Haring in 50th place in World Championship XC
The 23. World Championship in Cross-country and Trial was held in a near-by Austria, in Saalfelden, 6.-9. September.
The 23. World Championship in Cross-country and Trial was held in a near-by Austria, in Saalfelden, 6.-9. September. Due to its proximity, the MTB XC committee decided to nominate 10 riders overall. In the Elite Men category, our rider Martin Haring was chosen to represent Slovakia along with the current Champion of Slovakia, Michal Lami.The Elite Men’s race was dominated by the Swiss. After 4 years, they once agains succeeded in claiming all 3 places on the podium, the winner being runner-up from the London Olympics, Nino Schurter. 2nd and 3rd beign taking by the brothers Lukas and Matias Fluckingers. The always top class Julien Absalon finished 4th. Dominance of the Hervetic cross was underlined by the 5th place going to Fabian Giger. Our best rider finished 31st - Michal Lami and Martin Haring made it half way through the start list to 50th place.
Martin shared his feeling of the track: “I didn’t like the track very much. There were no steep uphill nor downhill sections, the climbs were rather long and tyring. Lots of technical sections in the forest, especially in the downhill parts, with lots of slippery roots. The track in these sections wasn’t very wide either, it was hard to overtake someone here – one could very easily loose a lot of time here, definitelly it was easier to loose than to gain here, especially since I started from the 2 row from back due to a lack of points. I didn’t expect any miraculous placing – my finish in the middle of the peloton seems in this strong comeptition, my way back starting position as my maximum given the conditions I had. So yes, I am rather satisfied by my result. I was a bit sorry though being called off the race 2 laps before the finish – my average lap time were comparable to our best rider, Michal Lami who was able to finish the race without being lapped. But due to my big time dropout of circa 1:30min. in the first lap caused by my poor starting position, I was called off due to the 80% time limit. My overall impressions are really positive though, I am already looking forward to the next season where I’d like to focus more on mountainbiking. It is my most favorite discipline, I would like to set it out as my priority and participate in more UCI races in the region as well. Now I look forward to my training camps before the cyclocross seasons start 22 September in Czech Loštice.“
