Clujul Pedaleaza – 3rd stage

16 Jul

After a DNF at Corvin Marathon after only 5km, some hard training days and a lot of sleep, I’ve raced again in our local championship Clujul Pedaleaza. This stage was sponsored mainly by our shop MarosBike.ro.

With my team mate Eli, we’ve managed to modify the course a bit from last year edition and make it more dynamic for riders and spectators. Unfortunately it didn’t rain at all and it was a bit sandy on some sections (where I almost got outside the course a couple of times) but it was pretty fun, fast and with hard climbs.

The course was 4.2km long and 7 laps had to be done. After a good warm up, I had a good and fast start. This was also because I want it to be the first one on the singletrail because I knew I was pretty fast there. My team mates Eli and Tudor passed me after almost a lap and I knew I am to tired to keep such a pace, so I’ve concentrated to sustain a steady pace.

In the end I’ve finished 3rd and also managed to remain 3rd overall. Eli was first and Tudor second. I am pretty happy with the result, really motivated and confident that I will be stronger !

You can see more photos on my picasa account if you click HERE.

And once again I can not finish this race report with the special thanks to all my sponsors and partners: Maros Bike, Cannondale Bicyles, Ashima, Continental, Sapim Spokes, Adidas Eyewear, Cratoni, Tune, Xpedo, Grip Grab, Sram, Restwise, Joe’s No Flats, Kool Stop, TruckerCo, Light-Bikes.ro and VDO.

Without them it would be almost impossible to do the thing that I enjoy most: riding my bike. Also I would like to say thank you to the photographers on the course (maybe I’ll get more photos), to Laura (my team mate Zoly’s wife) for the help with the waterbottles, and of course to my family (my dad and Simona) for being next to me even if I am on the podium or not.

Having such a great support means a lot and pushes me when it’s hard.

The next race will be the Romanian National XCO Championships and I do hope to get a better result than last year. So wish me good luck and keep your fingers crossed for me !

L.E. – I totally forgot to mention that our team manager Tudor Maros and his son raced. It was nice to cheer him. His son, Catalin was 3rd but Tudor needs to get on the bike from time to time to get on the podium. Anyway we were pretty proud to see him racing.

Cheers,
Vlad

Later Edit:

Here you have a video and a some TV news about this race. You can spot me in both videos a few times.

Enjoy!