The “Red Bull Dolomitenmann” is known as the toughest team competition in the world and of course has been on my to-do list for years. After my teammate Chrisi contacted me a month ago and asked me if I could / want to step in for him as a mountain biker, there was only one answer for me: YES! The race is contested in a team of four. A mountain runner, a paraglider, a mountain biker and a kayak driver. Each discipline is really hard and challenging in itself. A week before the race I drove to Lienz to see the MTB route. There was 1,600 meters of altitude to conquer 31km, it was quite steep uphill, and even steeper downhill again - over the ski slope with direction gates and over hill and dale on the trails. I was really excited on race day.
Even the handover from the paraglider to me on the MTB was a challenge. Lines were not allowed to get tangled in the MTB's sprocket. I started off really motivated and pedaled with full power. I had the first 600hm behind me quickly, then a short technical downhill followed before the second long 1000hm climb. I checked the watt and pulse and ran my program. The diet was also right and so after 1:30 hours I was at the highest point. The descent was not child's play, I had never experienced such a long and steep descent before. The brakes were hot. Directional gates set the course and I felt like I was in a ski race.
After 2:02 hours I came back to the transition zone and handed over to the canoeist who threw himself into the waves. It was a really close race, but in the end we were happy about the extremely good 24th place in the overall standings. This was my first Dolomite Man, but definitely not my last.
Comments