02 August 2004
30-01 Aug - O Tour (D2) Sarnen, Switzerland
3rd OVERALL
Friday 30th July- Street Sprint
9th
We started the tour off with a very different kind of race. The course was a 800m lap on the main streets of Sarnen, which included a few cobble stone sections and many tight corners. We were split into heats first, with the first 10 going into the final. We would do only 2 laps, hence the word 'sprint'! In the final round we did 3 laps, and I positioned myself perfectly on the leader (Calle Freiberg's) wheel, but then he went so fast into the final corner that he crashed! So I had to stop dead, and finally finished 9th.
Saturday 31st July - XC
2nd
This course is quite nice, because it has a long flat section, and then a couple of short hard climbs followed by technical singletrack sections. It makes for an intense race, but also allows good periods for recovery. Christophe Sauser put down the hammer on the first technical section, and we were quickly a group of four, including Roul Paulison, and Thomas Frichknecht. My legs were feeling great, so I put in a good attack with 2 laps to go. Frishy chased me down, and immediately Christoph attacked. I managed to go with him, while the others were dropped. But on the final lap I could not hold Christophs pace up the final hard climb and I had to settle for 2nd.
Sunday 1st Aug - Marathon
4th
With 80km and 2 huge climbs to contend, the day started off at a reasonable pace for once. By the top of climb #1 I was together with Christoph and Roul again. But then on the decent, I had a puncture. After fixing it I struggled to get my rhythm through the 15km of undulating single tracks, and had lost over 10min by the beginning of climb #2. This was a real monster of a climb, and I started feeling better already at the bottom, so I set a good pace, and brought back all of the riders except the first 3. By the end I had caught up to Thomas, but he beat me in the sprint. So I finished 3rd overall, which was a nice improvement from last years 12th place!
