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GREEK SLIPPERS 2019

Říčanské Šlapačky 2019 is behind us and we can now start criticizing or praising it. This year was marked by concessions in the form of moving the event to an alternative location and the associated reduction in the promotion of the event. The event was associated with the opening of the Tehov Leisure Park, which is intended for the residents of Tehov and the MTB & TRIAL MRAVENIŠTĚ ŘÍČANY club. Behind its birth and the organization of Šlapačky are the guys from this club under the leadership of Vlasta Kabeláč Čiháček and Lukáš Valný, today almost all the members of the club who participated in its birth in the last few months when it was being built and will continue to be built.

This year was a combination of TRIAL, MTB XC and PUMPTRACK with a number of accompanying events, such as a children's day organized by the OS TEHOV Association, the opportunity to dredge in JCB machines from TERRAMET, a presentation of the ŠKODA brand from BENO Říčany, a Taekwondo exhibition and a return to the roots thanks to the MOTOTRIAL exhibition presented by Dalibor Šulc and Tomáš Hůla, a descendant of the legendary Petr Hůla.

The main part of the program was the Trial races, on Saturday in the UCI C1 format and free categories with the option of choosing the difficulty level, and on Sunday a free race with the SuperElite category for foreign riders and within two categories also the Central Bohemian Championship.

Many foreign stars accepted the invitation of the organizers, such as Benito Ros (10x world champion), Ion Areitio (2018 European champion and 2018 vice world champion), Alejandro Montalvo (current leader of the UCI ranking), Samuel Hlavatý (3rd place at the World Cup in Berlin), or the promising English rider Charlie Rolls. The Elite 20″ category was the busiest.

Unfortunately, the conflict with the French race blocked the leading Elite 26″ riders, who promised to participate next year, so there is room to move. Even so, it was interesting to see how Nils Obed Riecker (55th UCI Ranking) and Bani Diego (45th UCI Ranking) would compete for the result on the 20-meter course.

The Women category was also interesting, with 5 competitors, which is not a big number, but within the Czech Races it is something that has not been there for perhaps 15 years. In the women's category, Alžběta Pečínková finally won, ahead of the biggest surprise of the day, Eliška Hříbková (13 years old – she started without the possibility of gaining UCI points) and the Slovak rider Erika Hlavata. The ranking was completed by competitors from Belgium (Maurine Sitzen and Margot Parmentier) in 4th and 5th place. The decision was made in the final, where women rode together with men on 20-inch and mountain bikes.

The Elite 20 final was won by Charlie Rolls thanks to his qualification result ahead of Alejadro Montalva and semi-final winner Benito Rosa, who unfortunately missed a dart in the first section, but lived up to his nickname La Bestia and performed incredible jumps in the last section.

Elite 26 also brought a little drama, with qualifier winner Nils Obed Rieckera being beaten by Bani Diego. Ukrainian heartthrob Yan Sokolovsky finished third.

After the Trial final, the PUMPTRACK final began on the track, designed by Czech mountain biking legend Michal Maroši. The Elite category was won by Petr Flierger, ahead of Jakub Melichar and Freestyle MTB legend Teodor Kováč. A total of 25 riders took part, including several Tril riders.

Sunday's races were all about training and the riders had a better chance to chat and ride with all the world-class riders present. The only categories where there was a fight for a title were the Elite 26″ and Elite 20″, which were won by Marek Tryner and Lukáš Valný and became the Champions of Central Bohemia, which is a format of races organized by regional cycling associations. The SUPERELITE category course was built by Benito Rosa, who built it to an even higher level than the Saturday final.

The final discipline was the HAVEN MTB SERIE 2019 races with a lot of children's and adult categories, which took place on local meadows, a technical trail and a PUMPTRACK, which gave many riders a hard time and unfortunately there was no shortage of injuries. The whole program was rounded off by the performance of the Taekwon-do team led by the famous grandmaster Vladimír Machota and the MOTOTRIAL exhibition.

Unfortunately, this year's event also took the form of an attempt to ban the event, remove the C1 status, insert races into the Říčanské Šlapačky dates, or a completely immoral and unsportsmanlike dragging of invited riders, which cannot be done other than condemn and apologize to them. We thank those decent people who warned the organizers in advance that a similar situation would occur. There were also problems within the organization, when the chosen format of the Saturday final stretched the schedule, or for the Sunday race, a second monitor for MTB XC results registration was missing.

Thanks to all the organizers who participated in the event and the event partners:

REDBULL, JCB TERRAMET, BENO ŘÍČANY, COMICS POINT, MĚSTO ŘÍČANY, BIKEWORX, LEZYNE, MITAS, FUNTOWN, INPLEM, WEBAZ, TM SERVIS – THE TECHNICAL MOTION SRO and the media partner of the BIKESALON program (TV PRIMA), where you will have the opportunity to see a recording of the event.

Complete results of all disciplines: http://ricanskeslapacky.cz/faq-dulezite-informace/