XCO National Champs – better but not enough
24 Jul
Last week end we had the XCO National Championships as many other countries. Me and the rest of the crew, including my dad arrived in Paltinis Friday to accommodate with the climate and the course.
Had a fast meal and got on the bikes. The course was slightly modified from the last years and got a few “chicken lines” but nothing important. But it was something else about the course. Many riders were riding it for the whole week and it was pretty destroyed. So many rocks and roots were showing off after each lap. But lucky me I saw some unexplored lines that were pretty safe and fast enough. Even like that having some one in front of you was suicide. It was so dusty that you couldn’t see 2 meters in front of you even after 15-20 seconds.
A few laps on the course on Friday and checking a few new lines on Saturday were enough. Practicing on the course caused a few accidents for some riders and I thought that is better to give the best during the race. Sunday was the big day. I even had to adjust my bike setup a bit too so I’ve changed from Continental Race King to X-King and it was a good decision. Also adding some pressure to my Lefty helped me to stay on the course much more than I was expected.
My legs were pretty sore but it wasn’t the time to complain. I had a pretty good start and I was confident and feeling good on the descends but also on the uphills. As I told you the course was changing after each lap. I had a short bit of track that I though that it was safer but also faster to run, even if it was a descend because in the practice laps I didn’t manage to make the turn right after. In the first two laps everything was going well but in the third lap I had a crash that almost broke the front derailleur and the rear brake lever. I’ve continued like that but at the tech zone I tried to fix at least the brake. After that I had problems with the chain that was falling of the chainrings because of the derailleur and I was loosing at least 30-40 seconds/lap stopping and putting the chain back.
So after a start loop and 6 hard laps – 29km with 1335m alti. up, I’ve managed to finish the race 6th overall. That is 4 places better than last year but this makes me happy only on one side. If you federation will send the results to UCI I’ll be able to race next year in the World Cup with the team jersey ! Of course if we will get the points, because I am really afraid something fishy is going on – our National Championship doesn’t appear on the UCI 2012 calendar. If we won’t get any points this year I can say that every time someone is trying to promote this sport in Romania, no matter who is useless if our federation is not able to promote their own Championships and don’t deserve to go in 4 years to the Olympic Games in Brasil !
Anyway my team mate Tudor finish 2nd and Eli 3rd. Zoli was 8th. We were the team with most riders at the finish line.
I had a great crew behind that cheered me up: my dad who was for the first time at a race with me outside Cluj, all the people on the course that cheered me up in every possible was, a group of kids that were in a camp and were screaming like on the major World Cup courses, Raluca and Cristi who helped me at the pit zones and so on. I am a bit ashamed because I was feeling like a snail with such a great support and I wasn’t able to race faster.
Me and my dad right after the official training session (he was riding his bike too but not on the course)
All this things motivated me and motives me to train harder for the next races.
And once again I can not finish this race report with the special thanks to all my sponsors and partners: Maros Bike, Cannondale Bicyles, Ashima, Continental, Sapim Spokes, Adidas Eyewear, Cratoni, Tune, Xpedo, Grip Grab, Sram, Restwise, Joe’s No Flats, Kool Stop, TruckerCo, Light-Bikes.ro and VDO.
A bigger gallery with photos from the training sessions and race can be found if you click HERE
I wouldn’t like to forget to let you know about the live show from Transilvania Live where I was invited Thursday (before leaving to the Nationals) to talk about my pink Cannondale Flash and the whole story behind this bike.
Keep in touch.
Cheers,
Vlad
No comments yet