What an experience, what a race! The 22nd place at the Olympic Road Race was certainly the Highlight of my career. After a long preparation it all came down to this one day, to these 254km in Beijing. I knew I was in excellent shape, that all training had gone well and thanks to my sponsors (Adidas, Schwalbe, Tune, Schmolke, Lightweight and Giant) I had the best equipment available.

Unfortunately I missed the opening ceremony, because the race was on the following day. Instead, while cleaning my bike, I noticed that my frame had a small crack at the bottom bracket! I still tried desperately to get a replacement bike, but only managed to organize myself a (not-so-high-end) aluminum bike, which did not fit my measurements. I decided to take the chance and to ride on my broken frame, which luckily did not cause any problems during the event.

The start was in the south of Beijing, then passed through the city centre, heading north, crossing the famous Tiananmen Square, towards the Great Wall of China. This first part was not too fast, two cyclists had attacked and the big names were happy to relax in the first hour of the race. Things started to heat up, when a group of 26 pulled clear, among them big names like Jens Voigt, Carlos Sastre and Kim Kirchen.

The Americans and Russians had missed this break and combined forces to bring the leaders. When we arrived on the finishing circuit, a 23.8km lap with 13km of climbing, the gap was down to 1:20. But only with 70km to go the last of breakaway were finally reeled in. For me it was just amazing to be there, among these famous riders, seeing the peloton getting smaller and smaller every lap. With one lap remaining I was still crossing the line with all the favorites and going up the brutal climb the last time. Unfortunately I was a bit far back on the ascend and also a bit too careful not to blow up. I didn`t follow the attacks of the big names and suddenly all were gone and I found myself in the chasing group of 20 riders. In the final sprint I had a good "lead out" and secured my 22nd place by finishing third of our group.