German vice-champion in downhill. Helen Weber rocks Ilmenau

On August 19, Ilmenau summoned the best DH riders to Thuringia for the German Downhill Championships. This prestigious event offers spectacular moments on the challenging course. Helen spontaneously signed up for the start list, and this is how the E-Enduro World Cup rider describes how it came about: “I actually just wanted to visit a friend, and now I'm German Vice Downhill Champion! The original plan was just to visit my friend Raphaela Richter, who lives near Ilmenau, and go cycling together. We spontaneously decided to take part in the race - my first ever downhill race. I didn't really know what to expect, except that it's a cool course, the seeding run on Saturday decides the starting order and the final run takes place on Sunday.”

Although she had only traveled with her Enduro R.E375, the track walk - the joint inspection of the track before training - gave her the decisive positive kick. Helen sums up her first impression of the track: “Even during training, I quickly realized that I felt really comfortable on the track with my enduro bike and got faster from lap to lap. Most of the course ran through a cleared section of forest and was therefore very open. The ground was super fresh, dusty and loose, and most of the berms were quickly bombed out or disappeared completely. Pushing where you could find some grip on the loose ground and maintaining momentum was the key. There were one or two places where I reached my limits on the enduro bike. Overall, the R.E375 is such a solid all-rounder on the downhill that I was able to really push everywhere.” 

Helen's strategy already worked in the seeding run: stick to the line choice known from training and convert the speed. The result: a clean seeding run as second fastest. The weather completely reshuffled the cards on race Sunday, so Helen was all the more pleased with a successful finale: “It started to rain heavily on Sunday after the last practice session, but Raphaela and I were confident that we could cope with the changed conditions. After my good seeding run, I was naturally really motivated to give it my all again. Despite a few minor mistakes, I managed to put in a solid run and finished in second place behind Rapha! Of course it was a real shame that Nina crashed in the final run, but I couldn't have been happier for anyone else to take the title than for Rapha. All the girls were so happy for us, it was really special. I'm proud that we were able to show just how high the level in German enduro racing has become and that we can also really compete in downhill.” Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Photo Credit: @mediamoni (Monica Gasbichler)