Just a quick post to give you some of the highlights from the weekend’s 6th Serbian MTB XC League race at Stražilovo at the foot of Fruška Gora, near Novi Sad, 21st June 2009.

I was really keyed up to ride this, having gone round the (pretty demanding) track a few times (local advantage) and mastered most of the obstacles - some very steep descents, off-camber corners, whole series of downhill steps and tough ascents. It looked like being fun. But then the unthinkable happened - the weather forecasters got it right, and to mark the first day of summer, constant rain began Saturday evening and did not stop until well after the race had finished. After turning up early and walking round some of the track I quickly concluded that unless I wanted to try to pick up a cheap medal (there was hardly anyone else riding in my category), there wasn’t any sense risking life, limb and bike in these conditions, especially not in the Hobby category (I don’t have a licence) - it was an absolute mud-fest.

So the next best thing was to experience the race vicariously and film some sections of it. So here it is for your viewing pleasure, not a complete account of the race, but enough to see what sort of conditions we are talking about.

On the video you can see the start of the race - the two top guys, “Djuka” (Bojan Djurdić), with Boris Popović hot on his heels, which is pretty much the story of the entire Serbian MTB XC League right now. They are haring off up the first climb, which follows an oft-ridden route up a bunch of hairpin bends to a famous monument to the Serbian poet Branko Radičević. A few tricky bits, including roots, steps and sharp bends to negotiate, and it’s quite a slog to begin the race with, never mind ride 6 times, but these guys are local and know this like the back of their hands.

With them are the U-23s, then after a one-minute delay, the Masters and Juniors appear too.

The next bit you see on the video (1:07) is the end of the second big descent, from the Stražilovo “Hiker’s Lodge” (Planinski dom - hard to find an adequate translation), where as you see, no-one was crazy enough to attempt the descent. It was tricky in the dry, never mind when slippery wet, with an off-camber drop at the bottom. I stayed filming here for a while, to see the various creative ways people used to get down! Nice overtaking by Brindza Akoš at 1:47, to take third position, and he was to feature in an amusing moment later on in the race.

The next major section (6:53) shows part of the course that is actually before the previous one, the descent from Branko’s Monument - a really sharp (maybe 45 degree) slope, followed by an off-camber narrow bit and then a steep descent curving left 45 degrees. A friend and I went to practice this section in the dry a few days before and just about got the hang of it - I never dreamed anyone would do it in these conditions, but they seemed to do fine! Must reexamine my mud-biking technique!

At 7:40, Djuka, the race leader comes into view, followed shortly by Boris in second. Then, a hilarious scene as third-placed Brindza Akoš, riding the race of his life, reaches his coach (Benda Csolt, a former elite rider himself) standing by the tree on the right. Benda launches into a tirade in Hungarian, which most of us couldn’t understand, but equated to something like “You’re only 20 seconds behind Djuka [not quite true!], hurry up, or I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!” Rumour has it that at training sessions he chases him with a stick to make him ride faster! The training method seems to be helping anyway! Then he goes running off down the hill after him, shouting like a madman - no idea how he kept his balance! Brilliant stuff!

The last scene at 8:30 was a bit blurred by the rain, but shows race leader Djuka stopping, having suffered with something in his eye for some time (not sure what happened to his glasses, but probably opaque with mud). He tries to wash it out, figuring he can afford to lose some time. 50 seconds later, Boris comes steaming up and sportingly stops, seeing that Djuka has problems. The warm fuzzy moment doesn’t last long - Djuka is back on his bike followed by Boris, down a tricky (for me) semi-drop and though he still seemed to be suffering, Djuka went on to finish the race, with Boris second and Akoš a very respectable third.

Kind of sorry I couldn’t ride, but then again, I have a feeling it was probably the wise choice…

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Posted on June 22nd, 2009 by markowe
Filed under: MTB Serbia (All)