König-Ludwig-Lauf

February 12, 2006

At König-Ludwig-Lauf Gold Master skiers could choose between a 50 km FT race on Saturday February 4 and a 50 km CT race on Sunday February 5. Silver Master skiers had a 23 km FT race on Saturday and a 23 km CT race on Sunday. Assiduous WL skiers who wished to ski on both days had a rich choice of four combinations: Silver/Silver, Silver/Gold, Gold/Silver and Gold/Gold. The Silver Master races were easy; the only difficulty appeared in the first 6 km in a couple of fast but straight descents. In the following we will describe the Gold races. The Oberammergau area had abundant snow and the tracks were excellent.

König-Ludwig-Lauf 50 km FT

The weather was sunny though a sort of mist veiled the mountain peaks, with a temperature around -10°C at the start warming up during the day. After the Graswang area where the 23 km race turned back towards Oberammergau, the track led up towards the Linderhof Castle via a path with many turns on fields, in a river-bed and in forests. After the castle area there were a series of climbs followed by a descent shown as dangerous by a sign-post but in fact funny to negotiate. The track returned backwards on the other side of the road and passed in front of the castle. Then we had the hardest climb of the race but we were rewarded by the 2 km long descent that led down towards Graswang. From there on, the last 15 km were flat. 826 skiers finished the race. The winner’s time was 2.02.50.

Some results:

König-Ludwig-Lauf 50 km CT

The course was exactly the same as for the FT race and the weather about the same except that the morning fog cleared up offering beautiful views on the Alps. 1508 skiers finished the race. The winner’s time was 2.18.36. This time the descent before the Linderhof Castle was a little bit icy and the density of skiers higher, therefore most citizen skiers took it slowly.

Some results:

This page was last revised on September 16, 2007