Romanian XCO Championship

This is one of the fastest race reports this season, and I least hope to have more inspiration.

The Romanian National XCO Championship is one of the most important races of the season, each season for the last 13 years since I am racing. I’ve never missed it. Since no 13 passed away I hope that  will be luckier.

The race was Saturday on the same course that a week before was the XCO from Paltinis Stage Race. So I kinda knew it. During the week the course was pretty abused so it got pretty loose.

Arrived there on Friday evening with my wife Simona. Had a short warm up and then got on the course to check it. Everything went fine but I was feeling nervous about the race.

On Saturday I tried to get into the race mood and focus on what I have to do. The start was at 1:30pm. The temperatures where about 30C.

Tried to hydrate myself as best as possible. I also searched a pace that I tried to held until the end of the race. I’ve made a few mistakes as I want to be as fast as possible in the dusty and loose soil but I knew the risks.

On the fifth lap I was 6th but Tudor came back pretty strong and I couldn’t keep the pace with him, finishing 7th. It’s one place better than last year, I wasn’t lapped like at Paltinis Stage Race and I had a better time overall but everything is bitter-sweet, because I trained for a better result. Next race, new chance.

The bike worked awesome as usual, didn’t had any kind of mechanical problems. The only problem was my “engine” who couldn’t get more power. I am still motivated to do well for the rest of the season so I will continue training and racing.

I would like to thanks my wife Simona for being next to me before, during and after the race, always being supportive. Also many thanks to Iustin and Suzi for their help at the feedzone, to everyone who cheered me up.  Even if there were only a fraction of the spectators we had a week before you were great.

Last but not least, many thanks as usual to my sponsors for their continuous support. It’s an honor to represent you all.

See ya all at the upcoming races.

Cheers,

Vlad