Superfast third stage !

Today we say goodbye to the little village at the Kinzig-river and head towards Schiltach. Unfortunately we are obligated to ride again 15 km behind the first quad. With a bunch of 240 riders over singletrails at almost stallspeed’ of less then 4 km/h is not easy. After an unanounced stop at the trainstation of Schilltach, we have to climb the 17% steep hill in the center of the village. Left and right the typical houses with wallpaintings of the local professions.

After 15 km and 500 vertical meters sightseeing and the regrouping of all riders, we can start the real race just before noon. And that will give fireworks, as we have to start on a narrow, descending forest road. And indeed, the whole peleton flies downhill in 2 rows over the forest trail. The tree sticks and pieces of bark fly around our ears and we hope that nothing gets stuck into our gears. The speed goes up fast, just as the temperature, and we have to be careful to stay on the road. A gigantic group of more then 40 teams heads with an average speed of about 30 km/h towards the first supply station after 37 km. There they clearly didn’t expect such a big group as Kroki, also present of course, hears the people say almost together: Oh nein, soviele zusammen (Oh no, so many together). A big chaos and a lot of cursing is the consequence.

The rest of the race resembles a road race: Domie and I are in the gigantic head group. With little alitude differences, many 90-degree turns, partly on asphalt, partly on gravel, and often on bad-rolling grass sections. After every turn we have to accelerate, and that hurts. Especially if you are at the back of the group like me, and have to make up a couple of meters after every turn. The pace is a bit too high for me, but I do my best not to let go. Domie, with an explosive mature, has less problems to follow the scorching pace, but will probably have a stiff neck this evening from looking back to see where his teammate is. The course is really something for Domie: short climbs that he is able to ride up in a big gear, and immediately cranking up the pace again for the next downhill section. This up and down thing is not for me and riding a constant pace is not for today. Luckily my teammate is from the patient type and regularly brings me back to the group.

From kilometer 60 we get some longer climbs and here I am better. While Domie took initiative in the first part of the race, I am the locomotive now, and my car is following well. We shift a couple of gears extra and in the next climbs we are able to get rid of a big part of the group. Only a team from Centurion sticks to us and we are continuously changing positions. Domie had noticed that one of the guys was in trouble and when we accelerate once more on the next climb, these guys are gone. The finish time is recorded about 2km before the actual finish, to avoid dangerous situations when crossing a main road.

With 110 km on the tacho and 4h11min race time (that’s over 26 km/h average), we are unofficial on the 14th place, with which we are extremely happy. While teams had problems in the last section, we placed a long succesful end sprint, as we move omn the 12th place in the general classification. Three of 5 days and, as rumours go, the hardest part is behind us.

Some loose items:

at a speed of almost 40km/h on a gravel road, I suddenly see a guy playing with his cellphone.

Kroki succeeded in an unbelievable way to see us at 12 different places today. The last couple of days he gets already questions how he does this.

At the finish in Engen we experience South-African situations when a bunch of schoolkids ask our autographs.

The guys from connections Hasselt’ are already a couple of days just before us in the general classification. Despite being of the type with hair on their legs’, they are fast guys and deserve a thumbs up for their prestation.

The helpfulness of the organisation is unseen: we get answers to all questions and they do a lot of trouble to help us where necessary.

The photgrapher of the soq team broke his foot yesterday in the heat of the event, but was back in the battlefield today. Get well soon.

A scared myself to death when a big piece of wood got stuck between the fork legs above the fork bridge of the lower legs. If that gets stuck in my wheel?

A local newspaper wanted a couple of impressions for an article.

Dirty dust stripes on your head are apparently photogenic, as there was a lot of flashing after I removed my helmet.

Since yesterday we have a fixed dish washing crew: Kiki and Tata, the 2 little daughters of our neighbour and participant Dirk spontaneously helped us.

Pepe