Hamburg

Cyclists from UW

This is Ian.  Last weekend we all went to Hamburg for the Vatenfall Cylcassics. This race is open for all kinds of riders, featuring a 55 kilometer, a 100 kilometer, 155 kilometer, and a professional race. I raced the 55 kilometer and my dad did the 155 kilometer. We got up early, about 0530, and left our apartment at about 0615. After a 5 kilometer ride to the start areas, we split and went to our separate start blocks.  While I was waiting I saw these University of Washington Cycling jerseys.

Race results in the paper

The course was mostly flat, and I was able to keep a fast 38 kilometer per hour average for the first hour. The pros average about 42 kilometers per hour.  When my group got the three small hills at the end of my route, I really slowed down, but thanks to my two ascents of Alpe D’huez, I was able to get over them a lot faster than I would have been able to three months before. I finished 15 minutes faster than my two hour estimated time. (1 hour 44 minutes 2 seconds was my official time) The course of this race was much better than Berlin, but the setup of the race expo and registration was much simpler in Berlin.

My favorite stretch of road was a closed off highway where the small group I was in caught up with about the fourth big Peloton, or big main group, in the race. During this stretch of road, my group easily rode at the pro average of 40 kilometers an hour. Overall I came in 2895th place out of 5220 total riders.

 

I met up with my dad after our rides were finished, and we sat at the 100 meter marker for an hour to wait for the pros to go by. They did three laps of a part of my course after riding the entire 100 kilometer course, for a total of 216 kilometers. Last year, Tyler Farrar, an American from Washington State won and he won again this year. He can be seen in the orange and blue jersey in the photo of the sprint above.

Right after the finish I went to the SAXO BANK bus to see I if could get a poster singed by Fabian Cancellara, world champion of Time trialing, Beijing gold medal winner, winner of Paris Roubaix and tour of Flanders. One of the mechanics told me he was not coming back out of the bus, but I waited anyway.  Luckily he came out the front door of the bus to see something on his bike. The mechanics are putting it away above,  and I got him to sign the poster as everyone else was swarming around Jens Voigt, a German rider.

Overall, I had a great weekend.  If I get the chance I would love to do this race again.