This legendary "Advent Run" not far from Vienna was organized by one of my teammates from the Nora Racing Team. As I was competing in this event last year getting home with a win I couldn't help myself to try and defend my title.
I spent my offseason in Colorado/USA to get some change of scenery after a very long and tiring season of racing. This event was the first one after that without a specific training. So I got to the venue, met a lot of knows faces and was ready to have fun. As I wasn't sure where my performance was at the moment I decided to run between position 3 and 5 to see what the boys do.
It felt quite comfortable so I knew everything was possible today. The pace got a bit faster and the field got stretched apart. I was now with 2 other guys in the front with a little gap to 4th and 5th. I took the lead at the end of the first lap and pushed the pace. Coming back out of the forest to the last 1km back to the finish line I was overtaken by one guy, which was nice because then I knew what was going on. I followed him with a nice smooth pace until he started a finish sprint about 200m before the finish line. I went for the extra boost and overtook him to defend my title here at this awesome event.
