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Local Racing, Czech Repulic |
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Written by Adam Craig
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Friday, 08 June 2007 |
After having such a good time with the local racing at home (and in Minnesota), Kelli and I decided to sample some European local shenanigans. Some consultation with the UCI website, Michelin Europe Atlas and our Czech consultant, Katerina Hanusova, determined that racing one of the Czech Republic National Series races would be good eastern Europe local racing culture. Leaving Offenburg under a steady rain to drive further north and east seemed like folly at first, but after some driver switches and napping the clearing skies made it clear that we were doing the right thing. Unfortunately, in keeping with the local spirit, we didn’t have a plan other than knowing the race was in Ceska Kamenice, aboiut 25k from the German border. Since Elke is such a clever German speaker, she busted out the plan to simply roll towards the border and get a “frirenwonhung” (vacation rental apartment) somewhere cool looking.
Well, Bad Schandau, a town 7k from the border and on the banks of the Elbe River, looked pretty cool with it’s massive rock towers rimming the canyon surrounded by a national park. We saw a rental sign and stopped to check it out. Ten minutes later we were settled into a nice little place for the week at a very reasonable rate. I love it when a plan comes together. The rest of the week was spent exploring the area, riding into Czech through the parks, hanging out down by the river, watching South Park on Tom’s laptop, etc. Good, relaxing times.
The race snuck up on us pretty quickly, legs still a bit tired from getting tricked into going for awesome rides all week… Since Kelli raced a couple hours before me, I volunteered to sleep in and ride the 30k to the race as a warmup, not sure if this was a good idea, but you’re supposed to commute to local races by bike, I was just staying within the guidelines for good times. Upon arrival I was greeted with a scene that definitely was I the same spirit as the Cascade Chainbreaker but on a much bigger scale. Teams were parked up and down the tiny one lane streets surrounding a Senior Citizens Home with a full on race setup on the back lawn. Massive inflatable finish banner, DJ playing music and calling the women’s race, which was underway (20 minutes late, on par for local events…) and a bunch of people cheering and eating pork products. Looked like a good time. Little did I know that there was another DJ party area at one of the steep drops on the course as well, always good for the creation of crashes and ensuing heckling over the PA…
Just as I rolled up, Kelli came ripping by, the announcer calling her Gibson (her middle name) and giving an encouraging fifth place report. I was happy to hear fifth, as she was covered pretty solidly in black dirt, a sure sign of crashing while sweating… Fortunately, she was still riding strong and held down fifth for the last two laps, getting a good workout and a good confidence boost from last weekend’s German struggling.
The mens race started on schedule, twenty minutes too late. Also right on schedule was some random Czech guy slaying it for the first five minutes and putting a huge gap on the rest of us. Fortunately, some Spaniards and I had reeled him in by the top of fthe climb and set about railing some pretty awesome rocky, sandy singletrack. We all ran down the drop Kelli had packed it in on and admired her courage for even trying it… Starting the second lap I was feeling spry and had a go at the front. This lasted a few laps after the hugest, most musclebound racer I’ve ever seen broke his bike, not surprisingly… About midway through our seven laps I started to get realistic and the locals started reeling me in. One got by, then another, and I ended up sprinting with a fellow Czech Giant team rider for third place. He blew my doors off. Not even a contest. So I settled for 4th, which still got me some sweet podium time, after, in local spirit, each and every category was presented with their awards and trip up onto the blocks. Good money was given too, not sure what 9,000 Korun means but it seems like a lot when they give you a card saying that amount. Turns out it’s about four hundred bucks. Definitely enough to take Tom and Elke out for Greek Food and beers. Not before Kelli and I had a nice 30k cruise home into the sunset though, we need to get in shape, big World Cup race coming up this weekend in Switzerland…
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Kelli and Elke were very helpful with the driving to Czech… They watched Supertroopers in the back of the well-stuffed van… |
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