Canon shots, thunder claps & high fives

Stage 1 - a royal welcome! The day started out in the best possible way. We woke up to sunshine, perfect temperatures and some canon shots at 7am in honor of some kind of local 100 year celebration. It marked the start of a day that would take us past some of the most beautiful castles, the high Alps and then over to the Austrian skistation Soelden. A long and hard day: 88miles (140km), 8000ft (2440m) of climbing.

Getting to the start was easy. Due to our race number, we were put into the first starter group which was good. The start was fast! But there were hardly any accidents. People really knew who to ride in such a huge crowd (1100 bikers). It started thining out a bit right around the first climb of the day. Unbelievable but true: we averaged 23.1 mph (37.2 km/h) for the first 40 miles (64km). The climb up the Hahntennjoch was fine except for the storm that hit us mid-way. We heard some thunder but the rain came down really hard. People rode really well and it seemed that the groups came together. I decided to ride conservatively, meaning lower power output than I usually produce in training. The climb altogether was around 9.5 miles long (16 km). The descent was long and a bit scary. The road was like soap. I therefore let it roll and applied the brakes accordingly. Crashing is not an option. But the rain did stop eventually.

Unfortunately, I started cramping a bit towards the end of the downhill. But food and some minerals & sodium helped. The final 25 miles were so and so. The cramps kept coming back. Plus 140km is a long ride to begin with. We safely arrived in Soelden right when a major storm started up again. Adnan did a lot of work in the front today and he let me draft for a long time today - thanks!

Ride stats: 3422 calories burned, ride time 5h and 5 minutes, 28km/h average speed (17.4 mph). TSS 278, Average Heart Rate: 151

A few observations: People take this race extremely seriously. There are a lot of really good riders and a lot of expensive bikes. There is no stopping and chatting. The next days will be tough....