Internationales Radquer Frankendorf

Todays mtb mission was far more technical, and I paid for it in the end. An international cyclocross event was being held in Frenkendorf,  a small town nestled in the hills south of Prateln. The route to get there meant a deviation from the long climb to Gempen and heading east along some new and tasty singletrack, past an old ruined tower then descending through leaves to the town itself. It was easy enough to find the site of the event, however I was there well over an hour before the main event and so had to stand around, watch the juniors event then climb back partway up the hill to keep warm.
In practise, and in the junior event most riders were hopping over the barrier you see in the video below. But in the race, they were going too fast to hop, land and hop again so all were dismounting. This caused a small pileup on the first lap as there was a faller, but the second time round they were a little more spread out.
Impressive skills, but most impressive was their use of Easton and Lightweight wheels, I thought cyclocross riders used sturdier wheels, but this shows the strength of the deep rim wheels I suppose. I wouldn't want to ride this course on my cosmic carbones though.

It was a lovely ride home, climbing back up to the ruined tower then around to the usual tracks on a new route. But back on the familiar paths, I took a heavy tumble passing a horse and rider. I had slowed down, the rider  knew where I was and I cycled through the mass of leaves to the left of the firetrack. But the leaves were hiding a banked ditch, and the wet leaves which looked oh so nice last week were my downfall today as they slipped and took my front wheel right beneath me. There was a fair amount of blood from my knee down to socks, elbows grazed and heavily bruised wrist but I got home safely. The cute rider looked very concerned, as I was trapped in the wrecktangled bike for a while, and my knee didn't look good, I should have played for more sympathy before heading off down the hill.

Maybe I should stick to national bike route #3...