Berlin Champion!
Task
For the first time since 1992, the Berlin championships in the time trial and the single road race were held again. Embedded in a special scenery: the course stretched over ten laps and a total of 150 kilometres on the former airfield of Tempelhof Airport. The pure racing event was accompanied by the bicycle trade fair VELO Berlin, this time the national championship was not only open for starters of the national association. For our two Pushbikers Philip Weber and newcomer Moritz Malcharek, who started as a Brandenburger, a "must" . And crowned with success in the end: after good cooperation in the race, Philip crossed the finish line in third place and received the white and red champion's jersey with the black bear on his arm. A Berlin champion for the Pushbikers as a Bavarian Continental team.
For Philip Weber the national championship was the firing of a local racing block, which he rode besides the teams race calendar. He finished third at the Easter race on the Sachsenring, and most recently second in Mittenwalde, so it became clear to him: “There’s still something missing”. For Moritz, on the other hand, it was the first longer road race after a break due to illness, where he wanted to collect kilometres and support his team mate. “Because it was a bit boring or sleepy at the beginning, we tried to make the race difficult and went to the edge with Theo Reinhardt,” Malcharek said. The plan worked, the peloton split up and the two Pushbikers did their laps in the smaller leading group.
On the last lap, a rider from the Bike Market team tried to break away. Moritz Malcharek reacted immediately and tried to close the gap for Philip. Philip was on his own for the last few metres. “I decided to go full gas and not play poker. I saw that I only had two riders on my wheel and knew that they were not Berliners. Despite knowing that they were both going to roll over me from the back wheel in the wind, I kept going. I didn’t care at that moment because I wanted the Berlin championship title.” And that’s how it happened: Theo Reinhardt (Team Rad-net Oßwald) won ahead of Patrick Lechner (Team Bikeaid Development) and Philip Weber, who, as a “real Berliner”, also became Berlin champion.
