P3 at HC Cross Country race of Coup de France Marseille

Sunday was a good day for me at the Coup de France XCO race in Marseille and I'm happy with my 3rd place. The course was very technical all the way, 95% singletrack with just few overtaking and from the second lap it was almost an individual time trial.

The start went well for me and I quickly found myself in the lead group, which gave me a good base for the rest of the race. However, at the end of the first lap there was a incident when the second placed rider crashed. This broke up the lead group and the eventual winner, Simon Andreassen, was able to get away. From that point on, the race became more or less an individual time trial for most of the top 6 riders, with little movement between P2 and P5.

Due to heavy traffic during Saturday's practice, I was only able to do 2.5 laps of the track. As a result, it took me until the 4th lap of the race to find and remember most of the good lines. At the end of the race there were still a few corners I wasn't happy with. But it cost me a few seconds here and there and a lot of energy every lap and made it impossible to catch up with the leader.

In the end I'm very happy with the way the race went and how I handled the situation. P3 is also a really good result for the last race before I start the World Cup season in Brazil in less than three weeks. The weekend in general was a pleasure and the atmosphere in the team is really good.

At the end of my trip to Marseille, I was able to do my Monday spin to Avignon, where my parents-in-law were waiting for me with my luggage and a nice lunch. From there, the TGV took me back home to Freiburg for the last two weeks of training before the first big journey of the season starts.