Cyclists taking part in 40th edition of Euroloppet XC skiing race Biela Stopa
Almost all riders of CK BB took part in Biela stopa, an Euroloppet XC skiing race. While two members of the team, Glajza and Haring were still racing with the Slovak National team in spanish mud, the remaining riders were waxing their skis for the weekend adventure. Newly acquired member of the team Marek Čanecký joined the XC-ski team as well for the already 40th edition of the race.
It was also Marek who finished best of our team – he claimed 46th place among the 268 skiers in the long 45km free style race. Our other members finished around the 100th place: Fraňo 91., Debnár 100., Viglaský 104., Novák 121. Zuzana Vojtášová finished 9th out of the 21 women in the long race. Skiers from Bulgaria won the race in both categories – Tsinzov in men and Grigorova-Burgova in women.
Longauer finished in 70th place (5th in his age group) out of the 286 skiers in the short 25km race. Zrelica finished 102th. Lívia Hanesová claimed 18th position out of 54 women. Winners in their respective categories were Brunn and Daniela Kotschová.
Some of our members decided to take part also in the 30km classic style race the following day. So four members, Fraňo, Debnár, Longauer and Vojtášová put their skis on again Sunday morning. Miro Debnár took full advantage of his fish style skis and prevailed over other team members. He finished 47th out of 244 skiers. Fraňo finished 57th, Longauer 71st. Vojtášová took 8th place out of the 21 women participating. The Bulgarian Tsinzov won again and Klementová was fastest among women.
"It was only my 4th time skiing free style. So I said to myself I should go for the long 45km race, I’d have more time to learn it. My 100th place is not that bad after all, but I did lack power in the last kilometers. I prefered the Sunday classic style race better and I’m happy I won the unofficial “team championships in XC classic style” and claimed 47th place overall using my old fish style skis” joked Miro Debnár in the finish.
"It was my first experience with this race. I wanted to finish better - just to beat my brother's best result from couple years ago when he finished 37th. But with my starting position in the very back of the starting field, I had to find my way up all basically during the whole race and I didn't have enough energy to finish any better than 46. It'll be better next year" Marek Čanecký
“I don’t have that much experience with cross-country skiing yet, but I’m happy I did the first XC skiing race in my life. It’s a great training and I will definitelly be at start of the next year’s edition. XC skiing is a great preparation for cyclists and races such as these are also always a lot of fun" said the current miss of Slovak cycling, Lívia Hanesová.
“I’m happy that almost all members of the team participated in the Biela stopa race. Cross-country skiing and even racing in the off season is definitelly one of the best training options for cyclicst in winter. That’s also why many cyclists were at the start line – Broniš, Belas – the former MTB national coach and many others. We had a big handicap by starting from the far back, I do believe Marek Čanecký would have otherwise finished in top 30 and the rest of us in the top 100. I hope we qualifed for better starting position for the next year’s edition. As for me personally, I haven’t trained as much as other years – I only had 6 trainings prior to the race and the last time I used my classic style skis was in 2008. Despite the inadequate training, I decided to take part in both races. My results are the worst I ever achieved in this race, but I did spend a great and usefull weekend for my cycling preparation. We finished the weekend by a night hockey game in Zvolen. It’s always fun to meet off season in such an occasion“ said manager and rider of the team, Martin Fraňo.
"I had a great starting position – I started both days from the 1st corridor as the only CK BB rider. This small advantage was also a small reward for my long-term presence in the race. I did my best, couldn’t run any faster. I was fighting for a 3rd place in the Saturday race, but lacked more power in the finish. It was more of a team-chase with Fraňo and Debnár in the Sunday race who lack the good classic style technique though – nice individual races inbetween cyclists, interesting for the public too. I’m glad I took part in the race and am looking forward to the next year’s edition already" said the cycling and cross-country skiing veteran Ladislav Longauer.
“I’m happy with my past weekend. Great endurance weekend topped with a race intensity, the best winter preparation I can get. I managed to increase the amount of my XC-skiing training kilometers to 200km by taking part in both races over the weekend plus I used my classic style skis for the first time after 7 years. It took me some time to get accustomed to it, but got into it after few falls. The race actually inspired me for some classic style training. What I like about XC skiing most though is the fact that it’s one of the few sports where technique and experience of older sportsmen might be of advantage over power and endurance of the young. Young and really old sportsmen mix perfectly in the result list“ were words of Zuzana Vojtášová.
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