Race report Gluehweinrace 2008

Hello biking folks,

As a few of you guys and gals know, there is a event called Gluehwein
Race (mulled wine race) in my hometown every year. I couldn't join last
year so I really wanted to compete this year.

For the ones who don't know what I'm talking about: It's a race over 10
laps of short distance and without major technical difficulty. After
every lap you have to drink one cup of mulled wine, whereas you have to
carry the cup while you are riding (usually the peeps hang them around
their neck)


The weather this year was exceptionally poor so I was thinking twice if
I wanted to go there. However, I met with a buddy and headed to the
meeting point. Over there I met a lot of biker people I haven't seen in
years so it was very nice to have a little chat while it was raining in
down strings.


Because of the rain and the temperatures around freezing everybody
wanted to start as fast as possible. So around 50 people went off for
the Le Mans start, running to their bikes and start pedaling. The
interesting thing, however, was a abandonend house we had to cross right
after the start, which was a very tight maneuver and so there was quite
a jam in front of it.
Once a lap was complete, you had to jump off your bike and run over to
the mulled wine source to get your cup filled.
The first 4 laps I didn't feel anything from the wine, only my legs are
pretty weak since I didn't have a lot of opportunities to ride in the
last time. My legs became a little better in the following laps but I
could also feel the wine kicking in. Maybe I should also have used my
fast hardtail but I decided for my winter bike, which is 30lbs but does
not even have a front suspension or disc brakes.
In the end I came in top 10, the exact place I don't know since some
guys were too drunk to sign out at the finish line.

But even funnier was the ride back to my buds house, since the wine
needed some time to really kick in. All in all we had a lot of fun and I
hope this race is qualified for the Fox Cup ;-)

So long
Erik

PS: Of course I was flying the TWW colors, see the attachment.