more out of it, but at arrival at the finish line its quite clear, its not enough for a really better place.
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OK, at least I can enjoy the ride back to the valley, as the back side of the mountain (mainly unknown for others) is really beautiful. I try to wash my bike, but unfortunately the Kärcher place is shut down until 13:00, as they had rund out of water!! As yesterday, there wasn’t enough of it? 😉
So we head back in dirty state and I use the solar shower again for cleaning myself.
Junior has decided not to start, as he is confident his time is enough, yeah in his place I might think the same. :-/
Again wwe travel down to Eisenerz for a meal, again we were not disappointed. The man road is crowed by people, pedestrians, bikers, Enduro RIders, Cars, Bussses, and over all a cloud of dust, as it seems the rain hasn’t left any trace there.
Speaking of rain: Once again there are really black clouds over the mountains, so we start packking unnecessary things and stow them in the Transporter, and, shortly after heavy rain combined with hail swipes over the camp. Everyone tries to cover, the noise on the tents roof is very loud. After some time the rain abite a little bit, so we went to the main tent to view the results. As the internet connection is always bad in the evening , I otherwise would have to wait until morning, to see the final outcome.
As expected I only slightly improve my time for approx 2 minutes, but this result only manged to keep me on 14th place in the overal ladies ranking. This means, Junior got ahead approx 80 places in the overall ranking, and the family challenge is won by him.
As I do consider beeing a guide next year, this should have been the last chance to show some uprush in our enduro relationship, where Junior is slowly outpacing me. So, now you understand my efforts and disappointment?
Half of the night I lay in my bed, thinking, shall I, shall I not, shall I… … 😉
