Otztaler Radmarathon Sportive - August 26th 2007 

Report by Nick Latimer

The Otztaler Radmarathon is heralded as one of the toughest amateur bike races in the world, and the event organisers class all finishers as "much suffering heroes of the road".  In Austria, Germany and Italy riding in an Otztaler finishing jersey brings serious respect from fellow riders, and a book has even been written about the event, entitled "Ich habe einen Traum" ("I have a Dream").  The reasons for the popularity of the event are many - it's half in Austria and half in Italy and so draws plenty of riders from both countries.  It starts and finishes in the popular skiing town of Solden, and the roads are completely closed for the entire event.  But the real reason behind the legendary status of the race is the course.  238km over four alpine passes, totalling 5,508 verticle metres of climbing.  Compared to most major Tour mountain stages it was similar, just longer and with an extra climb.

PROFILE

After my brother James - who lives near the start/finish town of the race - said he was going to sign up for the event, there was no way that I could miss it. 

Along with 25,000 other people we were online early one February morning to sign up, and James and I along with two other cycling friends were four of the lucky 4,500 to get a starting place.  At that time of year everything that involves the summer and being fit seems a long way away and in many an email exchange the words "we've still got half a year" came up.

I travelled out with Barry, an old cycling friend from university, the week before the race.  We met up with James and his cycling companion Graham who had been busy getting some cheating mountain practice in for the previous few months from their base in Munich.  The first thing I noticed was that the climbs seemed steeper in Austria than what I was used to in France, particularly the Rettenbach glacier road (the highest road in Europe) which we decided to ride on our first day.  The road tops out at 2,829m, climbing 1,500m in 12km.  After storming up Robins Nest a few times in the Brickendon league I thought I was flying on the uphills, but after Rettenbach I was flying to the local bike shop for a 28 cog to put on my compact chainset!

A few more days of getting used to the mountains followed before we rested up in preparation for the big day.  The start was at 6.30am, but we arrived at 5.30am to try to avoid starting at the back.  As it was we had about 2,000 people in front of us, but we still got through the start line in 5 minutes.  The initial 30km down the valley road was uneventful, and after the lower slopes of the first mountain (Kuhtai) there became room on the road to start passing other riders.  Kuhtai climbs 1200m in 16km, and has one very tough section of 18%.  This took me 1.18, with the eventual race winner (ex-pro Emanuele Negrini) going up in 57 minutes.  Next came a steep descent and the only bit of flat riding in the race, before the Brennar Pass started.  Brennar only becomes tough towards the end, and the 39km with 600m of climbing was quite quick, taking 1.17, compared to Negrini's 1.06.  I was flying at this stage and foolishly decided I didn't need to eat as much as I should have, and was soon to start suffering!

The next climb was Jaufenpass, which tops out at 2,100m.  The top of the climb marks the 100 mile point in the race which should have been a positive marker.  Instead, to me it meant that there was still 50 miles to ride, most of which was up the hardest climb in the race!  About half way up the climb I had started to be overtaken by other riders for the first time in the race, and my energy drink had started to taste like liquified vomit chunks instead of lemon and lime.  I had seen my mum and dad near the bottom of the climb as they were holidaying in the area, and I threw my camelbak at them as the weather had warmed up and I didn't need the spare kit.  About 10 minutes after seeing them I was wishing I had chucked my bike at them and got in the car!  I started mentally cursing the other riders on their full-carbon racing machines, and began to wonder why I thought it would be a good idea to put a compact on my trusty steel winter steed instead of a triple on a bike that weighed less than a tank. 

I refused to stop though, and when I got to the top I was in serious need of water and digestible food as I could sense the warning signs of the bonk.  Luckily, I found my saviour at the feed station in the form of nice juicy melon.  I highly recommend this at times of crisis.  I ate about 15 whole ones before getting back on the bike.  I didn't even need to ask to be put back on.

The final climb, Timmelsjoch, is a monster.  It begins at 750m, and climbs up to 2,509m over a distance of 29km.  I was feeling slightly better at the bottom of the mountain, but that was mainly because I knew that at the 1,500m point there would be another feed station where I could feast upon more melon.  Unfortunately, the organisers lied outrageously and the feed station did not appear until the 1650m point.  For their rudeness, I decided to take it upon myself to eat all of their melons.

Reinforced I fought on to the top where there was a banner which apparently said "Now you have your Dream!".  Being unilingual, I didn't realise this and quickly put on some gloves for the final descent to the finish.  It was a truly epic day, and certainly the hardest ride of my life.  The locals were out in force and the crowds' cheers truly did make me feel like a hero of the road!  My only disappointment was my speedo breaking, meaning I didn't know how long I'd been riding for.  As it happened, my riding time was 9.30 or thereabouts, with my official overall time being 10.39 due to melon stops.  10 hours is a landmark time for the event, so I just might have to go back next year to dip under that...