Alpentour Trophy 2023 - 4 day stage race

The Race

Alpentour Trophy is an Austrian stage race for mountain bikes. 

• Four stages
• Start/finish in one location
• Elite and Master classes
• Solo and duo categories
• Location: Schladming / Austria

Nellie and I

Intro

I arrived in Schladming two days before the race. I had booked a lovely apartment in the mountains above Schladming through AirBnb. The view was amazing, but I had to take the car down to the start/finish area. 

View from my AirBnb

What was great was that my friends Ulf and Nellie were also there and had an apartment just by the start area. I got to hang out with them before and after each stage. Nellie was racing in the Elite Women category.

This was my first time participating in this race so I didn't know quite what to expect.

Stage 1 "Queen stage" - 67 km/3100 meters

The first stage started with a huge climb. The first 20 kilometers was all uphill. The heat was murderous and the sun was shining straight down on us as we slowly made our way up the climb with no shade.

Up at the top we passed a ski cottage and then it was all downhill on gravel roads. There were lose cows grazing all around us and walking on the gravel roads that we were racing on. At one point I got stuck between a heard of cows who all decided to run down the road in the same direction as I was racing.

The heat seemed to get to a lot of the riders and I saw some of them collapsed by the side of the track. I wasn't feeling to great myself but managed to pass the finish line in 6th place in my category - M50. Garmin said the average temperature for the stage was 29 degrees C!

I felt fairly okay after crossing the finish line but back at my house I got fever shivers and collapsed in bed. I fell asleep and wasn't able to eat anything until close to midnight. I was unsure of whether I was going to be able to start the second stage.

Stage 2 - 55 km/2700 meters

The second stage was a huge difference from the first. Rain fell throughout the stage. The temperature was half of what it was yesterday. The slippery surface made the descents a challenge. Thanks to the incredible stability of the BMC Fourstroke and the dropperpost I was able to carry good speed going downhill and gain a lot of ground on my competitors. Finished the stage in sixth place.

Going up the first climb. Nellie on my wheel

 

Stage 3 - 57 km/2500 meters

The third stage ended up being my best one. Rain fell again and conditions were slippery. Almost the whole first 40 kilometers were either flat or going uphill. I decided to go hard for the first 20 km to get with a good group on that relatively flat part and use drafting. Then when the long 20 km climb came I would go at my own pace. This strategy worked out fine. What was surprising was how well the last 17 km of mostly downhill to the finish went. Conditions were slippery and the downhilling was crazy. Mostly on gravel roads but with lots of switchbacks. I overtook so many cyclists by just dropping my seat and going crazy. That felt really good. Fifth place on the stage.

Stage 4 Hill Climb Time TRIAL - 11 km/1100 meters

The last stage was a pure hillclimb. I was in fifth place on the total standings going into this stage and had an American, John Behrens, 5 minutes behind me. As the stage was a time trial he started 30 seconds ahead of me and I saw him throughout the stage just ahead of me. All I had to do was keep him in my sights and not allow him to get too far. This worked out fine. I lost some time on him but managed to keep ahead.

Fifth place in this race. Very happy with this result!