Team Milram / Vattenfall Cyclassic Competition Update.
During July Wiggle teamed up with Focus Bikes to offer a superb opportunity to win a trip to the Vattenfall Cyclassic event in Hamburg on August 16th 2009!
The Vattenfall Cyclassics one-day race is a true celebration of cycling. It is one of the youngest one-day road races in the UCI ProTour but it is one of the best races because organisers combine a high quality professional race with a day of cycling for everyone who loves two-wheels.
Lucky Winner Richard Hutchinson was picked to win a trip of a lifetime to Germany to compete in the Vatternfall Sportive event and meet the riders of the Pro Cycling Team ‘Team Milram’.
We’ve received reports from Richard Hutchinson and Richard Pearman (Team Wiggle Rider) who went along to represent Wiggle and ride with competition winner Richard.
Read Richard Pearman’s account below.
Part One – Meeting the Comp Winners and our Day in Hamburg.
Competition winner Richard Hutchinson won a trip of a lifetime to Germany to compete in the Vattenfall 100km Sportive event and also meet the riders from the Pro Team ‘Team Milram’. Richard was also given the chance to be a passenger in Milram’s team car for part of the pro race in the afternoon, which took place on the same day (Sunday) as the sportive event in and around the city of Hamburg. Richard was accompanied by his friend Craig Goff-Cooper and myself, Richard Pearman, from Wiggle. Richard won the competition after purchasing Team Milram kit from the Wiggle website.
Our trip to Germany began very early on Friday morning. Rich and Craig arrived at Stansted airport on Thursday evening at around 10.30 pm after travelling down from Newcastle. Both had anticipated a long drive down, leaving with plenty of time in hand, but thanks to a traffic free journey they arrived at the airport way ahead of their schedule. This did mean that for Richard and Craig it was a lonely and uncomfortable wait of 5 hours until I arrived at our arranged time of 4.30 am Friday morning.
After hitting my pillow at around 10.30pm on Thursday evening, I was awakened by the alarm clock at 1.30 am in the morning and after loading up the car I set off to the airport for the 2.5 hour trip to the airport. I arrived at Stansted in good time with Rich and Craig greeting me by the Ryanair check in desks. Checking in was simple and quick and it wasn’t long before we were boarding the plane heading for Lubeck airport in Germany.
Lubeck airport is a small airport located around 40 km’s away from Hamburg. Outside the airport Andy, from Focus, was waiting to collect us. Andy would be our guide for the remainder of the day transporting us to Hamburg, showing us the sights, taking us to the cycle fair on part of the course for the Sportive ride, and also to help us register for the event as well as collect our numbers. The drive to Hamburg took us around 50 minutes and before long we had parked the car, boarded the clean, smart-looking underground train to the centre of Hamburg. We emerged 15 minutes later all very hungry so decided that our first port-of-call would be the restaurant next to the lake for breakfast. Just outside the restaurant many cycle brands were erecting their stands for the general public to walk around. One of the stands which opened was the Lightweight stand and directly after our morning snack I decided to walk over to take a look around and chat to the guys from Lightweight.
We spent the next 2 hours looking around all the stands and taking in some of the local shops situated in the lovely lanes in the centre of Hamburg. I must say that Hamburg is a great place to visit and to shop. My partner, Nikki, would love a weekend over here and once back home this will happen as Nikki would adore it. We also collected our race numbers and soon after decided to move on. Andy wanted to take us on a boat trip on the river Elbe. We jumped onto the train for a short while then walked over to the dock, paid for the tickets and took our seats on the boat. Luckily the weather was perfect for a trip on the water. The trip lasted about 1 hour and took us through the numerous canals before venturing onto the wider part of the river. The Elbe is a huge river, which Hamburg is situated in the middle of, and thousands of boats/ships use this river every year transporting goods to mainland Germany and beyond.
Once back on dry land we had a quick drink at the local bar. Soon after we decided it was time to get back to the car to start our 2 hour drive to the hotel, which was situated just outside the town of Cloppenburg. All of us, apart from Andy who was driving, decided to use this time to catch up on some sleep. We arrived at the hotel and quickly checked in. We had our evening meal soon after as time was getting late and we were all getting very tired. The meal was spot on and the two bottles of red wine that we drank helped us to relax and hopefully get us to sleep quicker. After the meal we retired to our rooms.
The following morning, after our breakfast, Andy arrived at the hotel to collect and inform us of the day’s proceedings. Our day was going to be split into two parts. The majority of the day was going to be spent at Focus, based in Cloppenburg, and also with Team Milram. We arrived at Focus all ready for our impending bike ride with members of Team Milram, Focus staff and other guests of Focus/Milram. Once the bikes were set up for us and our pedals attached, the group of 12 set off out for the 1.5 hour bike ride.
The roads were excellent – all very smooth, apart from the cobbled section, and free from busy traffic. Two members of Team Milram joined us as well as their girlfriends. The ride was very enjoyable thanks to the pace remaining constant throughout. With everyone chatting and some sprinting for village signs along the route, this made the whole experience, coupled with the great weather, very enjoyable. Rich and Craig loved every minute of the ride and also found the Focus bikes very comfortable to ride.
Once we returned to Focus, the rest of the day was ours. We had the opportunity to view Focus’s 2010 range of bikes, walk around the various brand stands and enjoy the refreshments, well the continuous 3 course meal being served up all day, including soft and alcoholic drinks, and the glorious sunny weather which was shining down on Cloppenburg. The next 3-4 hours were really enjoyed by the three of us and Focus’s other guests and their friends.
Once we had seen the show, eaten well and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, it was time for us to leave. We had to drive to drive back to Hamburg to check into our hotel for Saturday night. At around 4.00 pm, we all jumped back into the Focus car, with Thorsten (ex pro) and with 3 bikes in the bikes in the back as well as our luggage the car was pretty much full. The trip back to Hamburg took around 2.5 hours and by the time we arrived at our hotel we were all shattered. Finding somewhere to park was tricky though as the whole car park was filled with pro team vehicles/buses and team cars from the team competing in the pro race on Sunday.
Teams like Saxo-Bank, Bbox, Astana, Columbia HTC, Liquigas, Lampre and a whole host more were here. Many of the mechanic’s, including Team Milram’s, where still working on the bikes making sure these machine were ready for tomorrow’s event. After taking plenty of photos and speaking to the various team mechanic’s we checked in and also met the people who look after the team from behind the scenes. We agreed a time to come down for dinner and meet the team as well as to spend the evening with Milram’s other guest. After we exchanged comments, we took the lift to our floor and rested/showered and relaxed for a few hours.
We arrived down at the lobby as agreed and met up with members of Team Milram.
After a short time at the bar we were ushered into the dining room where the majority of team were also having their meal. Walking into the room brought back memories of my trips to Ireland when taking the Surrey League team over to ride the 8-day stage race known as the Ras (FBD Insurance Ras). Like tonight all the team meet up and have dinner together which is great as the riders, mechanics, drivers, scouts and others all can socialise together and chat about the day’s racing. After dinner the riders returned back to their rooms, whilst others made their way to the bar, as we did. We chatted for about 1 hour before returning to our rooms to get a good night’s sleep.
Part 2 – Sunday (Sportive and Pro Race Day) to follow shortly.
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