Local club celebrates 2. championship powered by bike-components

In mid September bike-components and the bike club Geländefahrrad Aachen e.V (GFA e.V.) held the second club championship race.

On Saturday the 10^th of September 2016, bike-components and the bike club Geländefahrrad Aachen e.V (GFA e.V.) held the second club championship race. bc was, just like for the first club championship in February 2016, the sponsor of this event.

We took care of the starter packs, time tracking and barrier tape. The club covers the cafeteria, medical care and other organisational topics. GFA e.V. is the largest bike sport club in North Rhine-Westphalia. With over 400 members, not all of them are active members so don’t think that they need the local town hall for a round table, but there are enough members to make this event something special. The bike park in Aachen belongs to GFA e.V. and bc also helped in making this bike park possible.

I’ll start from the beginning. Friday the 9^th of September, the bike park was closed to prepare the event on the next day. Benny started with settings and the registration of the Sportident transponders for the time tracking and Sebastian was responsible that all participants received a starter pack with the same content. Everything set up and packed in the bc bus, off we go to the bike park in Aachen. Once we arrived, the GFA team was already waiting for us to set up the different stages for the race. The course was a combination of bone-shaking rock and root sections, something fast and flowy and tricky trails with drops.

Really early on Saturday morning, the alarm kicks us out of bed. We had to be at the bike park at 7 am. After we arrived, we started with some transponder checks. We went through a couple of the downhill sections to see if the time tracking works. No problems registered, a great start in a race day. Afterwards, we set up the registration tent to give out the starter packs and registration numbers. We also brought along a couple of deck chairs to relax for all participant and visitors to use. The club set up the cafeteria with coffee, cake, sandwiches and of course cold drinks were also available.

The day in pictures:

9:00 AM - The first club members came to get their starter packs, numbers and transponders. The number had to be attached on the front of the bike.

10:00 AM- Free training started. Everyone had the opportunity to get to know different stages. The participants gave each other tips and assistance on questions.

Don’t forget to check your bike again before you start.

Ready to go in a day full of expectations and excited about what this day will bring.

11:30 AM – The opening was done by Benny, Christian and Oliver. First they explained the course of the club championship. All Participants start on the corkscrew trail, afterwards there were three stages that the participants should take, the ratter alley trail, the free ride trail and the single trail. The order can be selected by the participant himself. Then there was only one thing left to say - Let the race begin!

Not only that the weather was fantastic, everyone was in a great mood and the best thing for all riders were the visitors and fans that cheer along the side of the track.

Participants, visitors and fans all sat around in the grass to relax together with a cold drink and a snack.

2:00PM- All participants went through all the stages. The hard part of the race was over. Benny began to evaluate the results and realized that there must have been a problem with the time tracking system, there were section times missing. No matter what Benny tried this couldn’t be solved right away, so what now? After calling all participants together, the situation was explained. We offered two solutions to announce the winner and flipped a coin to make the final decision. The winner would be announced at the next round table. The decision was made and all participants and visitors went over to the relaxing part of the day. With a snack and a cold drink, everyone let a great day come to an end.

Steffi's conclusion

Even without the victory ceremony, in my opinion, the GFA e.V. second club championship was a very successful event. Not only because I finished my first race, it was also the first time that I had the opportunity to meet the rest of the club members. At the beginning of the day, I had a queasy feeling, but it didn’t take all that long and this feeling was gone. That was a good event and we all had a lot of fun. The most impressing thing was, no matter if young or old, ambitious rider or rookie, hardtail or downhill, everyone supported one another. The only thing that counts is our passion for the same thing, we are all bikers. I cannot imagine that there would have been a better way to start off in my first race than through this event.

Thanks to all participants and visitors for a successful second club championship.

A big “thank you very much” to the DRK (German Red Cross) for the medical care. Unfortunately, we had a lot of crashes this year. Get well soon to all who were injured!