Although not so far from home, I love to go to Solothurn with the caravan. When I leave on Friday I can switch off and start concentrating fully on the race.

This year I decided to go camping again, because the site has electricity, water and everything you need.

Unfortunately, this time it did not really go as planned and already at the check-in I was told that I had to leave my place on Saturday at 12.00 o’clock or I would pay one another day! That did not work for me at all, especially since you can really claim an advantage with the camping membership, it should be possible to stay longer without paying a surcharge! But the manager wasn’t going to discuss this …. frustrated, I left the reception and settled in my place.

My thoughts now revolved around the problem, where I should put my camper, so I was not as relaxed as I had initially imagined.

At half past four Cony arrived and together we went to look at the track. She had changed a bit, but her character was about the same as the last years. I felt that she had become a bit easier, especially as a little time had passed.

On the way back to the campsite we watched where we could put my camper and her bus the next morning. Space was there and available, but for how long?

In the morning, as usual, I woke up early, and when I could not wait any longer, I decided to take a look at the gravel place immediately in front of the campsite, there was a place. And yes, it had room to park my camper, the car and Cony’s bus. So I got up immediately to pack and repack ready to move. Soon after, Cony arrived.

After picking up the start number and delivering our bikes and bikes to Dominik (our assistant), we had a LOT of time to get started. Now official chilling time was announced, because everything was done!

The field was really big with nearly 50 riders, really cool !!  Also, the spectators had appeared and there were a lot of them and off we went. First a round in the Schanzengraben, I came away relatively well but unfortunately, I did not make it to very high position I was far from the only one. I could then open up to the field back towards the forest, but even there I didn’t have the optimal line, but I was still tuned! But the constant fighting cost me a lot of strength and so I had to pay something in the second round and could not hold the connection to the main group.

So the group moved away, and I was still riding alone at first although I actually had the feeling to ride down fast, I was not quite as fast as Nicole, because she picked me up in the downhill. At first I wanted to defend my position a bit but then I realized that it was actually not that bad. We could ride together, share the work and so also save some energy.

From then on we rode the laps together. Uphill I was a bit faster, down Nicole was quicker than me, so we could always ride the course together. I would say we worked well together and could hold our position, although the gap was too big to catch up, but the riders behind us stayed behind and weren’t a threat.

Also on the last lap we were together and prepared for a sprint,we would probably go head to head..

When we went into the woods, my leg „cramped“. I just thought „do not stop kicking !!“ because it would be too bad if I had to let them go now! So I pedalled on and could actually put off and defend from Nicole, but would it be enough?  I didn’t know what would happen on the downhill.

I gave everything and this time she didn’t catch me and I made the last few kilometres alone back to the Schanzengraben and the finish. I really had to give everything, because Nicole rode well and pushed hard in this section (it became very clear she also races on the road!) But finally I did enough, and I could finish the race in 8th place!

Exhausted and satisfied, I crossed the finish line! It was really fun … and to all the spectators who supported me so much! THANK YOU!

THANKS also to Dominik for the care and attention he gave me.