2009 Eifel Mosel Cup Race Finale in Altlay

Chris and I managed to sneak out of work on Monday long enough to get to the final race in Eifel Mosel Cup Series and get some racing. The course was great and there was plenty of single trail and even some steep technical switchbacks thrown in for good measure. Franci and Michael were hanging out on the switches and saw about 20 wrecks. Luckily, none of them involved Chris and I. The race started off kind of weird. We were separated by times, then we all rode about a kilometer down a hill and turned around to start. It was nice because it separated all the riders before the single trail, but it was a tough climb to start out on. The rest of the rate was a 190bpm blur. Chris got held up by a flat early and lost some time and I tried hard to hold onto the riders I usually chase around. The single track was a nice treat because it stopped the wheelsuckers from resting up too much.
The hardest part of the race was probably the switchbacks on the downhill. Michaeal warned us in advance that there would be some hard downhill work and some wrecks and as usual he was right on. The first 2 or 3 switches were ok then it just got steeper and harder to make the turns the farther down we went. After going down the switches we rode along a small river on some single trail before making the gradual climb back up to the start/finish.
I'm always pleasantly surprised at how great the EMC races are and how well they're organized. In addition to the photographers, there were also plenty of fans and help on the course. As usual there was a visit to the museum of cake, coffee and frits post race--also well priced and quite tasty. I'm only sorry that the series of over.
There were some professional photographers at the race and the pictures they took were amazing. You can check them out at www.sportograf.de (click on "Eifel Mosel Cup")
-Hector