Pain is temporary – glory is forever

Damn, I wanted to publish this for weeks, but I couldn´t get it finished.


Me and some mates of mine went on a roadtrip in the early August. Just for a couple of days, but for them, the first time in twelve months riding their bikes. Four guys, four bikes, four spots. Some beer, some vodka and 24 Red Bull.
Arrived in DD, I put my bike and stuff in one of the cars and we hit the road to otal. During our trip, we were changing cars all the time – due to the music: “Lass mal anhalten, ich hab Bock auf dnb.” “Ich will ins andere Auto, chillout hören, und mein Bier is da drin! Halt an!“ In o-tal we spent the nights at Matzes parents. They prepared little snacks for us - one kilo of Hackepeter and some buns. The first evening, my mates took me to the only bar in "town". After they were drunk, we went up the Fichtelberg carrying our bikes. Getting to the skijump-hill took us almost an hour. Absolutely stupid to ride this track in the dark! I didn´t touch my brake-levers. Approximately 150 km/h. Crashing at this speed on these summer-mats had meant some painful burns. We all survived and went home to loot the fridge. Raw, dead meat – yummy!
The next days we spent up on Fichtelberg or in Bozi Dar, which is just behind the border. The Bozi Dar race-track has neither tape, nor some kind of other marks. So we followed the gravitation, which would lead us down to the lift-station. Like O-Tal it´s pretty vast, not as steep as Krupka: meadows, forrest-tracks, “Fichten-Downhill”. Oldschool-downhill-racing at it´s best.
Like 20 years before. One hour to go up, for 6 Minutes descent. Vast smooth jumps, giant bands. Not as steep at in Switzerland but really funny. My mates didn´t ride their bikes for almost one year. Expensive ones, well maintained, hardly ever used. I built one of these bikes completely by myself and I´ve had chosen the parts of the other bikes. Nobody rides my babies. Even bikes have feelings! My mates were much slower in the first runs than myself. Up on the highest “mountain” in “les monts metalliféres”, during one of my runs, I slipped of my saddle and landed on the rear tire – at full-speed. This is painful, this is really painful! I thougt, I can sing Falsett now. In the evening, we had some barbecue at Matzes parents – five different kinds of meat.
The next morning we traveled to Krupka. We parked the cars at Zinnwald near the border, took our protectors, bikes and helmets and went to Horny Krupka (no kidding, it´s really called horny, meaning “upper”) Not far, but we were pretty tired when we arrived, due to our 15kg dualbikes, with DH-setup. We whad to wait for an hour until the lift opened. So we went to a restaurant up on the hill getting some native food and beverages (gulash and beer, I had one too). After our lunch, we were laying on the grass, in the sun, chilling. Getting some more red bull with aspirin (the others also had some vodka) to get in the right mood for DH. Suddenly rain started. Damn! We sat in some kind of cottage, waiting for another 30 minutes. When the rain stopped, there were some puddles on the trail! Yeah! Mud-race! In the end we all looked like some kind of golem. For years, Krupka is the most popular race-track of the Saxon downhill-scene. You come to Krupka, and it´s never the same. Nature trails, no tape, only a start and a finish. We were searching for the holy trail. The first run, we rode together, due to I was the only one who had ever been here before. It took us 15 minutes! Some of the passages were like in the Alps - steep, rocky, pretty difficult. In Krupka there was a lift, for the lazy Czech grandpas. 1.50 euros for one ride with bike! Can you dig it?! Todtnau (e.g.) is more than 10 times as expensive! We spent the whole day in Krupka. Everyone rode on its own. We all hugged some trees, hit the ground and so forth. Benni broke his sprocket. He crashed on some rock, landed as tuck-no-hander (stem to family-jewels). Outsch! Pretty amazing day. I felt like in "Link". We´ve met two dutch racers on holydays. Were teasing each other all the time. “Hey, Kona das ist aus Blei, oder?” “Ihr auf euren Hardtails seht aus wie Crosscountry-Fahrer” and so on. At 7 we were pretty devasted. Sun began to set and we had to ride back to Germany. We cleaned our bikes in a brook and went to Zinnwald, put our bikes in the cars, went over the border searching for a cheap hotel. First, we all took a shower: “Wasch dich! So kommste nicht ins Zimmer!” You don´t want to see our bathroom after we tried to clean us, what a mess! We had dinner at the hotel´s restaurant. Four guys, 4 Schnitzel. In the end we had some disgusting liquor. I had not even a half, and wanted to vomit.

Next day we went (almost) back home. Our fourth spot was in Radebeul Zone B. We paid 3 euros to get on the track. Wooohoooo. Finest Dual-Track I rode for a long time! Pretty-well maintained. Perfect shape, no garbage and a World-Cup-BMX-Gate! Yeeeeeehaaaaa! We had some Dual and 4X-races against each other. Poor bastards. I am kind of rude racer, if there´s no gap between two other racers, they´ll get a taste of my elbow and will hit the ground - faggots. After three days of downhill, it was pretty much fun to race some short tracks. I figured out that all this fitness-training showed its effects. I had fast starts and the powerful acceleration. Everyone of us fell down several times. Great fun. In the late afternoon, we packed our stuff and get home (I went to Radeberg).
When I finished cleaning my bike (and myself), my parents arrived. Paris – Radeberg in 12 hours! In the late evening, me and some friends of mine went to the “Bierfest”. Horror! All these freaks from my youth are still here. This is no living. It´s even hard to describe them as human beings. We escaped to Dresden. Rawtekk at Triebwerk. Hardtec on the larger floor, drumnbass on the smaller one. ALL the guys there were on chemo! One girl collapsed in fronz of me on the dnb-floor: overdose. I didn´t fit in there. Due to, I was the only one in a white(!) shirt, and doing no drugs. Kind of an alien. Rawtekk disappointed me, only 45 minutes and after him a real rookie. But MemPamal on the Hardtec-Floor was amazing! At 5 o´clock I was at home already, getting some sleep. (Cursing) At Sunday I serviced my bike, and my parents´ road-racers. After five days of biking, and one night spent dancing, I thought it could be a nice idea to get a short ride on my father´s RR, because I was still alive. I get dressed up in full Lycra (I had to wear tights of my father´s girlfriend, due to it´s fit) – looking like a sausage. Didn´t mind me. In the end I rode to Stolpen and back. My next bike is going to be a RR! You´re so fast on it! When I force a sprint on my dual-bike I make 35 km/h. On the RR, 55 is no big deal! Down the hill in Stolpen (with wind from my backside) the computer showed 69 km/h!

When I arrived in Leipzig, I was exhausted. I spent a hellufatime with my friends. Great places, great tracks, nice biking. No stress at all. But related to Switzerland, this was no vacation. Maybe because the Czech border is too near. Maybe it is, because I went on holidays with my friends. There was nothing really new (Except of new bruises). Caught in all these old habits.