First this year’s National Champion 2013 title goes to Haring
Sunday, 19 May 2013 20:03
This year’s first National Championships (NCh) was under way past weekend in Dolná Maríková in north-west Slovakia, sponsored by the local FC Team. The 64km course witnessed a fight for a National Championship title in MTB marathon.
Despite the rather unusually short lenght, the course was very demanding both in terms of its profile and numerous technical sections and single trails in the Maríková valley. Only one of our two Elite Women took start, the previous year’s medal holder Lívia Hanesová. Zuzana Vojtášová did not start due to her ongoing illness. Our team was bigger in numbers in the Men’s category – Róbert Glajza, Lukáš Bátora, Jozef Palčák and the later winner Marting Haring.
A group of five riders broke from the rest of the field in the first climb, Barényi, Kuril, Jež - the runner-up from last year, Bátora and Haring. In the following climb Martin Haring tried to get a short time advantage that he managed to retain until the finish line. Milan Barényi finished second and our rider Lukáš Bátora showing great form and effort all throughout the race completed the trio of medal holders. Jozef Palčák finished 9th, Róbert Glajza 13th.
Martin Haring shared his happiness right after the finish: „I am very happy for today’s victory, although I am a bit disappointed not all our best riders showed up at the start. I decided to get in the lead due to the numerous technical sections. I did not want to risk being squeezed in the narrow paths. I didn’t enjoy the muddy and slippery climbs in the second part of the track, running along my bike in a deep mud is not something I’d be looking for in a race. Now I need to recover and get ready for my next race, which is the World Cup in Nové Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic. I will be starting from way back of the starting field, so a placing in the top 50% of the field would be a success to me and would qualify me for other races abroad with our national team.“
Lukáš Bátora also shared his point of view of the race: ,,I didn’t really expect to be riding for a podium, I only hoped for a good training ride today. But I did feel good today, I enjoyed the rainy weather and the course suited me, so the 3rd place was just a big bonus to a nice ride and I am very happy for it. My next races will be this weekend one-day road UCI races in Ukraine and then the peak of my season, the stage race Tour the Slovakia.“
The twin-duo Andrea and Zuzana Juhásová were dominant in the women’s race and claimed gold and silver medal, Lívia Hanesová retained her bronze position from last year.
CK BB riders achieved good results in the past two National Championships – we closed last year’s season by a gold (Haring) and bronze (Vojtášová) medal in Cyclocross and we opened this year’s season by one gold medal (Haring) and two bronze medals (Bátora, Hanesová) in MTB maraton. The medal balance is beyond our pre-season expectations so far. We also hope for some podiums in the oncoming NCh in cross country and NCh in road and individual TT (in the Elite Women category). Some of our riders are getting ready for a Team TT National Championships and majority of our riders will once again fight for medals in Cyclocross later in the fall.
results- Racing Schedule 2013
