The official rules for the event begin with "Der 5-Seen-Radmarathon ist kein Radrennen, sondern eine Rad-Touristikveranstaltung." (The 5-Lake Bike Marathon is not a race - it is a bike touring event.)
This is the only bike tour that I've been on that gives everyone a chip to determine their exact time, lines everyone up for a mass start, and gives awards to the top 3 in each class. But I guess I'll just take their word for it that it's not a race...
I got up a bit before 6 AM and headed downstairs to find almost all the guests at our pension already finishing breakfast. One of them explained to me that you had to get to the start at least 30 minutes early to get a good start position. I took my time and got to the start about 645, which put me slightly back of the center of the pack.
After a few speeches by local dignitaries and a blessing (including a reading from the Gospel!), they fired the cannon at precisely 700 AM and we were off. I'd expected mass chaos, but things were pretty orderly. After a kilometer or so we went through a large roundabout on the edge of town and the serious racing/touring began.
I was determined not to go out too fast, but it was easy to get sucked along by some of the more organized teams. Still, it seemed like many more people were passing me than the other way around. After about 10km, we hit the first hill: the Scharfingerhohe with a climb of about 130m. Surprisingly, many of the riders who had just flown by me seemed to be having trouble with this little hill. I cranked up at a reasonable pace and still passed a couple of dozen riders. Once over the top, we hit the rolling hills and relative flats and it was time to get in a group.
I found a decent pack of about 30 and just hung out towards the back - there were plenty of 'locomotives' up front so most of us never had to pull. In Bad Ischl, we went through the tunnel which was the site of many crashes in past years, but it was well-lit and I knew not to ride near the center line where the concrete barriers were. The pack was flying along at such a pace and the weather was cool enough that I skipped the first aid-station. The pace seemed to pick up gradually and we were shedding some of the weaker riders as we headed along the Traunsee. On a clearer day the views along the lake would be magnificent, but the slight cloud cover and haze did keep the temperature down.
Right in the town of Traunkirch, I decided to get something to eat and was rummaging around in my jersey pocket for my chocolate pastry. When I looked up again, I realized that I was all alone - the pack was receding into the distance and there was no one behind me. I pushed a bit harder and almost caught a guy whose bike sounded like the crank was about to fall off, but even he dropped me. It would have been a very discouraging spot, except for one thing: I knew from the map that the biggest hill was right around the corner.
Soon the route took a left away from the lake and the fun began. The first riders I caught were a dozen or so who were taking a 'natural break' along a hedgerow. Right after that, the road kicked up at about a 6% grade for about 170 vertical meters. I caught another 8 or 10 riders before the crest and then rode solo until the start of the steep part.
From here to the top, I must have passed another 20-30 riders, and no one passed me.
I stopped a few minutes at the aid station to cram down some bananas and Endurolytes and refill my bottles. Then it was a screaming downhill for the next 5 miles down to the Attersee.
Right at the lake, I got caught by another rider, so I jumped on his wheel and we started working together on the flats. Pretty soon we'd picked up another half a dozen, and within a few miles we had another pack of 20. I took a couple of turns at the front but I wasn't as strong as some of the others so I kept it short. By the time we'd rounded the north end of the lake, the pack was flying and it wasn't long before a couple of other riders and I were spat out the back. We got ourselves organized and rode together for the next few km to Nussdorf where the road left the lake and headed up the 13% grade. My riding companions decided that this was a good spot to back off to a conversational pace, so I took off on my own again. Soon I was reeling in most of the riders from the pack that had just dumped me. About halfway up, I caught one guy who then stayed with me for most of the rest of the climb, but otherwise I was passing people like they were standing still (and a few of them were).
Starting down the other side, my right leg suddenly cramped and I had visions of last year's La Veta Century where I had to jump off the bike before both legs cramped up. But this time I was able to unclip and work out the cramp. I must have really moved up on the hill because no one caught me on the 8km downhill stretch. At the bottom, I was just starting to grind out the last 5km into Mondsee when a pack of about 10 caught me. I jumped on the back and was surprised to find that the pace wasn't too bad - I even ended up taking a short turn on the front. By the outskirts of town, we were moving along at a good clip, even shedding a couple of riders off the back. The final turn into town came quicker than I expected and I was able to join in a modest sprint to the finish line. My official time was 4:24:26 (56 minutes behind the leader) for 329th of 452 finishers. I was a bit surprised to be this far down in the standings, but apparently there were many people who didn't wear the timing chip and therefore don't appear in the final results. I'll just assume that there were lots of them and that they were all behind me...
Post-ride refreshments were decent - a bowl of pasta with your choice of two sauces, and a drink of your choice. Of course my choice was the Frankenmarkter Hefeweisse - very tasty after a few hours on the bike.
Later we got some ice cream (much more expensive than in Slovakia) and watched some of the 200km riders come in.
In the evening, we headed up a tiny one-lane road through the forest to the Hochsernerhof, an inn perched at the top of a Sound Of Music meadow with fantastic views of the Salzkammergut.
I had some sausages and a big glass of home-made Most (a kind of hard cider) and Cindi had the Holzhackertoast (woodcutter's toast), complete with fried eggs. A nice change from the more touristy scene in downtown Mondsee.
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