austrian cyclocross nationals 2015/16

How many laps to go? - I have no clue. I forgot to take a look at the lap counter on the start/finish stretch and my Garmin decided to stay on bike #1 and didn't want to switch to bike #2 during the über fast bike change. All of this dedicated to the lack of oxygen, usually needed to sustain your brain to function in an OK manner. Not at cross where it rather decides to move down your body to power your muscles, leaving the upper body rather in a weirdo state for the race time being. Or do you usually see people racing bikes drooling constantly? See!

If they'd taken split times for changing bikes there would have been a new national pit champ crowned. Don't ever ask any random dude to manage your pit – you have to ask someone with an exceptional ground speed, a fast guy – a time trialist – he knows one or two things about speed and can handle an "all hell breaks lose" situation and still remain calm and act at warp speed. Thanks @lengyech for ramping home this tag team title!

The rest was all about mud: muddy straights, muddy climbs, muddy descends, muddy ruts, muddy off camber sections, muddy sand pits, a muddy "snail", a muddy staircase, muddy trees, a muddy children's playground, muddy barriers, a muddy parking lot, muddy sidewalk, and racing through muddy neighborhoods. One hour flat out lead to a hard fought 7th place on the podium in the Amateur category, 2 muddy bikes and another bloody scar from hitting the decks twice. Now it's time to clean up, blow out the prize money and hang up the bike… at least for a day #crosswashere

More photos from Pernitz on flickr.

Photos: @gernot_frank
Text: @freedomblvd