XTERRA Czech Review

Here's a report from Dave Nicholas on Saturday's XTERRA Czech Championship in Spindleruv Mlyn...

From the very break of dawn you knew it was going to be wet.  It was raining lightly but the ground was soaked from the night before, there was fog in the hills and the sky was a dull, gunmetal gray.

The good news was we were in Spindleruv Mlyn, where the base was rock and not loam.  So the bike and run courses would be OK to race on.  I say OK, not good.  Slippery rocks and wet grass are never good.

There was talk about canceling the swim as there was some thunder heard, but no lightning or heavy winds and we started exactly on time – in fact one minute early.

Two Czech guys and Mikko Vastaranta from Finland smoked the swim with Franky Batelier 4th out of the water.  Vastaranta had a great race and at the end of the first lap was third behind Batelier and a very fast Felix Schumann.

For the women, as expected, Marion Lorblanchet was first out of the water and led the bike until midway through the second lap.  Renata Bucher (pictured here) was so fast and although nearly four minutes behind from the swim, put in the fastest women’s bike time by six minutes.  Lorblanchet did fall off the bike on one of the very rocky uphill sections and had her chain fly off.  USA racer Kathy Frank put the chain back on and Lorblanchet continued very thankful for the help.  Once ahead Bucher backed off a bit on the run and still finished four minutes up.

The rain was simply a mess.  The bike course turn to start the second lap was a very cool, grassy downhill that led to a short paved section of road.  The grass had turned as slick as ice and dozens of riders simply could not stop for the turn.  Fortunately there was a big grassy field as runoff area so nothing really bad happened.  Despite the rain dozens of spectators loved this very gnarly downhill section and cheered everytime somebody came sliding down the hill.

Karel Zadak was having a fine race and came out of transition onto the run with Englishman Ian Leitch.  We had seen Ian before, but had no idea of his speed.  His bike split was the fastest of the day and he can run as well.  Nico Lebrun was not happy with conditions and simply rode a conservative bike hoping to not lose too much time and then make it back on the run.  It came down to how fast Nico could run and how well Czech Zadak and Brit Leitch could hold him back.

Nico caught and passed Karel and did catch up to Ian but could not pass him.  “I caught him but when I'd get close, he would speed up.  I tried and tried but he always stayed just a little bit ahead,” said Lebrun.  Indeed, Leitch had the second fastest run and needed it as he finished a scant 10 seconds ahead of the 2005 XTERRA World Champion Lebrun.

If Ian Leitch was a bit of a surprise then young Brit woman pro Emma Ruth Smith was a huge one.  The 2008 XTERRA World Champ in the 25-29 division when she was an amateur turned in her best race as a pro, a brilliant third place showing in front of another French rider, Myriam Guillot in 4th and Austria's Carina Wasle in 5th.

Felix Schumann is due for a win.  He kept close to Batelier all day.

“I could catch him on the climbs but Franky has a death wish coming downhill” said Schumann.  “He just rides away from me – I cannot stay with him”.  But Schumann was just a scant 36 seconds behind at the finish so Batelier could never back off.

Spindleruv is a beautiful mountain town and ski resort.  Easy to get to from Prague airport (under 2 hours) with lots of restaurants, hotels, guesthouses and shops.

The course is a great one – the run especially fun as it winds up and down narrow mountain trails and crosses streams.  The bike has a water crossing as well and with the rains the night before and during the event, what was a trickle on Friday turned into a 3” deep crossing on the first lap and nearly a foot deep on the second lap.  And it was crashing down.

Even winner Batelier got off the bike on the second crossing.  “There is no seeing what is in the water – could be a big stone or something, it is safer to run across”.  This from the man who simply was magic coming down the mountain nearly out of control.

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