I don’t have many pictures of the first edition of the RACA Gravel Race 300k, simply because it was too stressful. For an ultra race, 300k are quite short and their is not much time to mess around. That is exactly what I wanted. But even if this distance is relatively short, you should be careful not to blow it all out in the beginning. Three weeks before I went on a 190km ride for my longest training for this event (mixed surface, lots of gravel) and had to realize, how badly you can get wrecked in the end, if you’re not careful with your energy levels. So I planned on not to go over the threshold, no peaks in wattage. Another learning effect was the air pressure that I wanted to reduce, because the vibration had killed my hands during the last key workout. This type of exhaustion you don’t see in TSS points.

The start time had to be changed to 5am due to issues with communities about riding in the night in the forest. I was actually quite happy about that, because it meant less time riding in the dark. At 5 in the morning it was still cool as we climbed from Linz up the Donau Trail into Mühlviertel. Within the first 4 hours we would do a quarter of the 5000m of elevation. My biggest concern was water resupply. After about 66km we would cross the border to the Czech Republik and cycle mostly through forest without any infrastructure. Here the route followed a great part of the Iron Curtain Trail with rough gravel roads or paved military roads without traffic. Paved though is misleading. They are mostly concrete slabs and the gaps in between make riding very uncomfortable. For Central Europe the wilderness in these forests is exceptional. The reason for it is simple: You are right on the Death strip of the Cold War, a 20km wide band where nature would be preserved. The Czechoslovakians or rather the Warsaw Pact forced villages to relocate, built barbed wire fences and made it almost impossible to escape into the West. The military roads in the woods were built for border patrols in order to drive quickly to refugees to catch them up. So the fact that this area is so lonely and has such a moving history was one of the reasons I wanted to do this race.

Luckily I found water before I crossed the border. The landscape was absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed that adventurous part of the route, but the surface took its toll. After 160km my hands and my butt were shot and I felt overwhelmed. I could not imagine being able to do another 140km. Also the heat was wearing me down. I had entered Austria again and was heading towards Gate 1 in Litschau (Raca race formats have gates, where you can deposit your stuff, take a nap and get food and drinks. Litschau was the only one for the 300k races). I had a bag deposited with food and above all some Cola, my weapon against all Ultracycling evils like low energy, low motivation, DNF craving and literal pain in the ass. It actually worked and it was good to get out of the sun for a while. Also the crew there gave me a nice Buck up! I spent not more than 20 minutes there and continued the Waldviertel part of the route I was also looking forward to see. I just love this region with its lonely roads and beautiful forests with hidden magic stone formations that have names.

I was relieved that the track got a little easier with finer gravel roads and also the sun was setting. It was still exceptionally warm for this area that is known for being the coldest part of Austria. I started to feel better, but it was also clear my calculation that I would be back in Linz before midnight was totally unrealistic. I would have to ride much more time in the dark than I had thought, which does not bother me on the road, but I had not done that offroad. After so many hours in the saddle it cost me a lot of concentration to navigate the offroad parts and not bumping into stuff. The last 50km was less offroad than in the beginning of the race, but there were still parts were you would go over meadows or into short forest parts. The night and the lower temperatures had awakened new life force and I felt a lot better than in Litschau when I was in that hole. After around 265km though saddle soreness set in and stomache ache. I refused to eat the remaining Gummybears after 3 packages, so I actually did not eat for the last 35km and could only rely on fat metabolism. The thought of Iso made me sick so I just had water with salt pills.

The ride back into Linz was smooth (the actual finish time was taken 4k before) and I reached the finish line at around 2am after 20:48h and 309km with 5072m elevation. Moving time was about 19:35h. The training load was about 500 TSS. The second female rider on the starting list did actually not start, which I hadn’t known during the race, so I was the only one. I’m sure this will be different next year, I hope more women show up. I can definitely recommend the event and I hope women also choose the solo category, because it is a different experience when you are on your own and rely on your own abilities and you are responsible for all your decisions you make on the road and before that.