Here's a list of Darmstadt area mtb marathons for 2008, by Richard, my comments in italics:
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Sunday 18th May - Schotten
45km course. The last 35km aren't too bad.
Should be called Schotter - boring course, too much Schotter!
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Sunday 18th May - Schinnderhannes (from Ray)
Cheap and many "Pfalz-like"-trails
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Sunday 25th May - Rhens (clashes with Siedelsbrunn)
Nice bimble through the vineyards along the rhine.... ####################################
Sunday 25th May - Siedelsbrunn (clashes with Rhens)
The 75km course broke my bike in 2006 and me in 2007
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Sunday 15th Jun - Rheingauer
Never done this one myself
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Sunday 29th Jun - Frammersbach Spessart Bike Marathon
One of the biggies
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Sunday 3rd Aug - Wombach Keiler Bike-Marathon
Lots of single trail
Not bad - got a nice shirt in 2006
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Sunday 17th Aug - Neustadt
A change of underwear is advisable
The best - a course for real mtbers
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Sunday 24th Aug - Eppstein
A mighty fine course
Yes!
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Sunday 21st Sep - Hirschberg Odenwald mtb marathon
Mandatory
Hard work!
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15 May 2008
Darmstadt RTF - 150km - Monday May 12th - Pfingsmontag
Set off alone at a leisurely 9:30 - to avoid Rupert being able to use his who's-laughing-now look .
Soon found myself in a pretty fast group which was great on the flat against the headwinds, but doing me a lot of damage to keep up on the climbs. No problem, I thought, this is fun, I'll just have to feed well at control 2 and I'll be ok - I only had one bottle and a couple of gels for emergencies. What I hadn't counted on was that Rupert, and Jerome and his Citybike gang would've scoffed all the food at all of the controls. I ate a gel at 2 but it wasn't enough and I ended up wobbling horribly slowly up the long hill from Amorbach completely empty. I had my second gel and scrounged half of the controller's private small salami broetchen at kontrol 3 and got an apple at 4. Luckily there was still plenty of low/no-cal tea so I didn't dehydrate, - from what Rupert said I wasn't the only one. A feast of a broetchen and bottle of coke at the Michelstadt Aral set me up nicely for the final 60km and I almost enjoyed the climb up Lindenfels.
Apart from being knackered for a while and the accompanying bach-ache I thought it was a really nice route.
Lesson learnt (again) - don't count on being able, to get food and drink on an RTF if you don't start early. Have some breakfast.
Really nice route, much better than I remembered from years back, only marred by the bachache and running completely empty.
According to my scales my body fat was down 2% (to 15%) after the ride - if only they weren't lying!!
Soon found myself in a pretty fast group which was great on the flat against the headwinds, but doing me a lot of damage to keep up on the climbs. No problem, I thought, this is fun, I'll just have to feed well at control 2 and I'll be ok - I only had one bottle and a couple of gels for emergencies. What I hadn't counted on was that Rupert, and Jerome and his Citybike gang would've scoffed all the food at all of the controls. I ate a gel at 2 but it wasn't enough and I ended up wobbling horribly slowly up the long hill from Amorbach completely empty. I had my second gel and scrounged half of the controller's private small salami broetchen at kontrol 3 and got an apple at 4. Luckily there was still plenty of low/no-cal tea so I didn't dehydrate, - from what Rupert said I wasn't the only one. A feast of a broetchen and bottle of coke at the Michelstadt Aral set me up nicely for the final 60km and I almost enjoyed the climb up Lindenfels.
Apart from being knackered for a while and the accompanying bach-ache I thought it was a really nice route.
Lesson learnt (again) - don't count on being able, to get food and drink on an RTF if you don't start early. Have some breakfast.
Really nice route, much better than I remembered from years back, only marred by the bachache and running completely empty.
According to my scales my body fat was down 2% (to 15%) after the ride - if only they weren't lying!!
Mtbpark Pfaelzerwald Tour 5 - Sun May 11th
Did the 74 km Mtb Pfalz Tour 5 from Lambrecht with Rich and Brendon.
V nice, but started too late, so no time to do the last climb and try the alternative singletrack downhills fromit I'd spotted on the map. Have to try again sometime.
Route-finding was much easier this time, thanks to Brendon's GPS and improved signs, although it still helps to have eyes in the back of your head to spot some of the markers!
V nice, but started too late, so no time to do the last climb and try the alternative singletrack downhills fromit I'd spotted on the map. Have to try again sometime.
Route-finding was much easier this time, thanks to Brendon's GPS and improved signs, although it still helps to have eyes in the back of your head to spot some of the markers!
1 May 2008
I'm back!
Not done much on the bikes during the winter, been snowboarding and climbing mainly, and running and spinning once a week. Did a couple of hours in Bollenfaltor in Jan! I think I did Frankenstein Melibokus run in November I think.
Thu 1st May
Bollenfaltor, Frankestein, Felsberg, Melibokus, Frankenstein, Bollenfaltor. Not very inspired so dragged myself round and felt ok at end, due to lower than normal speed no doubt. Plus point: Managed to send the steep path off Melibokus for change. Minus points: Struggeled on stony path with two refusals before sending it, rode Felsberg downhill clumsily, rode half the Tube with forks locked out - dohhh!
Met a couple of lost german lads on the way down Melibokus, so guided them to Burg Frankenstein. They preferred my route downhill to the crappy schotterweg version in their publisherd directions, but rode theschotter up Frankers instead of the B path out of deference to their fullies and bmx pedals.
Sun 27th April Biblis RTF
Oh dear, did a Brendan on this. Was just wondering how we managed to buy sellotape on last year's rtf on a Sunday, then realised it was a Saturday. Dohh. Decided to ride it anyway, so printed the directions and set off. Problems finding the route - forgotten how bad german road signs are, contributed to my annoyance and bad mood. Road it steadily - not fast - and felt fine at the end. Changd the route in the middlt to shorten it. Discovered I'd lost the directions, driving licence and EUR20 at the bottom of a long downhill. Grr. Feeding: 2 bottles long energy and a power bar and 3 years-past-use-by raspberry gel. Quite nice sharp taste.
Sun 20th April Road ride with Rich
Nice two hour road ride, on Heinerfest route, then most of the way up Neunkirchen, then ...
Ended up racing each other towards end but nice ride.
Thu 17th April? Gentle afterwork mtb ride up Frankenstein. Felt good.
Sat 12th April
Frankenstein road circuit, cruised up in 11.30 mins. 1:40 to lose off that time!
Thu 1st May
Bollenfaltor, Frankestein, Felsberg, Melibokus, Frankenstein, Bollenfaltor. Not very inspired so dragged myself round and felt ok at end, due to lower than normal speed no doubt. Plus point: Managed to send the steep path off Melibokus for change. Minus points: Struggeled on stony path with two refusals before sending it, rode Felsberg downhill clumsily, rode half the Tube with forks locked out - dohhh!
Met a couple of lost german lads on the way down Melibokus, so guided them to Burg Frankenstein. They preferred my route downhill to the crappy schotterweg version in their publisherd directions, but rode theschotter up Frankers instead of the B path out of deference to their fullies and bmx pedals.
Sun 27th April Biblis RTF
Oh dear, did a Brendan on this. Was just wondering how we managed to buy sellotape on last year's rtf on a Sunday, then realised it was a Saturday. Dohh. Decided to ride it anyway, so printed the directions and set off. Problems finding the route - forgotten how bad german road signs are, contributed to my annoyance and bad mood. Road it steadily - not fast - and felt fine at the end. Changd the route in the middlt to shorten it. Discovered I'd lost the directions, driving licence and EUR20 at the bottom of a long downhill. Grr. Feeding: 2 bottles long energy and a power bar and 3 years-past-use-by raspberry gel. Quite nice sharp taste.
Sun 20th April Road ride with Rich
Nice two hour road ride, on Heinerfest route, then most of the way up Neunkirchen, then ...
Ended up racing each other towards end but nice ride.
Thu 17th April? Gentle afterwork mtb ride up Frankenstein. Felt good.
Sat 12th April
Frankenstein road circuit, cruised up in 11.30 mins. 1:40 to lose off that time!
14 October 2007
Wasgau Mtb Marathon
At last, out on my mtb again, and beautiful Goldener Oktober day too. Climbing has been a priority recently.
Drove down on Saturday eve in Brendan's camper van to avoid getting up at absurdly early hour. Ate (surprisingly good) dinner at the local hotel. As he was leaving on of the guests asked us if we'd done the marathon id the Wasgau mtb marathon, we said no, doing it in the morning, he said he'd alrewady done it, Rich & I said "Brendan?", Brendan said "Whoops!".
Enjoyable ride but disappointing course :-(
Drove down on Saturday eve in Brendan's camper van to avoid getting up at absurdly early hour. Ate (surprisingly good) dinner at the local hotel. As he was leaving on of the guests asked us if we'd done the marathon id the Wasgau mtb marathon, we said no, doing it in the morning, he said he'd alrewady done it, Rich & I said "Brendan?", Brendan said "Whoops!".
Enjoyable ride but disappointing course :-(
3 September 2007
Afterwork mtb ride
Meant to mtb ride with Rafa & co from work at 5.30, but of course couldn't make it on time so tried to chase them down and ended up doing fairly high pace solo ride.
Hooray, my gears are finally working - shifting and indexing properly, and no punctures, unlike yesterday's ride.
Eumetsat-Ludwigshohe-Frankenstein-Bollenfaltor
Hooray, my gears are finally working - shifting and indexing properly, and no punctures, unlike yesterday's ride.
Eumetsat-Ludwigshohe-Frankenstein-Bollenfaltor
2 September 2007
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