Martin Haring National Champion in Cyclocross, Zuzana Vojtášová takes bronze
Monday, 17 December 2012 17:58
The decision as to where this year’s National Championship would take place was taken at a cyclocross committee session back in February.
The race was organized in cooperation with Cycling Team Krupina (CT Krupina). There is a good reasoning for this decision. CT Krupina has a wide experience in organizing cyclocross races. Every time they organized a race, the level of the event was very high both in terms of the track standards and the provided background. Speaking of climate in the area, Krupina is one of the warmest places in Slovakia. The deal was good for both parties. CT Krupina is a very numerous team, full of people eager to give a hand whenever needed. Many of them posses also various types of soil mechanics and mechanics needed for the snow clearance and track preparation. Without these devices, it would have been hard to prepare the track on time – some 15 centimetres of heavy snow fell during the night preceding the race. The local football stadium in the centre of the city provided a great background for the race – warm changing rooms, race office, toilets, showers. Stadium surroundings provide a great field for a race organization. As a bonus, Krupina is a home of many good and talented cyclocross riders who were proud the National Championship would take place in their home town.
We of course did our bits in the race preparation as well – we financed and organized the whole event and helped by all means all throughout the race. The race was thus prepared at a professional level. All teams’ representatives, the president of Slovak Federation of Cycling, Peter Prívara and all racers and sponsors appreciated the level of the event.
Our good feeling and contentment of the work done was further amplified by the great results of our riders. Besides Martin Haring who reached his prime National Champion title, we had two other riders in the top 10 – Lukáš Bátora finished 4th, Róbert Glajza 6th. Martin Fraňo, Miroslav Debnár and Roman Zrelica 11-13th positions respectively.
In the Elite Men category, the duo Gavenda (Dukla Trenčín) Haring (CT Banská Bystrica) was leading from the very beginning. Both riders being about the same performance and technique level, very soon broke away from the rest of the group. They provided the spectators and media with a very thrilling performance. Haring took advantage of Gavenda’s faults and was keeping a safe distance of about 10 meters for 2 laps. Both riders gave their best, whoever made a small mistake, had to pay the price. Haring as well encountered some technical difficulties in the muddy steep technical sections what enabled Gavenda –riding without any problems in this section- to come back to Haring. Haring, on the contrary was stronger in all the rest of the technical sections and in the stairs. It was most likely the stairs section that decided of the later winner – Gavenda tripped over one step and lost the decisive fraction of time. He tried to come back on Haring, but didn’t have enough time and energy as Haring was riding at his maximum capacity to the finish line. He was driven by a motivation of getting his fist National Champion title which is all the more special as he reached it in the Elite Men Category.
The supposed winner in the Elite Women category Tereza Medveďová was leading from the start. Due to some faults and technical mistakes and a great performance of Lívia Hanesová, it was an interesting duel between these two racers in the first half of the race. Lívia was definitely stronger in the power demanding parts. But lack of experience in her first season at a cyclocross bike, weak technique and several falls caused her drop to second and later to fourth place. Zuzana Vojtášová riding at a sight to the leading duo and getting closer by each lap didn’t take any risks. She later fought for the silver medal with a triathelete Kristína Lapinová, but lost and finished in 3rd place only a second after her rival. We do appreciate Zuzana’s bronze medal and the 4th place of Lívia despite hoping for better results.
Martin Fraňo, Chairman of the Cyclocross Committee at the Slovak Federation of Cycling said after the race: “From a director of the race and a Chairman of the Cyclocross committee point of view I am satisfied with the outcome of the National Championship race. Track was very interesting, organization level was very high and the medal races were many times decided literally in a sprint on the finish line. The spectators were rewarded for coming by really good spectacles. Many people appreciated the National Championship moved from Prievidza where the Championship was disputed over the past few years. We do want to continue in this trend, and plan to present the National Championship race to a new town again.
From a Manager of CT Banská Bystrica point of view I am very satisfied with Martin Haring’s performance and result. He was fighting hard and rode at his fullest potential. He deserved the victory and clearly dethroned the ex-European Champion Robert Gavenda. I also am glad my dream to get at least one National Champion title for the team, either in road, MTB or cyclocros, has come true – many have doubted this goal. Of course no one doubted Peter Sagan would take the gold in the road race. We were close to gold in MTB-XC but the winner Lami was stronger – Martin got bronze medal in that race. But he managed to reach for the gold in his strongest discipline, in CX Championship at last. I am also very happy for Lukáš’s fourth place – many might overlook this result, but taking into account his health problems what prevented him in taking part in almost half of the racing season, his 4th place is a great placing. We do count on him in the next season, he definitely is our black horse for the next year’s Championship. I am a bit disappointed by our women’s performance – we could have taken 2 medals, with a little bit of luck we could have taken the gold one as well. But I guess I shouldn’t be that gready and should be happy with one victory in the Elite Men category and be satisfied with a bronze in Women’s race. I rate our this year’s cyclocross performance well. Martin Haring also finished first in the Overall Classification of the Slovak BCF Cup, our team finished 3rd in the Team Classification (we lost to Žiar nad Hronom and Podbrezová) due to injuries of our good riders Longauer and Bátora. With them racing, I believe we could have defeated Žiar nad Hronom."
Martin Haring: „We were only two in the lead with Robert. We had a pretty big gap to the third Milan and other riders. We both tried to break away, there were many temptations all throughout the race. The decisive moment I believe came with some 3 laps to go when a small gap of 5-10 seconds separated us. Robert got back to me after my collision with a tree next to the slippery track. I managed to keep my position and later even profited of Robert’s fault on the stairs. When I reached the stadium where the finish line was, I knew my gap would be sufficient.”
Miroslav Debnár: "I didn’t have any special expectations of the National Championship race, it was a normal race for me. I have no cyclocross riding skills so didn’t expect any surprise in this race. I only tried to ride my best. I enjoyed the race course, didn’t even mind the mud in technical sections. I didn’t appreciate the track getting more and more slippery with each lap. After two falls I didn’t feel like taking any more risks.”
Zuzana Vojtášová: „If I should name the conditions I don’t like or particularly dislike, then it would be snow, ice and slippery track. So definitely not a joyride for me today. I didn’t have time to train much over the past few weeks, so even the performance level was not as it should be for the Nationals. It’s a pity I didn’t have a slightly luckier day as the later winner Tereza didn’t perform well today either and was defeatable, Gold was really at stake for all of us today. I lost my Silver medal in the last cornering – I underestimated the wet wheel rims, couldn’t brake and lost the decisive meters to Kristína who I would have easily beaten in sprint otherwise as she’s very strong but not fast.”
Lívia Hanesová: "I had a good day today, I was riding with Tereza almost from the start. I wanted to ride along with her, but due to my technical mistakes I started to loose my position in the 3rd lap. I also encountered some technical difficulties with the bike, I believe that everyone fell or slid somewhere along the course, so those who made less mistakes were the winners today.”
Ján Malachovský, president of CT BB: "It’s great to watch a race when your rider is going for his National Champion title. I share Martin’s happiness over his Gold and am happy for the Bronze medal Zuzana managed to get in the Women’s race. I was very satisfied with the performance of all our riders who took today’s challenge and finish today’s very demanding race (L. Hanesová, L. Bátora, R. Glajza, M. Fraňo, R. Zrelica, M. Debnár). I also appreciate our exemplary cooperation with Cycling Team Krupina. I am already looking forward to the next year!”
Results and final Slovak cyclocross BCF standings
TV report in Slovak television 17.12.2012 (starting from 17:10min)
Góly, body, sekundy (16.12.2012, 14:20min)
Photogallery of Adriana Vajsova-Korytkova
Photogallery on facebook
