Day 1 is over and what a day it was. 
The weather improved and for the first day we saw not a drop of rain. The sun broke through on multiple occasions and helped raise everyone’s spirits even as the gradient of the climbs tried to knock them back down. 
Sonthofen put on a great start and we had a neutral roll out for about 8 km before the race was on. Racing began at the bottom of the first big climb; (profile is here) the Oberjoch and pretty much everyone pinned it up to the top. Once up to the top the pack riding began and we motored through some rolling terrain. It was pretty cool looking down at your speedo and seeing 40+ km/hr as we booted along. The race started to sort itself out as the faster riders in the deeper start blocks started to move their way through the field, and the slower riders from the early start blocks made their way to the back. As a team, Dave and I learned some early lessons that being at the back of a pack or a pace line was not the ideal place to be. Although initially it seemed like everyone on the line was riding at the same pace, it soon became obvious that the weaker riders would collect at the back, and if the grade or pace increased just a bit they would be popped. If you were behind them by the time you had a chance to move around them, it became a real challenge to bridge back up to the faster group ahead.
The first descent was too cool. Ripping down the hill at 60+ and having the road “mostly” controlled allowed you to dive into the corners and rip out the other side. My anxieties about pack descending did not prove founded as my speed was pretty comparable to those around me and there were not a huge numbers of riders cutting across my line.
The scenery was spectacular, especially as we rolled out of Stanzach. Exiting the town, we were on a straight section of road and could see ahead the first several km of the last climb. It was quite intimidating as it was cut into the side of the mountain, and basically heading straight out of the valley. The last climb was a brute, with several kilometer long sections of 12-13% gradients. The last 2 km were particularly daunting as it switched up the mountain with little kickers every few 100 m. The 20 km long descent off the other side was almost as crazy with speeds in excess of 70 km/h. I personally have never reached those sorts of speeds on a bike and I have to admit that a few times I was quite nervous about the possibility of flatting. In the end we made it to Imst. One day down, six more to go. (Results here)
The weather improved and for the first day we saw not a drop of rain. The sun broke through on multiple occasions and helped raise everyone’s spirits even as the gradient of the climbs tried to knock them back down. Sonthofen put on a great start and we had a neutral roll out for about 8 km before the race was on. Racing began at the bottom of the first big climb; (profile is here) the Oberjoch and pretty much everyone pinned it up to the top. Once up to the top the pack riding began and we motored through some rolling terrain. It was pretty cool looking down at your speedo and seeing 40+ km/hr as we booted along. The race started to sort itself out as the faster riders in the deeper start blocks started to move their way through the field, and the slower riders from the early start blocks made their way to the back. As a team, Dave and I learned some early lessons that being at the back of a pack or a pace line was not the ideal place to be. Although initially it seemed like everyone on the line was riding at the same pace, it soon became obvious that the weaker riders would collect at the back, and if the grade or pace increased just a bit they would be popped. If you were behind them by the time you had a chance to move around them, it became a real challenge to bridge back up to the faster group ahead. The first descent was too cool. Ripping down the hill at 60+ and having the road “mostly” controlled allowed you to dive into the corners and rip out the other side. My anxieties about pack descending did not prove founded as my speed was pretty comparable to those around me and there were not a huge numbers of riders cutting across my line.
The scenery was spectacular, especially as we rolled out of Stanzach. Exiting the town, we were on a straight section of road and could see ahead the first several km of the last climb. It was quite intimidating as it was cut into the side of the mountain, and basically heading straight out of the valley. The last climb was a brute, with several kilometer long sections of 12-13% gradients. The last 2 km were particularly daunting as it switched up the mountain with little kickers every few 100 m. The 20 km long descent off the other side was almost as crazy with speeds in excess of 70 km/h. I personally have never reached those sorts of speeds on a bike and I have to admit that a few times I was quite nervous about the possibility of flatting. In the end we made it to Imst. One day down, six more to go. (Results here)
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