in Offenburg on May 21, 2006. When the starting shot was fired for the 29m/47km race at 12:10pm, in relatively bad weather, we, about 750 cyclists, had to cover the distance of 3m/5km to Rammersweier in a neitralized fashion, before the race really began.
Those 3m/5km were no fun, because some of the guys were of the opinion that they had to cross the starting line in Rammersweier in first place.
After the real start, the group in front went off like a rocket and the first hill was taken on the big chain ring. Since I'm still lacking in competetion toughness, I joined the second group right behind the first.
When the hill, the longest ascent of the track, was taken care of there was a long descent that gave some of the riders a chance to open up. Upon arrival at the bottom of the hill, there were about six of us. However, we didn't really work together all that well and so the gap between us and the guys at the front got bigger and bigger.

Then when I was almost thrown on a turn the group was gone and I had to strenuously fight my way back, getting cramps in the process.
When I got back to the group, I could relax a little and found a place behind a guy who was closing the ranks from behind. The two of us worked together well, so that we were able to catch up with some of the others.
When my "colleague's" lights went out a had to toil my way along the last 3m/5km. I made my way up the last steep ascent with the last energy I could muster and then sped down the hill toward Offenburg-City-Center and because there was another person behind me I couldn't go any slower, turning the last miles into a real single time trial.
On the home stretch my opponent was right on my back and started sprinting for 15th place. I gave my all and was able to end the race in my favor. However, I was completely destroyed afterwards and almost wasn't able to dismount because of my fricken cramps ;-) .

I was relatively happy with my 15th place (5th in my age division), since it was the first race and served as training.
I'd like to compliment the organizers of the Scheiderbauers, who pulled off a great event that easily holds up against other marathons, like the Ultra-Bike.
Jonas