XCO Super cup

 Algas siin XCO Super cup sari, mille üks korraldajatest on meie klubi. Ei juhtu väga tihti, et võistlus toimub pealinnas, algselt oli plaanitud Monsanto pargis, kus ma olen ühe xcm stardi teinud kunagi, kuid tsiviilkaitse neljapäeval teatas, et ei luba üritust seal korraldada, kuna viimaste nädalate vihmased ilmad on maapinna pehmeks teinud ja kartsid, et puud langevad rajale, kuigi kõva tuult küll oodata ei olnud. Kuna see teade tuli nii viimasel hetkel, et lihtsalt ära jätta oleks korraldajatele karm olnud, siis otsiti ja leiti lahendus teise Lissaboni pargi näol, kus on muusika üritusi korraldatud, kuid mitte maastikurattaüritusi. 48h oli rada disainitud ja võib öelda, et isegi päris ok, igatahes parem pargiüritus kui aastaid tagasi Zürichi EM, mis ka oli kiirelt valmisklopsitud rajal. Rajal oli kohti, kus sai rattasõitu nautida!

Kuna eelmise nädalavahetuse võistlus jäi mul vahele, samuti ka trenne, siis stardis olles oli samuti nagu eelmine xco start, tuleb mis tuleb olen valmis nii heaks tundeks kui halvaks. Stardi murumüttalisel tõusul vajusin alguses tahapoole, kuid tõusu lõpuks olin neljandal positsioonil ja ringi keskpaiku võtsin teise koha sisse ja nii sõitsin lõpuni. Tubli teine koht. Kuna soe ilm oli natuke kiirelt kohale jõudnud, siis natuke oli palav ka, kuid õnneks nii kellakeeramisega kui päeva esimese stardina, ei olnud veel päris kuum.

Stardis oli veel üks eestlanna, Loore juuniorite klassis, ta on minu juures natuke mtb trenni teinud ja klubi võttis ta lahkelt ka kaasa ja toetas tema sõitu, kuna meie start oli samal ajal. Nägin teda vilksamisi vahepeal kui rada lookles, juuniorites sai ta võidu.

Tänud kõigile, kes kaasa elavad!

«fotosid varsti»«soon some photos»

Started the XCO Super Cup series here, one of the organizers being our club. It doesn't happen very often that a competition takes place in the capital. Originally, it was planned to be held in Monsanto Park, where I once participated in an XCM race, but on Thursday, the civil protection authorities announced that they would not allow the event to be held there due to the soft ground caused by the rainy weather of the past weeks and their concern that trees might fall onto the track, although there was no strong wind expected. Since this notice came at the last minute, it would have been too harsh for the organizers to cancel the event, so they searched and found a solution in another park in Lisbon, which has hosted music events but not mountain biking events. In 48 hours, the track was designed, and I can say it turned out pretty good—definitely a better park event than the quickly put-together track in Zurich during the European Championship good years ago. The track had sections where you could really enjoy biking!

Since I missed last weekend's race, as well as some training sessions, the start felt similar to my previous XCO start. Whatever comes, I am ready for both good and bad feelings. On the grassy uphill start, I fell back initially, but by the end of the climb, I was in fourth position. Around the middle of the lap, I moved into second place and stayed there until the finish. A solid second place. The warm weather arrived quite quickly, so it was a bit hot, but fortunately, with the time change and the first start of the day, it wasn’t too hot yet.

At the start, there was also another Estonian, Loore, in the junior class. She has done some MTB training with me, and my team kindly took her along and supported her ride since our start was at the same time. I saw her briefly while the track made zigzags, she won in the juniors.

Thanks to everyone who supports me!