XCO Hammersdorf

Before I will head to the next race, I’ve found some time to write about the last race: XCO Hammersdorf, in Sibiu. I could choose to go somewhere else but I said to try even though the guys were at their first edition. Went there on Saturday with Marius, to have the chance to check the course. Mainly was oldschool and open field with long climbs, long descents but there was a nice section in the woods with some drops, switchbacks and short hard climbs. Here’s a short clip with the track preview:

But the raceday wasn’t too promising: it rained in the morning and almost dried out. We had the start and everything went in the good direction, until the rained started. Then the course transformed lap by lap into a giant clay pudding. The woody section was almost impossible to ride on the bike and the open field part of the course was slippery. Then the organizers decided to cut a lap from the total, in order to keep us safe.

I’ve risked with dry condition tires but I wasn’t the best choice. Anyway I’ve found out the limit of the Michelin Wild Racer tires and now I know it. To be honest, for that kind of tire it offers a lot of traction and control. I didn’t quite expect it so I mush say I am pretty happy with it. Finished 7th at Elite but in the end Marius was the lucky guy to with the big prize at the lottery: a new bike.

I look forward to the next race in Iasi, an UCI C2 XCO. Will be my first time there and I hope it will be a nice experience. This week training went pretty well so I hope to have a good race.

Many thanks to my family, everyone who cheered me up before, during and after the race and especially my sponsors, thanks to them I have this great support.

Cheers,

Vlad

Foto: Fabian Karoly Pal