The hills are alive with the sound of..........screaming.
3000 Metres of climbing, lets hope the downhilling is worth it.
Completely out of the blue I found myself sitting in the 342 room Sommerhaus in Bad Ischel, in the Sazkammergut region of Austria. Its pissing down outside and tomorrow I'm hitting 101Km of their finest hills on a course worthy of the 2004 Marathon MTB world Champs.
At least I'm not one of the nutters facing the starters gun at 5am for two laps and 203 Km!!
Thanks to What MTB mag (competition win) and Ryan Air its a cheap weekend, not as cheap as some though, get in early and flights for 99p are possible.
The organisation from the Merida Marathon people
Sara from the tourist office made sure we Knew what time they would pick our battered bodies up for the return and we were sorted., top service.
Based at the foot of the Katrin-Gondelbach gondala lift up to 1450 Metres, our bed for the night was easy to locate, so its off for an explore on assembled bikes, to sign on.
Bad Ischel Centre host the start village and is a scenic 6 mile ride away, luckily flat on the valley floor, but still wet unfortunately.
Race registration is pretty organised, take a lock for your bike though or you will for ever have to buy stuff from the stall holders while they guard it for you, cheers guys. Its 42 Euro's to race and another 40 for your Transponder chip deposit, of which they keep 5 for rental. There's 47km, 101km and even the 203km marathon routes
The Pasta party is a grand affair in the centre of town, good food and wenches serving you flagons of Ale too.
The Sommerhaus is a student dorm type affair, comfortable but very dorm like, accommodating for dirty mountainbikers and their steeds, mine slept on the room balcony. Us UK visitors were rattling round in it though, and there's no bar/lounge area so its crap for group socialising.
Good job the Pizza place at the roads end is good, dinner with Tinker Juarez it is then, nice guy.
There are 400Km of trails here according to the free maps we were given, worth a visit in anyones book, and all the race course is rideable at any time.
The Race
Me and Peter sit on the Cake shop steps waiting for the gun, relaxed of course this is a holiday isn't it.
This is one event where you don't really have to hammer off to avoid the bottlenecks. After the traditional monster long climb to start , why do they always do that, its a steady ride.
After we pass the rider with a tachoed front wheel within 15 seconds of the start line it quietens down for a few hours, and we concentrate on sweating lots, for now.
Millions of johnny foreigners on hard tails,-zoom by on the hardpacked trails, both up and down. Don't they read MBR how can you possibly ride an Epic on a flat bar, a long stem and less than 5 inches of travel sheesh. The food stops are great; Soup, sandwiches, and even beers are offered, and almost taken amongst the usual fare, as the rains come again.
No-ones told Europe its summer this year, the temperature drops dramatically and average 10 degrees chills the bones on the way down. Along with your race number, with your name on sooo cool, you also get a laminated route profile. Stick it on your bars or top tube and it comes in handy for orientation when the spirits are low.
Luckily someone flicks on the fun switch and the all the climbing pain brings the rewards. Riders walking in Europe can only mean one thing to us real heros.... FUN.
A sheer grass bank is unrideable, apparently, and definitely no brakes. So forget them then, off we go Dunkirk spirit and all that, full opposite lock on the way down and a slam into the gulley at the bottom and we are catapulted onto the next forest drop.
Oh Shit, a kin steep rock slab drop through a narrow channel, arse on the tyre , feather the brakes, skim the human chicanes and hit the spectator packed berm at the bottom like a demon. This is cool.
the next 4 Km was a peach of a descent too, a narrow rocky muddy track, flat out straight with off camber drops waiting to suck you in. I must have passed 50 riders down there, it was like a human powered video game on super fast Expert level, good job my fingers were too numb to even think of braking.
I have never ridden anywhere and prayed for the next climb, it was the only way to get warm, my bottom lip wasn't even working I found out when trying to talk to another rider, maybe it was just numb from all the Actung on zee richt shouts I was giving ;-)
There's a few technical climbs to spice your legs and lungs up, and one killer sloppy rooty descent that's like something out of the Badminton horse trails. Unfortunately ( for this weather) you had to do it twice too. Amazingly there's hoards of jet washer wielding locals waiting to service you at the bottom, superb I used them twice.
Just Under 7 hours later I'm stuffing my face with more free food just over the finish line, (UK organisers take note) at the final feed station. I'm covered in so much mud, my smile has set solid and the sun dried legs are making walking difficult. The 6 mile warm down ride to Bad Ischel follows, after grabbing my finishers shirt, and you have to prove it too.
The Pizza place can just about cope as I order everything on the menu that doesn't have cheese in, and all the puddings; the chef demands to know the reason for this gluttony and we have a good chat.
On leaving I bump into fellow Brit James Leavsley coming in, fresh from just finishing the full 203 Km in the dark. He's still walking, sign this boy up someone, that chef better be on overtime tonight.
Results: Full lists of all distances here : Didn't do to bad out of all the 90 or so flatlanders present, , well up in the old gits too.
Then time for a spot of tobogganing. Don't miss the steel luge runs at Strobl, just off the banks of the Wolfgangsee lake. 200 metres of descent on dual twisty stainless steel tracks will test your balls. Don't brake and they flip, brilliant laugh.
If I told you the story about the family, the granny, her Radishes and tea and signing autographs for her nephew and his friends you would not believe me. Its still all a bit surreal to me, how the hell did they know who I was, freaky.
Hi to fellow UK racers David & Abigail, Simon and Sue.
For 2005 they are at the Birkenbeiner event in Scandanavia, at 10,000 entrants its claimed to be the biggest event in the world.
The trophy though becomes part of a new Marathon World series, a top magazine www.bike-sport-news shows what we miss in the UK, with their full events and race reports articles. Wish I could read German.
Salkammergut Trophy 2005 schedule
UCI Marathon World cup 2005 In 2005, for the very first time, there will be besides the Cross-Country, Downhill und 4X also an UCI Marathon Worldcup!
Due to the successful organisation of this years Marathon WC, the Salzkammergut Trophy will be the Austrian host of the Marathon Weltcup series.
Schedule of UCI Worldcup Marathon 2005
10.04.2005 Cypress (CYP)
01.05.2005 Riva del Garda (ITA)
19.06.2005 Mont Ste. Anne (CAN)
09.07.2005 Bad Goisern (AUT)
07.08.2005 Oisans (FRA)
14.08.2005 Falun (SWE)
01.10.2005 St. Wendel (GER)
07.10.2005 Roc d'Azur (FRA)
Now that would make a holiday tour and a half.
Around 90 Marathon die-hards travelled from the UK to enjoy themselves on the 47km, 101km and even the 203km marathon routes. While the British riders found the Austrian event slightly less technical than the familiar UK Merida 100 courses, the 3648m in the 101km meant there was challenge enough for everyone who took part.
I have never seen that many riders walking for a non-technical course?
Shortly after the mountain rain started to kick in, making some of the downhill sections unrideable.
Ah Not very technical then....Unrideable downhill, they don't exist do they.