Duna Maraton 2018 // Race report

Another race - another round of the series is done & dusted. After more than 15 years I was able to line up at the start line of one of the oldest MTB XC Marathon race in Hungary called Duna Maraton. The last time I was taking part of this race was back in 2001...man, it was a loooong time ago, wasn't it?! But lets see how my race day went on Sunday!

The race venue was in Esztergom, the stunning looking city just right next to the Danube. The place is about 90 km away from my town, so after a not too long drive we got there. 

On the way...

After the quick registration I got the first shock of the day as the "start pack" was pretty much an empty plastic bag with few leaflets and a gel...well a T-shirt would of been nice but it didn't happen... maybe next year though... 

Anyway! I got myself ready to roll. I was super hyped as the brand new team kit just dropped a few days before the race. The fresh design, the new kit and the fact that I was representing my team with the new kit was giving me an extra lift indeed. 

Ready to race! 

Got to the start/finish area and luckily I managed to get pretty close up front at the start. 3...2...1... GO!!! Off we went into the narrow streets of Esztergom with police escort for the fist few kilometers.

After we left the city we got the first dose of nice off-road trails of the local mountains. The course was a lovely mix of long and steady climbs, proper steep stingers with some technical and mega-fast descents. The conditions were brilliant also, the course was pretty much completely dry. 

Bend after bend, climb after climb and descent after descent. Oh! And some stairs also!

Bitta fun at the end of the race just before we got to the finish

After the action packed racing I crossed the finish line and finished this years Duna Maraton. I was still buzzing when I got back to the car to get changed! :) 

Massive smile on the face - it is the sign of a great race :) 

Time to wash all the dust off the throat

I've had a great day on the bike today. I finished the 30 km race with 700 m elevation gain under 1 hour and 30 minutes. This put me into 17th place in Masters 1 category. I'm happy with this result but I'll be aimning for better at the next race!


So, did I have a good race? Did I have a good time? I sure did my freinds. We have seen a brilliandt XCM course and a very well run event. The atmosphere was great and the competition was savage. What else can we ask for?

Thanks for everything, see you next year! 

...stay tuned, more photos still to come