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24 hours. A Race to Exhaustion
Two riders, 693km, 63 laps, 6930 meters of climbing and all in 24 hours. These are the statistics from the Munich 24 hour race, where Kim Tofaute and Benjamin Brochhagen represented Team Topeak Ergon this last weekend.
The race takes place in the Olympic Park and is one of the best known of its type in Germany. The course is 11km long, demanding a lot of power. 2500 riders took part in the race, which goes through the Olympic stadium to the cheers of thousands of spectators.
Following the start, which took place at 12noon on Saturday, Kim Tofaute (Director of Research and Development for Ergon) lead the field of 49 two man teams. With a small gap over the second placed team, it was then a question of defence. The gap of two minutes was constant… for the moment.
At one in the morning, it was Benny’s time to suffer. Unable to keep the lap times constant and match the previous three laps, the lead was soon lost and the chase team overtook. For Tofaute it was a similar story. The lap times were increasing and the Moooove racing team were pulling away. It was then a question of ablity, with Team Topeak Ergon simply at the end of their power reserves, however the will to finish was still there, and they weren’t going to give in that easily.
With 63 laps under their belts and 693km between them, the final lap fell to Benjamin. The hour before dawn is always the darkest, and the final lap appeared to take forever. With 1.5km to go, Tofaute joined Brochhagen on the course to allow them to cross the finish line together. They had held second place.
“It was a team effort. Not just Benny and I, but the support team too. If it wasn’t for them, I think I would have dropped out” Tofaute said following the event “I was pleased when the sun finally rose though. It meant that the hardest part was behind us.”
About this Article:
- Date:
- Jun 23, 2009
- Author:
- Benjamin Brochhagen
