Salzkammergut Trophy B-Course

Trophy Raceday:

The first night in the van was not so comfortable. I was a little bit cold. Aside from that I could sleep. I ate a couple of muesli bars in the morning, made the bike ready and filled up my bottles. I was amazed. I havn’t see so many participants on a race for ages! It looked like that we only going for a ride in the town. I divided the race for a better overview.

1. First Big Climb

If I want to sum up this stage with one word, I would say: torture. Torture for the human body. The ascent had some comfortable parts, where it was not so steep. But we were often in the 20%. Sometimes I had to use meg 12th gear: pushing. I was not able to ride on the loose, rocky carpet. Some people did it, I don’t know how could they find any traction. And this section of the track was a massacre. I have never seen so many punctures. The path was wet and sharp stones were waiting for their prey.

2. First Big Descent

If the first part of the track was torture against human body. This was competely a bike and tire abuse. I rode on bad pavement before, and I had fresh experiences from Hungarian Divide. But this was hellish. I was breaking with both hand throughout the desenct and I was concentrating so hard to find the smoothes line down the mountain. I have to preise my new tires here. The 2,4″ Ardent were awesome. I went for 1,5 bar back and forth. My front haven’t slipped once throughout the entire race. The back end was so comfy, like a small fully. I didn’t take any risk on downhill sections. If you have a smooth riding style, you can avoid punctures. On crucial parts I don’t sit on the sattle, I lift myself up a little bit. I accidentaly met with Zsiga (A-course). He had a nasty puncture and thereby he lost the race.

3. Railing around Hallstatt

I tried to catch a back wheel because I am really slow on plain surface. And I like drafting and saving some energy. After the refreshment I was all by myself. I made a pee-break for the first and last time during the race. I followed the following refreshment pattern: watermelone, bananas, salt pills, ISO drink, pure water. I had at least 6 refreshments. That means I drank more than 8 l water. And I was not looking for a WC in the finish area. I found another Hungarian contender. He took apart on the race after a 3 years break. Unbelievable!

4. U-turns of Salzberg

I was saving energy for this. I tried to put every available force into my legs. This is an expert climb. It is steep, narrow, sometimes loose, and you have to hope on the slippery rain drainages.  Sadly my saddle flipped down and had to stop and adjust it. This ascent was so overwhelming. My body needed this 8 min break. I took of my jersey and helmet, and I continued, but one guy fell off his bike just before me. I had to push a little bit. Honestly my body appriciated his fail. After that the road wasn’t rideable. I was struggling to get enough grip with my spd shoes. Moreover I had unusual sole pain.

5. To the Highest Point of the Race

I tried the same tactic again. Own, but little bit uncomfortable pain under the red line. I always took the outside lines. I could flatten out the course a little bit. Fat and skin should burn today! The temperature was 4 °C on the top. Now it was 24 °C. Regardless of temperatures this was a really hard ascent. The best part of the course was the long and spectacular downhill to the Gossausee. If you are afraid from height, you shouldn’t attend this race. You make one wrong move in a turn and you are pretty much busted. Garmin helped me a lot, because I could foresee the upcoming u-turns. It was a big adrenalin rush. On the top was my jersey really wet and the wind was so cool that my teeth were chattering. Arriving at Gossausee was an amazing experience.

6. Finish

I could say much about the last 25 kms. I tried to reach the finish as soon as possible. I tried to hop on an A-course train, but the guys were too fast for me. I was curious, if I can hold their pace, but it wasn’t a good idea. I reached the finish line alone. There were so many people that I couldn’t recognized the town.

My final position in the overall was 433rd place. 9 people out of 10 were faster than me. I got the 54th place in my category. Interesting fact that the winner was a 22 years old guy. He almost finished the race under 5 hours. Cheers!

7. After

After some stretching I was pretty disorientated. I bought two pizzas, washed the bike, went to the car, got my new T-Shirt, took a shower and waited for the last finishers. It could awesome feeling, when you reach the finish line and you can hear the Bon Jovi song in the background. I got goosebumps. And the spectators were amazing. You will hear it in the upcoming video.

Conclusion:

Austria’s toughest MTB race. The advertisements aren’t misleading you. The entry fee is pretty high (70€/$), but you will “get” back a lot of money. Timing, energy and protein bars in the start package (10€/$), delicious things on refreshment points, pasta party (7€/$), course-dependently colored T-Shirt, raffle ticket, massage ticket (15€/$), free entrance into the swimming pool (7€/$), vouchers etc. If we sum up everything then the entry fee isn’t high. Unfortunately the gasoline got expensive. I only had to drive about 600 km. If you live in Hungary you can calculate with 800-1000 km. If 1 l gasoline equals 480 Ft (1,23$), so you have to give out 90$ for the trip. If you travel with buddies, you have advantage!

The Trophy is a really nice race. You can choose any distance, you will get a challenge and lifelong memories.