Report by Vlasta Kabeláč Čiháček from the exhibition in Rakovník, where he, Lukáš Valný and Martin Šimůnek became victims of a conspiracy by downhill skiers 🙂
" Rakovnice Cycling is one of the major cycling events that allows riders to start in 7 disciplines in normal mode - from XC to the Downtown city downhill. Unfortunately, the Coronavirus also affected this type of event, and the organizer had to keep the number of participants short. In any case, the event took place and a day full of action awaited me, Martin Šimůnek, and Lukáš Valný.
We originally only went to 3 exhibition entries and in the meantime between the 2nd and 3rd, we planned to test the local trails. Everything ended differently in the end and after we tried the footbridge over the local lake, where the crossing race was supposed to take place the next day, the organizers of the downhill part offered us to ride in the exhibition downhill race instead of the trails. Neither of us had ever ridden downhill before and since the track was short and without jumps, we thought why not. The organizers accommodated us by moving the start so that we could catch the last exhibition entry.
The training was great and the tight turns probably gave us a bit of an advantage, because whoever managed to pass on the front wheel made a lot of progress. It was practically a downhill race just for technique. Personally, I thought from the training that Lukáš Valný would be on the podium, but I understand that. Martin Šimůnek has his 10-year-old Remedy a bit broken and on 26” he was a bit out of it, but…. A race is a race and Martin has it in his blood. Without a front brake, he took 8th place out of 15 riders. Lukáš Valný was second after the first lap, but in the end 4th. When the announcement was made, we had already changed and were training on Trial bikes (it takes a while to get used to it), so we were surprised why they were calling us to the podium. The announcement of the downhill winner was a bit of a shock for everyone, including me. The only time I pushed the time under 20s with some accident and I won with a relaxed ride. I originally thought they were joking (it would be similar for the boys), but after checking the results, I went to the box for the diploma. So, in addition to the Trial titles, I also check off the victory in the DH race as part of my fulfilled dreams 😀 Good luck with your accident and Trial skill. “
