Wow! Without getting into deep thoughts I can simply say that I'm after racing one of the best XC Marathon events since I started racing! Today I raced at the 2017 Crosskovácsi Marathon that was also this year's National Marathon Championship also. I was really looking forward to the event as I never raced here before and I've heard a lot ot romurs about how well organized the race is. The romurs were true but lets get into that later!
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| Leaving the HQ at 5:45 am |
After an early start we were on the way to Nagykovácsi where the race was held. I was travelling with my friend and training buddy Józsi and after a quick enough drive we got there nice & early. Got signed up and started to get ready for our first race of the season. Everything went well until...
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| ... boom! I got a puncture... |
... even before I left the carpark. Nice, what a perfect start of the day. Luckily I still got time and with the help of Józsi I got some spare tubes and got the problem out of the way. Thanks man! Once I was back on track we wasted no time and turned to the start line.
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| At the start, all set for the race |
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| Start! (photo credit: MilanPhoto) |
3..2..1..GO!!! It was fast, I mean faaaast! It was like shooting out like a freakin' bullet! As the weather was hot and mega dry the field created a huge dust cloud as it rolled out. Pushing on the maximum and breathing in dust until it burns your lungs. Just what you want on a savage XCM race, isn't it? Once things started to settle a bit I got into my own thing on the single speed bike. As I'm quite limited on the way down (as my gear spins out and when that happens I can't gain more speed) the plan was to put the hammer down on the climbs and gain places on the uphills.
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| Had to keep a close eye on the chaser group (photo credit: Ferenc Bak) |
The course was super fast, it was one of the fastest courses that I've seen for a long time. The climbs were hard and the descents were über fast! The over 60 km/h speed on the gravel fire roads is no joke! And to top that the dust was unbeliveable! Many times it was so dusty I could hardly see the trails.
From about half way I managed to get into a nice group of 5-6 riders, and we stayed together pretty much until the finish.
Climb after climb and descent after descent until I heard the speaker at the finish area. Had a little sprint at the end as my last effort to stay ahead of the rider I was riding with for the last km. And that was it, I crossed the finish line!
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| Yep, it's done & dusted |
I finished the 28 km race with 850 m of elevation gain under 1 hour and 28 minutes. This got me the 16th place out of the 72 riders in the Masters 1 field. As my expectation was to finish in the top 25 I was quite happy with the result! :)
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| The numbers |
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| Dust, dust, dust |
So, what can I say about today? Well, after reflecting on everything lets say: Crosskovácsi is the best marathon race in Hungary! Hats off to the organizers: helpful and lots of staff, superb track marking, lots of information pre and during race, brilliant race center! There was only a little thing that suprised me the bad way. We didn't receive a starter pack. Fair enough, I signed up on the day...but still...a little something would have been nice like a gel, the usual sticker with the elevation graph. But expect this everything was flawless, just like a well run MTB race should be!
After we packed up we turned back home where the well earned reward was waiting!
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| Chicken skewers |
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| Ice cold wheat beer |
Savage mountain bike race and stuff like this? Was it a brilliant day, or what?! :)
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