Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Graduation and Race - both in the same week end

Hello all,


I had a busy week end, but also a happy one. Saturday I graduated the University. If last year i got the University key from the guys that finished this year I had the last speech as I had the highest grade.

Now the only thing left is the License Exam. Hope to keep the pace and to finish well.




After the graduation, we all got on the car and went at Targu Mures for the Romanian Cup, the first Romanian XC Race for 2009.

Got there and we went on the course. First impressions: dry, fast, technical, difficult climbs. I was lucky as the course was 95% in the woods so the temperatures were just perfect for a race.

But it suited perfect for my new Cannondale Scalpel so I was confident.




Race day: I was nervous but still confident. I knew I can have a good race.



Did not have the best start and I've lost some seconds on the first technical zone. I catch up on the climbs and push the limit on the descends. The legs felt good until the end so I've finished 2nd at U23 and 4th overall. I am happy because I had a better race than the last one and the training went just fine. I hope to continue to improve my training so I'll have better results too.

I wanna say a big thank you to my parents, to Simona, who motivated me during the race, to MarosSport for the support before, during and after the race, to Eli and Mishu for the photos and movies and to my team mates.

Also without the help from my sponsors I couldn't train and race, so a big thank you to: Cannondale, MarosBike, Ashima, Continental, Syntace, Selle Italia, VDO, Sapim, Adidas Eyewear, Xpedo, 661, Buff, Sram and DT Swiss.

Also for more photos you can click HERE

Below you can see a short movie, filmed during the race from Tudor's bike.





UPDATE




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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Liman Bike Race - first race for me

After having some troubles with my knees and I had to recover, I trained hard in the last weeks and prepared for Liman Bike Race. Because it was the first race for me this season I was a bit nervous. I want it to get there the day before the race to have the chance to see a bit the course and to know where I have opportunities to push the limit and win some seconds.

Simona, my girlfriend and Eli, my team mate, that had a surgery 2 months ago came with me, Iustin and his brother.

Even if the car trip was 4 hours long, we got there, rest a bit and after that I went with Iustin on the course. I was very impressed by the beauty of the places. Also the course was very hard. Medium climbing of 5% with a maximum of 30%. The descends were pretty rough with a lot of ditches and a lot of dust. The thing that I wasn't really glad were the 7km/tour of road, 14 km in total. Came back really confident and I tried to eat well and rest for the next day.

Got up in the morning and I had one thing in mind: to have a good race with no problems. After I good warming up session I had a good start. and managed to stay in the front group for the first climb keeping a good speed and without any knee pain. Before the first descend 2 guys broke up and went for a solo race. I stayed with two of my team mates and another rider.

We got in the same formation on the road and after the firt 7 km on the road I had a really good pulse and my legs felt really nice. I was hoping that it will last until the end of the race. After the second climb I had some problems on a technical rocky section, when I've lost a few seconds, and even if I saw my team mates in front I couldn't catch them until the last 7km of road and for me was imposible to do alone the work that 4 guys were doing and I couldn't catch them so I finished 5th, 2 minutes behind the winner and really exausted by the heat.

Overall I am happy by the way I was riding and felling on the bike, but not happy at all with the results. The bike responded really well, felling that all the power from the legs going to the wheels. The dust problems were almost solved with my Adidas Evil Eye.

The next race will be at Targu Mures, the Romanian Federation Cup on the 24th of May, having some time to prepare myself better where I know that I can go wrong. Hope that everything will go just fine.

For going to Liman I wanna thank to Maros Bike, for the motivation and photos I wanna say a big thank you to Simona, for the training help I wanna thank to Gabee. Also a big thank you to my parents for the support.

I also wanna say a big thank you to my other sponsors: Cannondale, Ashima, Continental, Syntace,VDO, Sapim, Selle Italia, Xpedo, Adidas Eyewear, 661, Sram and DT Swiss. Without their support I couldn't prepare and race.

If you wanna see more pictures from the race, please CLICK HERE

I will keep you up to date and I hope that with the upcoming races better performances will come.

Keep the fire burning,
Vlad


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Sunday, May 3, 2009

Ashima 2009 catalog - I'm in here too


Got more great news. I'm in the Ashima 2009 catalog too.

I'm really happy to promote this way my sponsors, and I can do some advertise for me too.

I hope that my knee will feel better and I hope to race soon and make some good results.

Anyway I'll keep you updated. Keep on rockin'.


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