Maros Bike XCO Cup – UCI C1

8 Apr

I am happy that now I have the mood and the time to write the race report earlier than I did before. Today I’ll tell you about the one and only UCI XCO Race in Romania – Maros Bike XCO Cup – UCI C1, a project of Team.MarosSport.ro, coordinated by one of my team mates Eli.

This year was even special as on the starting list we had two guys that worldwide ranked in top 50 and other riders from: Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia, Ukraine and Germany. Like a mini World Cup.

As I’ve told you before, the long winter in Romania didn’t allow me to prepare as I want it to, but now I start to feel stronger and confident. Also this was my first race with my new bike, the custom pink Cannondale Flash. I had only a few days to ride it before the event and I had to get used with the new position, geometry and new brakes feeling. I was lucky enough and felt good on the new bike did not had any mechanical issues.

Anyway I had an awful start, entering almost the last one on the course after the start loop, loosing precious seconds. Didn’t count to much for my moral as I tried to make my own race, to keep a good and constant rhythm. My first lap was the slowest, after that I’ve managed to ride faster even if I was reached by the leader and stopped by the race marshals. I’ve decided to run the longest and hardest climb of the race because I wasn’t fast enough not to skid and having there a sticky mud I though that is better not load my tires. On the other side, on the descends I was pretty confident and had a good control with a wider handlebar and without bar ends. The crew at the feedzone was always ready with waterbottles for me and my team mates that were racing so thanks again for the help !

A lot of cheering groups on the course gave me some extra power every time and once again I must say: I love to race in my hometown ! Feels good !

Overall I’ve finished 20th. Not my best result, but for sure I was faster than in Serbia and I hope that for the next races I will be even faster, because I feel like I need to kick some ass. Until then I would like to congratulate everyone that helped this event to be really nice organized. I bet that everyone had a nice time and enjoyed the course.

Once again I would like to appreciate the support of my sponsors: Maros Bike, Cannondale Bicyles, Ashima, Continental, Sapim Spokes, Adidas Eyewear, Cratoni, Tune, Xpedo, Grip Grab, Sram, Restwise, Joe’s No Flats, Kool Stop, TruckerCo and Light-Bikes.ro