Open minded – World Champs

Hey guys,

Lately I’ve been asked if I will race at the World Champs in Lenzerheide, SUI.  Usually if the Worlds are in Europe there are on my schedule. It was the same this year and everything was going as planned. I was talking with some of the Romanian Federation officials and they told me that they will send a few juniors and U23 and one Elite rider only, explaining that if I wanna go on my own expense it should not be a problem. So I have sent the official request from the club and waited the confirmation (that never came).

I gave a few phone calls to some of the guys that are responsible for the National Mountainbike Team and asked about the status, but then surprise ! The request got rejected, on the phone. The answer was “simple”: even if they aren’t sending the maximum allowed riders for each category, they found a few reasons for this. Mainly I do’t have good results and the principle is “quality over quantity”.

I partially agree with the results only, but quality over quantity? I think it’s the wrong approach because everyone is sending the maximum allowed riders. I do have friends around the world that are in the same situation: they want it to go, their national federation didn’t have the budget but they were allowed to go on their own expense. And some of them live in the southern hemisphere!

Anyway, let me tell you all why I want to race at the Worlds:

– It’s the biggest mountainbike race of the year.

– I have more than 7 years of World Cups experience, so my knowledge would have been helpful for the whole team.

– It would have been a great marketing tool for the my charity project and a lot of people could find out why my bike is pink.

– My family and I made a lot of sacrifices and I trained hard and a lot for this specific race.

– I was going on my own expense.

The list is longer but I only want to express my point of view. You can agree with me or not, you can have your own point of view, that’s the nice thing.

Last time when I’ve represented Romania at the Worlds was in 2014 in Hafjell. You can still read about it HERE. I broke my hand in the 2nd lap, lost about 6 or 7 spots but I kept racing until I got lapped, finishing 94th.

I also share this photo album here just to remember the good, the bad and the ugly.

Last but not least, even if I don’t agree with the federation approach, I have to respect their decision, in every kind of relationships these things happen. From my point of view as a country we need as much exposure as possible.

I can only keep training, racing and hope to make it at the Worlds next years. I wish all the best to my fellow countryman and World Cup friends that will race in Lenzerheide. Fingers crossed!

Many thanks for the encouragements and support, especially from my family and sponsors.

Photo: Mihai Udvar