The weekends of May 16th and 23th I participated on my first track races that offered me to gain experience.

International Criteria -- Homburg

May 16th and 17th

This weekend began disastrously. I thought my first race was on Sunday. That’s why I almost missed two races on Saturday. On Saturday evening a nostalgia race with quad sates took place.

My races were not spectacular. On Saturday I ran 1500 and 2000 meters, on Sunday 3000 and 1000 meters. In each race my start position was in the second row. The skater in fron of me slowed me down at the beginning. I had no race experience so far so I made a couple of strategic mistakes.

At the end of the event I participated on a 5000 meters relay race. The final results were the second and fourth place.

International Criteria -- Gera

May 16th and 17th

This weekend started disastrously as well. I should have hit the road at two o’clock at the latest because I had a ride of approximately five hours before. I planned to cook some pasta with my host in Gera in the evening. This didn’t work because my flatmate was moving out and I didn’t want to let him alone in the flat. For some reason he packed some stuff of mine. I arrived in the late evening in Gera but this was ok for my host.

This wasn’t my race which looked similar. This time I was in the second row and got slowed down again. I remembered my race of the past week and tried to do not the same mistakes. So my strategy was to pass the other skaters. I did it in only one lap. Then I was the leader for about two laps. The feeling to be ahead was beautiful. In German I would say “geil”. Suddenly my power has gone. I think this was caused by the bad sleep I had the night before. Sadly I lost too many places. My second race was much better.
I enjoyed the event. It was fun pure to participate on the races and to watch the others. Happily I wasn’t involved in any crash. The guys in the video below hadn’t that much luck.