#bburd

brillibrilliant/unicorn racing dream

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thor's #hourofpain stats: one hour, 181 laps, 45,6km

christian about his attempt:

“i wanted to know how it feels to ride one hour in circles - now i know. mentally, this was one of the toughest things i´ve ever done. but of course i´m super happy i didn’t quit and with the outcome. doing this with 52+km/h is another story. hats off to all of them.”

thanks for the photos wolf.

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#pamodemallorca

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Unfortunately the 2014/15 cyclocross season is over. As usual the best things start late and end too early. Even with some cancelled races our core cyclocross riders attended 11 races this season.

While some of us raced cross for the first time the others were already used to mud, run ups and frozen fingers. Gernot and Wolf were able to race with Austria’s top 30 riders but still got lapped.

Apart from bruises, scrapes and destroyed bicycle components nobody was hurt except Gui who dislocated his shoulder in one of the early races. The bunnyhop expert wasn’t focussed because of a caffeine overdose..

From sunbaths in Vienna to muddy fights at night in Pernitz this season featured every kind of condition a cyclocross racer can ask for. One of the highlights were the national championships at Lassnitzhöhe near Graz.

Long uphills, hard off-camber sections and frozen grounds combined with kneedeep mud crowned the end of the season.

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Happy new year everyone!

While some of us started their season with a Mallorca training camp the rest collected some basemiles in Vienna and raced the last Bernhard Kohl Cup race of this season.

Josh was there to cover this muddy race. See more on his flickr!

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It's been a while but we were just too busy racing bikes to update the blog in time. This weekend the cyclocross season finally hit Vienna and we competed in the first Bernhard Kohl Cup race.

While we spent a sunny hour at threshold Ana and super famous Miuda were there to cover the event. See all of Ana's photos on flickr.

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Last week we were in st. georgen to support christian lengyel. he raced the "race around austria solo challenge" and won. after 19 hours and 18 minutes he crossed the line in first place 20 minutes ahead of christian burtscher.

this is the view from the support car – photographed by philipp. have a look at the complete gallery over here.

UPDATE: Christian's race report is finally online. Click to read more (in german).

Warum ein Zeitfahren auch 550km lang sein darf..

Ultracycling oder Einzelzeitfahren? Beinhaltet das eine das andere? Schließt das eine das andere aus? Fragen die sich jeder selbst beantworten darf, wer aber gesehen hat wie wir von der Startrampe gefahren sind wird schnell unsere Antwort auf die Frage herausfinden können. 
Da ich grundsätzlich ein Faible für Zeitfahren habe, gerne auf dem Zeitfahrer sitze und seit dem Bike Fitting auch eine Position gefunden habe die sich auch länger als 25km aushalten lässt, war für mich von Anfang an klar so viel Zeit wie möglich auf dem Zeitfahrer zu verbringen. Ein schnelles Rad bringt jedoch relativ wenig Vorteil wenn das Outfit dann nicht auch dementsprechend zeitfahrlastig ist – sprich Aerohelm, Skinsuit und Scheibe hinten. Noch schön ein 28er Ritzel auf der Scheibe montiert damit es bergauf auch leichter geht (am Reservelaufrad nicht da – brauch ich ja eh nicht! Dachte ich mir) und dann waren die ersten 160km auf dem Zeitfahrer auch schon erledigt. Nicht ganz  - nach 143km hatte die Scheibe einen Platten, perfekter Zeitpunkt, es war 19:30 und die Straße führte noch 10km weiter gerade aus, verfahren ging also auch schwer. Durch den nicht geplanten Wechsel und das Adrenalin waren wir auch irgendwie noch schneller als bei den anderen Stopps und ich konnte noch alleine weiterfahren (Anm.: Ab 20h musste ich immer im Lichtkegel des Auto sein). Ein ziemlicher perfekter Platten. Das Rennrad umgebaut zum Zweihorn mit Hirschgeweih war in der Ebene nicht minder schnell sodass wir nach 156km immerhin einen Schnitt von knapp 35km/h - und schon eine guten Abstand zum Rest des Feldes hergestellt hatten – der Plan ging soweit auf. 

Das Zeitfahrfeeling verabschiedete sich  ab der Donaubrücke und dem Mühlviertel dann aber doch etwas. Die „Mühlviertler Hügelandschaft“ erinnerte nicht nur vom Profil an die ein oder andere belgische Frühjahrsklassik auch das kalt feuchte Wetter bekräftigte diesen Eindruck, einzig die meterhohen Maisfelder links und rechts und Kastanien die die Straßen säumten verriet, es ist August. 
Nach 150km am Rennrad dann wieder der ersehnte Wechsel auf den geliebten Zeitfahrer. 

Wir gingen vor dem Rennen die Strecke und das Profil durch um zu sehen wo wir das Material zu unser Gunsten nutzen können, für mich hatte jeder Radwechsel jedoch noch eine zusätzliche Bedeutung: ein weiteres Stück ist erledigt und kann abgehakt werden. 

Die Jungs haben die defekte Scheibe gegen mein Standard Laufrad gewechselt – alles kein Problem, bis mir jedoch nach ein paar Anstrengungen bergauf einfiel auf dem Laufrad eine 23 Ritzelpaket zu haben, es muss ja auch Lernprozesse geben dürfen...

Geplant war bis zum einzig Pass, dem Hengstpass vor Windischgarsten  am Zeitfahrrad zu fahren. Aufgrund von der Übersetzung und dem Wunsch nach einer Abwechslung bat ich jedoch die Jungs um einen etwas früheren Wechsel, sodass dieser Abschnitt nur etwa 90km lang war. 
Jeder Wechsel hat eine gewisse Erfrischung in sich und mit dem Wissen dass es jetzt nur einmal richtig raufgeht und es dann bald vorbei ist (bald ist bei weiteren 140km relativ) radelte ich mit guter Motivation in den Hengstpass hinein. Zu meinem Glück und meiner Freude vor dem Rennen meinte es der Berg gnädig und schmiert sich mit 3-6% in der Landschaft dahin. Das Tempo war mit über 20km/h für das Wohlbefinden super, was gibt’s schlimmeres als mit 7 km/h einen Berg rauf zu schleichen? Und die Sonne geht auch bald auf. Es ist gegen 5 Uhr morgens. 
Irgendwann, so im letzten Drittel des Anstiegs waren es jedoch keine 6% sondern mindestens 12% - meiner Wahrnehmung nach. Ein Blick auf den Garmin relativierte das zwar wieder etwas, dennoch wurde der Berg steiler und meine Laune Minute um Minute schlechter. Fluchend und motzend kam ich nach etwa 50 Minuten mit 200 Watt oben an. Laut Erzählungen sah ich am Ende des Anstiegs so fertig aus, wie zu keinem anderen Zeitpunkt im Rennen. 

 Der Vorsprung war bis zum Berg weiter komfortabel mit ca. 30 Minuten, aber ich wusste, dass ich hier etwas eingebüßt hatte und meine Moral war gesunken, ich suchte den Funkkontakt mit meinem Team um ständig aktuelle Informationen zu erhalten. 
Dass der Vorsprung eigentlich groß war und dass ich gar nicht so viel in der Ebene verlieren konnte, wenn alles normal läuft, war mir schon bewusst, dennoch war mein Kopf zu dem Zeitpunkt meine Schwachstelle. Erst als ich erfahren habe, dass der Vorsprung  etwas geschrumpft sei und nicht mehr Gerhad Gulewicz sonder Christian Butscher mein erster Verfolger war, leitete mein Kopf wieder das Signal „treten“ an meine Beine was diese dann auch wieder taten. 

Die letzten 3 Anstiege gingen dann wieder mit 240W /220W / 200W dahin – die Watt fühlten sich unglaublich stark und druckvoll an, dass das normalerweise Rollen im regenerativen Bereich ist steht wo anderes geschrieben...

Ein letzter Radtausch und somit ein weiterer Freundengrund erfolgte nach der Abfahrt direkt am Attersee mit noch etwa 50km zu fahren. 

Wir waren mittlerweile im neuen Tag angekommen und mit der Streckenkenntnis vom Einzelzeitfahren am Attersee rollte es gut vorwärts. Ein, zwei Wellen waren noch vom heißersehnten Ziel in St.Georgen und den Traum die erste Austragung der RAA Challenge zu gewinnen im Wege.

Den Vorsprung hielten wir konstant, sodass mir bald bewusst war mir meinen Traum erfüllen zu können, begleitet von einem Rennoffiziellen auf der Vespa und dem Filmteam im Auto neben mir flogen wir die letzten km 6km mit Tempo 49 ins Ziel. 


Das ganze Rennen verlief im Grunde genauso wie ich es mir gewünscht und geplant hatte, mit der einen Ausnahme schönes Wetter in meiner Vorstellung gehabt zu haben, letztendlich glaube ich aber, dass mir das Wetter in die Karten spielte, da ich erfahrungsgemäß weiß, dass mein Körper heuer bei kühlen Temperaturen gut funktioniert hat und ich nicht an Sommerhitze angepasst war. 
Spaß hat es aber dennoch selten gemacht und vor allem gegen Ende hin merkte ich wie sehr meine Knie von der Kälte beeinträchtigt waren und meine Schulter zu schmerzen begann. Auf die Frage ob ich nächstes Jahr auf die lange Distanz wechseln würde antwortete ich mit einem vehementen NEIN – das sah jedoch am nächsten Tag schon ganz anders aus...

Zum Abschluss möchte ich mich noch bei meinem großartigen Team, Philipp Forstner, Hugo Prenn und Christian Wieners, bedanken ohne dem das Ganze nicht möglich gewesen wäre. 19h einen Erwachsenen Menschen Babysitten schafft nicht jeder, letztendlich war es das aber!

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Philipp is busy these days as the time trial races are picking up and there are some almost every week. Last week he was racing another race at the Röhsler Cup which was a 9km slightly uphill at the beginning and ended in a super steep finish ramping up to 17.5 % which definitely isn’t the course suited him. He managed a 17th overall and a 9th in his age group and now sits 3rd in the all overall cup. Next ITT was one in Upper Austria in Perg through the super lovely „Naantal“. A 17,5 km course where the first half was slightly uphill but after the turnaround a super fast rolling downhill. A fun TT where he managed to finish 13th overall and 6th in his age group.

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DONAUINSEL CUP 2014

Last Thursday this years Donauinsel Cup started. For some reason the first race was canceled so we were all happy to finally race.

It's a points race over 42 laps and bonus points in every third lap. Christian and Josh managed to collect some of these but we don't know the exact results yet. Unfortunately Gui had to stop racing with just a couple of laps to go but still managed to join Gernot and take a bunch of pictures.

More photos over here and here!

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It´s the end of June, the Tour de France is only inches away and new national champions need to be crown – it´s „championship weekend“.

Not only the austrian elite riders fought for the prestigious national jersey, also the amateur category did in their championship race at Grafenbach in Lower Austria – BBURD sent Christian and Philipp into the race with Josh along their side to support our two guys.

The course of the race was not a typical 20-30km lap as seen on the other races of this years season, no this time it was just a 6km lap with 16 times to go with 3 und 1 minute ´climbs´ – sounds super intense? Hell Yeah! Christian had 360W normalized power after one hour, and still got dropped after 90 minutes.

The race started fast and as said before, it was intense. After every turn the peloton got super long and it was almost an all-out effort to either hold the bunch or to get a better position for the next turn.

Christian clearly lost his mindset in the second round, where he was one lap in the front and wasted energy – “I will not ride in the wind anytime and hide to safe everything” that´s what he said before the race – “I don’t know how it happened, I just wanted to get a better position and somehow I was in front” – that was after the race. Weird thoughts were on his mind “should I try to get away?” - yes sure great idea, try to get away from 80 other people on your own! Well happily the angel on his left shoulder took over and whispered some rational things in his ear like: “just slow down, then they have to pass you anyway”, he did for his own good and found himself back in the peloton.

First people started to struggle in the back of the race and lost contact – which more or less meant – it´s over!

Due this course and the many laps, the time cut was set for only 5 minutes. Everybody who was more than 5 minutes behind the lead was taken out of the race Unfortunately this also happened to Philipp, he fought as long as possible but after 6 laps he had to end the race. But also Christian had to fight with the time limit; after he got dropped at km 55 he had 40km more to ride on his own the finish the race.

After some inglorious DNF´s in the past he decided to not give up until somebody shows him the red flag – nobody did. He managed to stay in time and finished last with a 6 minutes gap to the winner, when he came to the finished the prize giving ceremony already started and he had to find his way to make it over the finishing line, as you can see below, but he made it and was super happy afterwards.

The race was won by Peter Pichler in front of Patrick Hauser and Thomas Osbelt, a former team member of Josh form UC Sonntagsfahrer, awesome achievement. Congrats to those three!

More photos in Josh's flickr gallery.

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Last week Philipp went to the second ITT of the Röhsler Cup. This was a new course in Lower Austria towards Burgenland, where the upness is defined only by a bridge over a highway. This is the longest ITT from the cup series with 22 km, but pretty much pan flat. One hair pin, 3 fast corners and flat good rolling roads. So this was meant to be fun, and it was. Philipp sticked to his pacing plan, suffered at the end and was more than happy with his ride. The field got bigger and better since the last TT race as the sun was out. But he still managed a good 15th place, just a couple seconds away from another top 10 and to a 5th place in his age group. Philipp now sits 3rd in the cup in his category and his looking forward to the next more hilly TTs.

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The St. Pöltner Radmarathon was a big event in our race schedule for 2014. Our team was represented by: Hagen, Christian Lengyel, Gui, and Philipp. Philipp and Christian fought at the front of the group to secure a good position, coming into the first climb of the day. This solid effort allowed Hagen and Christian to make the lead group selection. However, good luck was not on Christian’s side, he found himself in a bad position, costing him his place in the lead group a few climbs later. Hagen stayed well placed with the winning group, earing himself an exceptional 18th place. Christian came in with the second group at 31st place. Cool temperatures combined with a larger and stronger start field, led to the race being 15 minutes faster than last year’s edition. Gui has been plagued with sickness throughout this race season, but started his race really smart and stayed with his group the whole time, gaining experiences and having fun getting his form back. Philipp really suffered during the race, but still came across the line with a smile. The race was a great success for our team’s first racing season. Hagen’s 18th place resulted in him qualifying for the UWCT World Championship in Slovenia this year. He will be racing with Chrstian Lengyel who also qualified two weeks prior in Maraton Franja. All in all, not a bad start into the first BBURD season.

All results over here.

UPDATE: Here is Hagen's view of the race!

Der Härteste im Osten - The Toughest in the East. Encouraging slogan, but would it be so bad? The reputation of the UCI World Cycling Tour attracted a pretty huge and international peloton to the rather-village-than-town of Sankt Pölten. 300 competitors gathered for the 158km and 2700m elevation gain - amongst them the four bburds Christian, Gui, Philipp and me. After easy rolling in the flat the first climb hit us with full severity. The peloton fanned out and spread up the switchbacks like a pearl necklace. That was the moment we entered the race. Or to put it another way, the essence of the Sankt Pöltner Radmarathon beacame clear - climbing. Fortunately that is what I enjoy most as a cyclist, although joy might not describe what I felt pedalling. So I tried to find my rhythm, did it and could keep up with the pack. First hilltop, closing the gap, sharp left and bam - up again! Threshold. Where was that rhythm from just five minutes ago? "Fuck!" Christian pulled up next to me, not much more to say. The lead, however, did not raise the pace so I obeyed to Josh's motto 'stay in the front!'. Up and down. Repeat. How often? I did not really know and still do not. This bad preparation in terms of knowing the course by heart turned out to be quite advantageous for me. I always expected that last climb to come. So even though I was tired, my mind was always prepared for that final ascent. Which did not happen blessedly, and this is how I found myself in the second group willing to catch up to the lead pack. After some shouting and advice we set up a 20-rider Belgian tourniquet and initiated the chase. Succes just before the last climb so we were back in the game for the last kilometers. Back to town in the flat, but this time fast. I did not allow for gaps to emerge because I knew I had to keep my position as the kilometres-to-go were shrinking rapidly. A nervous sharp left and right and all-out over the finish line. Finally. It was over. I did it! So the race actually was one of the toughest. Yet, it was some serious fun as well and a proper last race in Austria for me.

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RAPHA GENTLEMEN'S RACE BAVARIA 2014

Our journey to this event started months before it actually took place on the beautiful roads surrounding Munich. The first leg of the journey brought 4 of us to Mallorca, where originally the race was supposed to take place. Though the race did not happen there, due to short notice, we made the trip happen regardless. We still enjoyed our time at the “Disneyland“ of cycling.

Sometime later we got the second message informing us that the rescheduled race would be in Munich. We were told we needed a team of six to complete the 180km race around Bavaria. We chose Christian Wieners, Christian Lengyel, Allan Berger, Marvin Mangalino, Gui da Rosa, and Josh Hayes.

With the group selected and the logistics sorted out, all we needed was some nice 25mm tires and a ride to Munich. We arrived the Friday before the event for the pre-party at the new Rapha offices. Josh was overly excited about this, as his friends form Amsterdam’s Pristine fixed gear shop would be there. New friends were made and the beginning of a great weekend started. 

Saturday was the day of the great adventure. In true Unicorn fashion, we showed up 30 min before the start, undressed but ready for anything to come.  We were fourth from last to start, and that was our saving grace. As none of us had a cycling computer with navigation, we relied on the queue sheet from Rapha. That sheet failed us within the first kilometre. That set the bench mark for the day. We got lost almost every third turn, but luckily 2 of the teams that started after us caught us due to all of our wrong turns. The BMW team was nice enough to share the effort of keeping the pace at a good speed and gave us directions. Without their help we would have missed the turn for the really tight, fun single track section. 

The ride continued to unfold with more open roads, and the most memorable part was the gravel sections toward the end. Some of them were fun, but one wrong turn sent Josh up a 20% grade of very loose gravel. Everyone else realised it was a wrong turn, but Josh was unfortunately already at the top. That whole section went from rad to ridiculous with golf ball sized rocks, mud sections, and fallen trees.  Everyone made it through one way or another, and onto the final stretch. Don’t think it was all smooth paved roads and tailwinds, though. We ended up having to ride across a high grass field. Everyone was glad that their bikes made it through that potential death trap.       

We all made it through the final 30km, after the field incident, and found ourselves in the Biergarten where it all started. Beers were drank and all the calories lost were re-consumed.  All in all, the group was happy that we finished together, had smiles on our faces, and with friends all around.

Keep it rubber side down, and see everyone again at the next one. 

Thank you Rapha for the weekend adventure. 

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Only 48 hours after the sucessful TT from tuesday Philipp and Christian left early for the TT at Offenhausen through the Grünbachtal. Everything was planned out – leaving Vienna at 6:30 with sunshine – arriving at 9:00 – riding the course with the bike to know the keypoints exactly – relax and then hit the road by around 14:00. Everyplan has its lack – so did ours. Well, we left Vienna with rain and it got harder as we came closer to Offenhausen but it would be possible to ride the course with rainclothes in the rain, ok quite frankly we would have not road it in rain - but it would have be possible when Philiipp would have packed his shoes… Yes he forgot them and recognized it pretty close to Offenhausen. Happily his old team was still in Vienna and brought them (“Really you are already there – what are you doing there so early – we are leaving at 10:30” – that convsersation took place at 8:30…) Then it was time for the next coffee. Somehow we managed to get not to bored in our 5 hour gap to the start – we enjoyed the sound of the raindrops falling on the car and tried to sleep or making super serious pre-race analyzes of the course, for the 10th time – oh yeah, and we rode the course with the car, which was good but not good enough for Philipp who took a right instead a left and suddenly was off course, ups. A big bummer for him after the good race on Tuesday so it needless to say that this TT was over after that misfortune. Christian rode a solid TT and paced himself very well through the 22 kilometers and finished strong at 16th Place with a gap of 1´30´´ to race winner Thomas Mairhofer.

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Race after race as the season is finally under way. Only 3 days after the Rapha Gentlemen´s Race, our two timetrial geeks went for an ITT in Bierbaum am Kleebühl. This was the first out of 6 races in the Röhsler Cup and it went pretty well for our BBURD equipe. Philipp achieved his first top ten result ever with a 8th place overall and 3rd in his age group. And with that said - Christian brought us the first podium ever – he won his age group, so both BBURD boys finished top 3 and overall Christian got second. Side notice: it started raining just when the boys hit the road but that’s not really worth a word in this racing seasons #rainseasoncontinues

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LANGENLOIS DAY 2 TT IMPRESSIONS

a late report again. we're just too busy racing than updating the blog in time. here some impressions of the langenlois tt. christian and philipp competed on a short but wet course. christian finished 23th (00:23:39 / +00:01:16) overall while philipp got 42th (00:24:44 / +00:02:21).

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LANGENLOIS DAY 1 Circuit race. 33.4km per round with 3 laps scheduled, but regulated to only 2 laps, because of the crazy storm that was hitting the area. This race was a flat route, which means full speed from the start. The storm meant we had crazy winds all over the course, some were nice tailwinds but most were leg breaking side and head winds. This race normally brings out the bigger teams in numbers which makes the weather situation even worse. Going into the cross wind sections with 40kmh+ gusts and a steady 25-30kmh, the teams would launch attack after attack, keeping the pace above 40kmh. As I was moving up in the lead group I felt good and made a solid 2-3 min dig/attack off the front. Though, I felt good as an old team mate of mine bridged to join in and try to establish a break, I heard the dreadful hissing sound coming from my front wheel. This really scared me as the rain started to get more steady and we were coming into multiple S turns through a small village. Unfortunately my assessment of my front wheel, and it not going flat, caused our gap to be closed by two riders from one of the bigger teams. From this point on, I realised no break would be let go from the group, so I sat in and focused on keeping it up right in a pack. This was no easy task, as people thought it would be a good idea to ride 40mm or deeper rims causing all kinds of sketchy violent swerves, even in the middle of the pack. This was how the rest of the race went until the last 5km, where the bunch started to get very nervous. My attempts to move up into a better position where constantly blocked by sketchy riders and getting pushed into curbs. Coming into the last 1km, I knew my position was sealed give or take 10 positions, so I kept it safe and made sure to jump slots in the last 200m straight way. All in all the race was fast, fun, and good training to keep the season moving in a positive direction. Next up for me is the race on Sunday suited for smaller climbing riders, but we shall see how my diesel engine goes. Josh

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better late than never.. three weeks ago philipp and christian raced the timetrial in mörbisch. it was a very enlightening race for both in terms of pre-race preparations. christian finished 15th (00:30:30) overall while philipp got 26th (00:32:15) and 6th in his age group.