second last race of the MDC at Neustadt/Harz
On the 9th of September I started for the 5th time at the Cup of Middle-Germany. The 
day before my start at the MTB-timetrail which is unique in Germany was planned but the weather was not that nice and an infection was noticeable so the decision was to elude the rain and the mud and hopefully also the illness. We arrived at 12 o clock and it was raining already like the last days so the track was really muddy. But there was a lot of time left and we just organised my competition number and rode back to the car. I waited for my obligatorily cloudless sky by having a short 
powersleep 
. That worked - I started to warm up and the rain stopped and the sun shone through the scattered clouds. Everything was ready for my start and I was really nervous because I had the chance to create a becalming edge in the overall ranking or to lose my leading position.
The start was a bit surprising because we started together with the Eliteclass. According to that it was a bit confuse on the first meters and very narrow. The first long uphill 
directly after the start with many slippy stones helped me to bear up in the group at the second position of the juniors behind Maximilian Poppe. The following downhill was very muddy and slippy with many lanes so a lot of caution was needed. After a bit up and down we rode into the next uphill. At this time of the race I didn’t feel really good and just thought of keeping the wheels of the riders in front. My respiration didn’t work easily and I tasted bloody mucus. The long very muddy uphill helped me once more 
and I overtook the riders in front of me. At this section I was able to ride much faster than most of the other riders maybe because of my leightweight and my good riding abilities in the uphills but surely because of the new tyre (Jimmy UST by Schwalbe) I had fitted the day before. At the top of the course a NAT-Teamrider was behind me and I expected Max but later on I noticed Christoph Hopp the Elite-rider. There was a wide gap between me and the next rider of the Junior-class - automatically I tried to spare 
myself after this very fast first round and because of my affected lungs. The speed was now regular while riding together with Christoph Hopp and being attentive to keep the gap. I was able to ride fast in the uphills inspite of the more and more muddy sections which forced many riders to run and walk and rode very carefully in the slippy downhills with some singletrails and two little jumps.
In the end my victory seemed a bit too sovereignly but it was very satisfying to reach 
even in the Elitecategory the 5th place and by the way I am national champion of Thuringia again. Now I can look fluffily foreward to the last race of the MDC near my training-area at Apolda.
keep fit Till