Prague Stairs Race

The Prague stairs mtb race - an annual event here - was on last night.  Wow!!  That is the most brutal race I have ever seen!!!  You basically don't get a rest because the descents are either bumpy cobbles or stairs (heaps of them!), and the climbs are steep cobbles.  One of the photos above gives you a bit of an idea of just how steep the climbs were.  Amazing! 

The race duration is 1hr - and it looks like 1hr of hell if you ask me!  There were no women racing - just elite men, including current World Champion from Cz, Jaroslav Kulhavy, and a former World Champion and top World cup rider from Spain, Jose Hermida.  Alot of the riders were lapped out, which is not surprising, with the top guys lapping in around 3 minutes. 

I went and watched the race with my Cz mtb friends, Ondrej and Michael.  I was quite interested to get an accurate idea of how tall Hermida is, as he looked very small but extremely powerful.  Then after the race I spotted my chance - a photo with the man for later comparison - yes that's right - I really do have no shame!!  As you can see he is not much taller than me, but Michael said the difference between us is all in the muscles!  He would eat me for breakfast!  More protein powder! 

Jase unfortunately missed watching the race as he has had to go to Poland for work.  It has been a busy last few weeks for Jase, so he will be looking forward to a weekend at home this weekend.  Last weekend we drove to Austria for a UCI Cat 1 mtb race.  I enjoy doing these races as it gives me an opportunity to race some of the top riders without having too much traffic on the course like at a world cup when there are 100+ girls on the start line.  Because I missed the Oceania Champs with my shoulder injury, I am down on points, so am always starting near the back of the grid.  These races are a good way of getting a few points.  I didn't have a great race this time.  The course was super tough, with a long steep climb that became more technical as it went up.  I finished 8th, and 12mins 52 down on the winner.  The girl who came third finished 5th at the last World cup, and the girl who came 4th is ranked 10th in the world at the moment (I looked these things up to try to make myself feel better!!), so I guess it wasn't too bad.  I want to get better though so will keep working hard!

On the way home from Austria, there was a crazy thunder storm.  The entire motorway came to a grinding halt due to the hail, and we managed to partially score shelter under an overbridge.  The hail stones were huge.  Jase was worried they were denting the roof of the car, and I was worried they were going to break the windscreen!  The temperature reading in the car dropped from 24 degrees to 7.5 degrees in the space of 5-10mins!! 

Yesterday Michael and I went for a road bike north of Prague, to a castle called Kokorin Castle.  It was pretty cool actually - a nice area.  On the way back, we biked past a huge inferno at a tiny railway station.  The building was blazing, and I expected it to blow at an stage!  Apparently the fire engine was on it's way.  We had to bike past it to continue back to Prague - it was quite freaky, as stuff was flying off the building and it was super hot as we biked past.  I live to tell the tale though!

Not much more to report for now - time to head up to the McCafe for my usual - standard Americano.  We were hoping to drive down south to Nove Mesto this weekend to watch the next round of the World cup and support the kiwis who are racing - but I think we will have to see how tired Jase is.  Next week we are off to Frankfurt on Tuesday to pick up Mum!!  Exciting stuff!

Hope all is well back home.

J