RAAM 2007 Jure Robic 02 chapter

ENG:
On the 13th May I found myself on the start line of 24h Kraftwerk Trophy in Krems (Austria), facing 58 other solo competitors, among which Marko Baloh would represent my biggest competition for victory. Other ultra champions like Wolfgang Fasching, Valentin Zeller and Franz Venier opted for a 12h race. My plan of the race was to draft behind 12h and 24h teams and hope that they provide a high tempo, hopefully high enough for me to break a WR in solo 24h drafting that stood at 977km.

In the first six hours the teams held a 45 km/h (27,9 mph) average speed and only Marko and I were able to hang on. But in the late afternoon the wind started to blow very hard, stopping us to 35 km/h at times. To make it even more difficult it began to rain and that made the record prospect very grim. Fortunately the rain stopped only half an hour later. At 20h, when the 12h race was finished we already gained quite a few laps advantage over the third placed rider and it was clear that the solo race was to be decided among Marko and me, as I predicted. The pace after 12h, when the 12h teams and solos have finished, became a bit slower but still 40+ km/h (25+ mi/h) and eating, drinking, putting cloths and the lights on our bikes before the dark is not an easy task at 40+ km/h.