Five riders from the Frankfurt/Darmstadt area got together last weekend to drive to the legendary Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit and participate in the fifth edition of Rad am Ring. It turned out to be a successful (and pleasant!) outing with a victory and two top 15 places despite foul weather conditions! Rad am Ring starts and finishes on the current GP track, but takes the participants mainly onto the famous Nordschleife, with its rollercoaster character - including a 2km climb ending with a 19% steep section and descents where one can reach 85 km/h quite easily.
Elin Amundsen proved to be unbeatable on the 3-lap or 70km distance. She needed 2:20:26 for that distance, over 2 minutes faster than Katja Hernold and Verena Kolks. It was only her third race on German soil this season and her first after the horrific crash she suffered during the Henninger Turm race in May. In Goettingen last April Elin finished second. Contrary to last season, the GCC is no objective for her, and Elin has been doing quite a few cyclo events in Italy and France over the past few months.
Rebecca Schwantes emphasized her stamina and strength over the longer distances, finishing the 140km race in 8th place with a solid time of 5:48:13. Rebecca entered the top 10 of the German Cycling Cup standings overall, and also moved up to second place in her age category. Only 10 women finished the long distance event -won clearly by Annika Grueber ahead of GCC leader Manuela Haverkamp- this year, with four women abandoning and 45 women sticking to the 70km.
In the men's races, Kris Van de Velde scored a 15th place on the 140km in 4:16:06 and reclaimed third position in the German Cycling Cup ranking. Kris had to let go of the fastest riders halfway through the fifth lap, but managed to keep an even pace and even get a few riders back on the last lap of 23km. The highly contested race was won in a sprint by Jan Wallauer ahead of GCC leader Michael McManus in 4:07:25. Thomas Kapuste completed the podium in 4:10:24. Interestingly, there was also strong riders from Holland (Marco Polo-Trek team) and France in the top 15, showing that Rad am Ring is slowly becoming a classic cyclo event!
Brian O'Rourke, in his second German race after finishing 8th in the 63km of Henninger Turm, impressed again with 14th on the 70km event of Rad am Ring in 2:05:25, only 1:50 behind winner Christoph Dittrich. Brian has recently based himself in Darmstadt, coming from Japan where he did races on Okinawa and... Mount Fuji!
Morten Hansen used Rad am Ring as a good training opportunity for his traditional season's goal in Hamburg (7 September), and as warm-up for the criterium race in Bad Homburg a day later. Morten signed up for 140km, but cut it short to 70km due to the heavy rainfall during laps 2 and 3.
