We have had to wait a long time for the first race in the 2020 season and today we finally started.

I was pretty nervous and a little unsure about my form … there was also a very strong field of riders. Some very well known and also not so well known names!

So today I was at 1:45 pm with my mask on at the start line and was VERY excited to see how it would go. My intention was to wait and see how it unwound and take it from there.

The first stage was 34km long, so actually a „warm-up“ for the following stages. It started in St. Moritz Dorf, the famous Cresta Run bobsleigh down to Celerina, from there very steeply to the Antenna. We traversed via a trail to the Chantarella middle station, from there up to Salastrain and down via Suvrette to the valley station of the Signalbahn. Then we headed towards Alp Staz – Stazersee back to Celerina and the same steep climb up to the Antenna. Once again the same trail to Chantarella and via Salastrain Alp Suvretta to the Fopettas trail. Then down to Champfer through the forest back to the valley station Signalbahn, where the finish line would be finally.

After the first crossing of the finish line I was in 6th place, I had worked my way up a few places on the climb, always with my motto “look after yourself and breathe well, ride my own race!”

In the climb up to the antenna I was even able to work on taking the 5th place. In the downhill on the Fopettas Trail I was suddenly 4th because Brandau had a flat tire. I kept this place up to 1.6km before the finish and I was going well………until I unfortunately suffered cramps.. !

I finally fished my Muscle Relax from Sponser out of my tricot pocket but was unfortunately overtaken by Indergand. The „cucumber juice“ worked quickly 😉 but I couldn’t catch up and retake the lost place.

Still, I’m really really happy with my first day of racing!!

Now I’m really looking forward to the second stage tomorrow, hopefully it won’t rain and we can enjoy this stage !!

Start is at 9:00 a.m. and the race can be followed on the homepage with live tracking at https://engadin-bike-giro.ch/live-2020/.