Sometimes it’s just got to be spontaneous. Straja was over from Germany (Straja being the co-star of our trip to Montenegro last summer), we had planned on some kind of trip when he came, but time was short, Mrs. D. and myself have a wee little mountain-biker on the way and there won’t be any gallivanting about the hills and dales for a little while, so sometimes it has to be short and sweet - or should that be steep?

We headed down to Ljig, a small town about an hour south of Belgrade, where the first proper hills really begin and pushed up a really steep hill to a spot I had found on Google Earth that I thought would be nice for camping. Just as a sidenote - things are not always as they seem on Google Earth!

We only really had one full day for riding, so we made it count, with only around 35km covered, but plenty of consultation with the maps along the way, a fair few wrong turns, and a fair bit of pushing uphill as things just got a bit steep. The area is maybe a little too steep for comfortable mountain biking, I am going to have to improve my topo map-reading skills!

This trip was proof you CAN get a mountain-biking trip together pretty quickly - it’s handy to have a basic inventory so you can pack really quickly, grab a tent and sleeping bag, get in the car (or load the bike up in a bus as I did) and away you go! No need to wait for the “perfect opportunity”! Check out the pics from this trip.

Reading a recent entry in Rob’s blog (many times our companion, indeed the ringleader, on these trips), I was also reminded once more of how easy it is to camp in Serbia. We thought we’d slipped up the hill and into a cow field (entering through the gate and then skipping a barbed-wire fence) and that no-one had seen us (not that we thought they would mind), set up camp, got the fire going, and nobody bothered us for the two days we were there. It was only on the way down that we met a local who said, “Enjoying our parts? That’s our field you were camping in, by the way!” However, this was said merely by way of conversation, not in the manner of an irate landowner - people have no problem with you camping on their land, even less so if you clear up after yourself. The fence and gate are just there to keep the animals in place, not the camping bikers out! Try doing THAT in the UK!

So that little trip will probably round off this summer’s mountain-biking trips, though there are still a couple of Open cup races on the calendar in October to finish off the season (more about that in a later post). Just as well, my bike is ready for a serious refit…

If you think others might want to read this post, don’t be selfish, click above to AddThis to Digg, Del.icio.us or just about any other bookmarking service and share and share alike!

Popularity: 36% [?]

Posted on September 28th, 2009 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All) | No Comments »

As I may have mentioned, this year I have taken more of an interest in XC racing. This despite my protestations that my idea of MTB is all about rolling along the hills and dales of Serbia enjoying the view. There IS something about actually seeing how far you can go, how well you can do, and it gives some sort of purpose to training - no earthly point in training if you are just going to ride around all year. Races are FUN, and they reveal my latent competitive nature!

So this year I have ridden in 5-6 XC races or marathons here in Serbia, not all of which I have written up in the blog unfortunately. Serbia has a modest MTB XC League with 8 races on the calendar this year. The XC racing community is pretty small, with probably 5 riders of real note (no offence, the rest of you!) riding in the Elite category, with even fewer racing much abroad. Currently (2009), Bojan “Djuka” Djurdjić is easily the top rider, proving practically unbeatable in the Serbian XC league, where he has won all the races but one (where I think he had technical problems), putting a spanner in the works for Boris Popović, last year’s champion, by turning up for all the League races, while still managing to race in a few UCI events abroad (including a first place in Turkey). Most of the races this year have boiled down to Boris chasing Đuka for most of the race, leaving the rest of the field to pick up what’s left. Đuka is 77th in the UCI rankings at time of writing, which is pretty good going considering the very limited resources the Serbian Cycling Federation has to send riders abroad, especially in MTB.

Categories

Races are usually open to Elite, Elite Women - of whom there are sadly few, most of the races being won by 19-year-old Vanessa Durman, who needs to get some competition soon! - Masters (whoever feels old enough), U-23, Juniors and Cadettes. Then there are unlicensed races, usually held before the main event, for Hobby Fun (usually one lap) and Hobby Sport (usually 3 and sometimes featuring quite good riders who didn’t license that year for whatever reason).

There is also a whole series of races called the MTB Open - an idea that has been coming along nicely this year, to organise a series of amateur races (all in the Vojvodina region so far) that would avoid League dates and be open to all comers. A nice idea, with 3 races now held in 2009. Though organisation has been a little shaky, it’s been good fun and I am somewhere like 10th on the board, with mostly pretty decent riders ahead of me (though I am one of a few who has not missed a race, so that helps!). I have not taken out a licence this year, having only really got into the racing side this year, and not too sure about committing to a club, especially with a baby on the way in November! So I have also ridden Hobby Sport in one race in Kula (6th place), on which performance I can conclude I could give Masters a try next year and at least be sure of not finishing each race last! Depends a lot on how much winter training I get done, too (between nappie changes!)

Come and race in Serbia!

That’s a little look at Serbian XC MTB. It’s a pretty small community, everybody knows everybody, so most races are good-humored affairs, with fair-play usually at a high level. That’s not to say though that the races themselves are not taken very seriously. Serbian riders probably need a lot more experience riding abroad before they start making an impact though. I don’t think there is anything to stop UCI-licenced riders from abroad coming to Serbia to ride, either. There are no UCI points to be had, but it would be great to see some foreign riders come along, enjoy some great XC courses in Serbia, some of them as good as any you will ride abroad, and give Djuka, Boris and the other top guys something to fight for!

If you think others might want to read this post, don’t be selfish, click above to AddThis to Digg, Del.icio.us or just about any other bookmarking service and share and share alike!

Popularity: 64% [?]

Posted on June 24th, 2009 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All) | No Comments »