Paltinis Stage Race

Last but not least blog post for today is about the last week end race.

Paltinis Stage race is already a tradition in Romania and is the 2nd race of the challenge called Triada MTB. Again with Marius, we went Thursday. The course was totally new and the first experience was on slippery mud and grass. Luckily it wasn’t sticky. I had a few crashes but everything turned out to be ok.

On Friday I’ve made another few laps just to check the course. The organizers want to had a modern course and it has everything that needs but there were a few corners where everyone had to do some trials or get off the bike and some jumps that only an ex-FourCross rider cleared them. There is place for improvements but overall was pretty cool. It’s technical and I like it.

Saturday / XCO UCI C2 Race: I’ve helped Marius and others with water bottles at the feed zone first and it was kind fun, but I still prefer to race. Then at 3pm sharp I had the start with the Men Elite. Everything went well and was riding strong but then I’ve made more small mistakes that costed me time. I’ve also missed a bottle in the 3rd lap but I was lucky with Catalin and Dan from the other feedzone that handed me some water. Thanks guys, you rock.

I want to do all the laps but the leader caught me and I had to be pleased with 5 laps out of 6 and 13th place overall even though I was putting every ounce of energy into the pedals.  I was missing only 3 spots to score more UCI points. I think that sometimes I have to do first some steps backwards in order to progress.

Sunday / XCP: I knew the course from the last years and the first climb is a killer. After the start a lot of riders that were competing at the amateur race who had the day before 3 or even 2 laps passed me before the first descend and this was pretty frustrating, but at the middle of first climb my legs started to feel better and I’ve started to enjoy the race. As the start and finish area wasn’t the same the organizers put us to ride on the side of the road where it was more dangerous than on the wood single trails because all the junk found. A lot of riders cut their tires there (I was lucky to have some fresh rubber and awesome sealant). Maybe for the next year they will find some other trails?

After 2h sharp I’ve finished 11th at Elite and 13th overall out of 165 male riders and I hope that everything will go just fine this week end at the National XCO Championships.

Many thanks to everyone who cheered me up, who helped me before, during and after the race, it’s always motivating, but also many thanks once again to my family and sponsors for making this possible.

Also big up to Extreme Riders Distribution (Cannondale dealer in Romania) for coming to Paltinis, having a few riders from the employees, and for their support during and after the races ! I really appreciate it

See ya soon. Cheers,

Vlad

photo credits: Stefan Uricariu, Ioana Simen

PS. more photos and a short clip will come soon. Stay tuned.