Oybin

Oybin is a beautiful little village close to Zittau in east Germany. The Czech border is only about 200 meters from the apartment we rented for the week. The reason we are here are the European Championships in MTB Marathon on Sunday.

Tuesday morning we packed the car and started our journey across Germany. A long, 800km drive. Luckily we had no mayor traffic jams and 3pm we arrived in Oybin. We had to wait for the key, as the people in charge of the apartment were still at work. So we decided to go for a ride, to check out the course. The race course passes Oybin after about 55km.

I got on my bike and got down to the main road as I suddenly heard someone screaming “Pia”. This could not be true. First time in Oybin and a local that recognizes me? It happened to be Danilo Mueller. In 2008 when I did Trans Germany together with Canada’s Alison Sydor the German biathlon national team with Michael Greis & Co were also participating and so was Danilo as one of their servicmen preparing the skis in winter. Danilo is today part of the Czech Service team in biathlon. Funny indeed to meet him after so many years.

After speaking with him for a while and asking where the track passes the village we set off. It was pretty warm, but cloudy. After 50minutes riding it started to pour down. It got cold and of course I had no rain jacket with me. What amateur I am!

After waiting for a while under a roof we could continue our ride.

Yesterday we did the first 60k m of the course. Today I will do the last 20km. More about my impressions later.