Kral Sumavy 2010
August 30th, 2010
7:15 start, easy no stress… hanging in the front group, at approx. 25km dropping from it, but after 15km within the sight of the lead again, and after another 20km back in “business”, anyway at 80km by my own for good, suffering, feeling toooo “warm”, stopping, stripping knee-warmers & buff. Spicak 100km, 2nd refreshment point, at last! Fast descent to Zelezna Ruda beginning to rain, +7C, oh yeah! Pushing up the hills and just “gliding” downhills (really no power) and it’s even worse on flat parts. Somehow I managed to get to the 3rd refresh at 150km (I can’t recall the road, now being at home and studying the road-map). If I would have only entered to 150km race… well next time mate! Still 100km to go, arrgh!!!!
Alone, rain, cold, feeling absolutely empty in my head, cursing myself for being such an idiot… Kasperske Hory, 165km, thanks God, the legs are starting to work again, slowly though. Bloody heavy rain, cold, and finally someone in the sight, must be in pretty same miserable conditions as I’m. Working together up to the 4th refresh, if it’s actually even possible to call it working together… Somehow after this 4th “pit-stop” I can really hit the hammer again! FINISH!!! After 9hrs at last, pretty fucked up, but soooo happy that it’s over!
So many “ifs” this time. Have I started too fast? Probably yes. Did I think that I could hang with semi-pros all the way, and perhaps at a certain kilometer “decide” myself: “OK lads, I’ve had enough, thanks for the help, but I feel like I might crack up, so I’ll ride my own slower tempo now”… Not likely. Choosing a different tactic, riding really easy in the beginning and speeding up later on? Definitely not. That’s so not me
I can’t imagine just do “nothing”, ride in some up-to-10-guys-group, being absolutely passive. But when to speed up then at 100?, 130?, 160???? No f… idea, 250km is sooo bloody long that I couldn’t predict it anyway. And the result, that would perhaps be the same, no matter the tactics, something around 9hrs. So why to bother… results
Funny story, as there always is. I had drunk about 7 liters of liquid during the race. I had to stop twice due to nature calling. It was not so warm, so I did not sweat so much, at least I think. Where all the water have gone then? Well since the finish, while not being in the saddle, I had to pee 6 times before going to sleep (4 times on the way to Liberec, and once even 1 km before home). I might have drunk max. 1l during that time. With an easy math I was “keeping-in-the-storage” approx. 3l of liquid inside me, myself and I. Now tell me how male friendly biking is for our most precious parts of our macho-body? I think not so much…
I guess that’s it for the bike-racing for this year. I’ll still keep on riding on the bike, but just for fun and to keep myself fit. I’ll probably start some more running, maybe… Next weekend O-races and in less then three weeks some real challenge



















