After the race in Gränichen and some more training in Freiburg I traveled with a good feeling to Brasil, but without putting myself under a lot of pressure. Unfortunately, over the travel days Wednesday and Thursday, I got an infection with herpes virus. It was my first time, so it was quite heavy with many inflammations all over my mouth. It was so painful, I couldn't eat without tears in my eyes for about 10 days.
So, from the beginning it was clear, that I couldn't participate in the C1 race in Mairipora. But, I had hopes for the first world cup of the season, as I was able to go on the bike from Thursday before the race. In the end, my coach, team manager and I decided not to participate and to recover first, before I would undergo world cup intensities. Instead of racing I did a good 3,5 h base ride on sunday and came back to the venue just in time to be in the feed zone and help my teammates with cooling bottles.
The second world cup in Araxa was quite a journey away from Mairipora, 600 km to the north. Arriving there, I felt much better and I felt, that I had overcome the infection completely. The preparation on the track went smoothly and I was excited for my first world cup of the season with a huge Brazilian crowd, but without any expectations regarding my result.
P35 in the end is quite respectable considering my situation before the race and also I had a good drive throughout the whole competition. So I had a good ending of this trip and I was looking forward to the next race in Heubach.
Still with the focus on getting back in shape after the virus, I didn't expect much from the second round of the Bundesliga in Heubach as well. But I had a good start and my teammate David and me had the opportunity to open a gap in the start loop, so he pushed on and I tried to follow. But David was just in another league that day. I rode 5 lonely laps with David out of sight and Julian Schelb and Mario Bair 15 - 40 s behind me. In the end I went out of power, Julian closed the gap, passed me with half a lap to go and I couldn't respond. But still, I had a fun race with perfect downhills and a courageous first 6 laps, so I'm satisfied with what happened.
Now one week of training lies ahead of me before I travel to European champs in Romania. The weekend afterwards I go to the third round of the Bundesliga in Gedern and the third round of the world cup in Nove Mesto (CZE) - looking forward to all the upcoming races.
Here are some more pictures from Brasil:
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