Haring awarded as best cyclocross rider of the year, Hanesová crowned Miss of Cycling 2012
Slovak cyclists met to review events of the past year in a festive gala evening The Golden Pedal 2012. The event took place in Holiday Inn in Bratislava on the eve of December 28. CT BB riders were once again among awarded sportsmen.
Slovak Federation of Cycling invited not only members of the team to the presentation, but also our sponsors who have big influence on improving level of cycling in the country – representatives of companies Merida and BCF were thus present. Our members Haring and Hanesová came to collect their awards along with Ján Glajza, father of our team member and National Coach of Cyclocross, Robert Glajza. Ján Glajza was awarded for his long-life contribution to cycling. Vojtášová and Robert Glajza along with representatives of the cyclocross committee Fraňo and Longauer also attended the event.
Martin Haring was awarded as the best Cyclocross rider of the year. He earned this prize presented by Martin Fraňo, President of the Cyclocross Committee, based on his great this year’s results. He upheld his last year’s victory in the Slovak national cup and became a National Champion for the first time in his career. He proved himself also during the previous days when finishing 30. in a World Cup race in Zolder, Belgium, where he defeated great legends of the sport such as Vanthourenhout or Gerben de Kneght.
„I am glad I made my way to this exceptional event. I truly appreciate my nomination, it reflects the great results I obtained this year in various disciplines of cycling – in MTB, on the road where I won a queen stage in a UCI race Sibiu Tour. I also see big improvements in my most favorite discipline, in cyclocross. The National Champion title means a lot to me and is a great challenge and motivation to the future.“ commented Martin Haring on his successful season.
„Martin made a huge step in his cycling career. His improvement is clearly visible and he proves his qualities over and over consistently throughout the whole year. Unfortunately further steps and further notable improvements are in question due to financial limits of our team. He showed already many times his qualities and proved he is highly motivated and capable to compete the world’s best athletes at World Cups and World Championship. He’s not very far from finishing in top 20, with a bit of sports luck also in top 10. He does deserve the award – it is in fact an act of appreciation of all the work there has been done recently by the Cycling Team Banská Bystrica.“ were Martin Fraňo’s words after the Awards Ceremony
Another team member, Ladislav Longauer, was helpful in awarding another discipline. Last year it was him who was nominated for a Fair Play Award for saving life of a Rwanda rider during Tour the Cameroon 2011. This year he had the honor of awarding two cyclists who both saved a life of someone either in a race or during their training – Martin Kostelničák and Robert Bartko.
Our team member Lívia Hanesová once again succeeded in the Beauty contest organized by our National Cycling Federation. She improved her last year’s second place and clearly won the internet poll – she received 1.969 votes out of the total 5.830 and became the Beauty Queen of Slovak Cycling 2012. Award ceremony was carried out by last year’s winner Karin Baumlová. The exhibition rider Alica Vinczeová and track rider Alžbeta Pavlendová finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the poll.
„I would like to thank everyone who voted for me. I do appreciate this Beauty Queen title since it is something unique. I want to express my gratitude to the whole team – I entered the team more by a coincidence and a brand new world opened in front of me. The experience I earned over a short period of time are really immense. I got to learn a lot about cycling background about the training and got to see new places and meet new people all over the world. I participated as a rider in an international race Tour de Himalayas in Pakistan and as a support team member in Tour the Slovakia, Tour de Guyane, Tour de Loiret and other races in Morocco and Cameroon. I experienced all this in a period of one year – my first year with a serious approach to training which was rewarded by three bronze medals from the National Championships – in road, up-hill time trial and in MTB marathon. Because of all these events, I am truly graceful for winning the miss sympathy poll at the end of the season. Cycling is a great way of spending leisure time and I am happy I can be part of it in a team such as this one. I sincerely wish for more girls and women to enter the competition level of cycling in the near future“ were Lívia’s words regarding the Miss of Slovak Cycling 2012 and a short overview of her whole season.
The award for a life long contribution to cycling, an imaginary Hall of Fame, was awarded to Ján Glajza Sr. by the last year’s award holder Kamil Haťapka. Ján Glajza Sr. organized many cycling races in his life, was a coach of the most successful cyclocross team in Czechoslovakia, LŠ Poprad and a great racer himself. He devoted all his life to cycling and helped to train many National Champions of Slovakia and Czechoslovakia and a double World Champion Ondrej Glajza (his son). At the end of his active career, he organized the World Championship in Cyclocross in Poprad – Spišská Teplica in 1999.
Evening program later followed with a life music performances by Katarína Hasprová and Robert Halák, a cycling exhibition by ladies Vinczeová and Szaboová and a trial exhibition carried out by a legend of the discipline and a current President of the Trial Committee Štefan Pčola performed with kind assistance of the President of Slovak Federation of Cycling, Peter Prívara.
The Awards Ceremony of the Golden Pedal, rewarding cyclists irrespective of their cycling category, was the most important part of the day. This price was awarded, by no surprise, to a Slovak Tourminator Peter Sagan who vindicated also his last year’s victory. Winner of several stages and the holder of Green jersey from Tour de France finished first in the poll, followed by Peter Velits who finished second in Tour de Oman and became a World Champion in Team Time Trial and Martin Velits third, with Tour de France assistance to his team being his biggest accomplishments of this year.
Photos: Erik Hirner
Full picture gallery on facebook
l
