Friday, June 25, 2010

Conti Sport Contact - my new road tire

After training 2 years with my Conti CityRide on the roads, sometimes even offroad, I thought that now is the proper time to change them. So I said: let's give a try to Conti SportContact. Like the CityRide, the SportContact has puncture protection, and it turns any bike into a racer.

I have the 26" version witch is suitable also for bike messengers, but there is a 700C line for any fitness bike to be transformed into a speed frenzy. The tire has an extremely fine and stronc carcasss plies, Safety System puncture protection and some of them also have reflector strips.

After the first rides with the new model I must say that I am really happy with it and makes me a real pleasure to train on the road or travel on the bike when I have to go downtown.

Cheers,
Vlad

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Balaton MTB Festival

Back again,

So this is the first time when I post twice in the same day... because my lack of free time.

After a few plans my, me team mates Eli and Oli, Luci and Susu from Mures and Dan from Buzau, decided to race at Balaton MTB Festival, a UCI Class 2 Race.


We got in the cars and went from Hungary. Everything was great, but was too hot, so I said: damn, what will do there?? We arrived there, again at the camping as we are use to it, is nice and cheap (we thought that is cheaper, but not at Balaton :-)) ). We registred first for the OX race, but after that we had a surprise. They changed the race course due to the rain in the last week so now we had a course 100% in the sun, without any technical descends (crap). In the next morning at 8AM I've checked with Eli the race course... really dissapointed. A UCI course 3 km long? And we had to run 10 laps. They had problems with the timing chips so they delayed the start with 10 minutes, and another 20 + 10 so we ended up starting 1 1/2 hour later, at ... 38C.

I had an awful start, and a lot of riders passed me, but after the second lap I started to feel my legs stronger and had a better ride. I've finised 25th, -1lap on the winner, so it's better that I've supposed.

I must let you know that I am really dissapoited to see that such a festival, if you can call it like this, with so many volunteers, such a big registration fee (at least for our pockets in such an economical crisis) have so many lacks in the organisation of the races.

If something like that would happen in Romania, everyone, every single person would trash the organisers, but if this is happening in Hungary, can happen to everyone. In my opinion is outrageus.

Hope that next year they will do their homeworks better !

I would like to say a thank you to Maros Sport for making this trip possible but also to the other sponsors and partners: Cannondale, Ashima, Continental, Cratoni, Syntace, Joe's No Flats, Xpedo, Adidas Eyewear, Sapim, Thule, Grip Grab, Novatec, VDO, Zakudo, KMC and Buff.

Some more photos can be found HERE

Cheers,
Vlad

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Concordia Cup

Hi again folks,

I am sorry that I didn't had time to write about my every race but I still have two exams and I had to push hard to keep my scholarship.

On the 6th of June I've race near Lugoj, at the Concordia Cup. This was the 14th edition of the race. I always have fun there because there are a lot of nice guys and I really appreciate what they do for local mountain biking.

I went to Lugoj with my team mates Eli and Oli. We had a great sleep in the tent. I was really missing sleeping in the tent as it's really relaxing. We were lucky and had a nice spot close to the course.

Even if my major opponents were my team mates, there were more talented and fast riders. Lucky me, even with all the mud on the course and the hight temperatures I managed to lead half of the race with my team mate Eli, but I've lost the 1st place after a silly mistake. Due to that I wasn't fresh and fast enough to catch him. In the last lap I felt that my batteries are over so I tried to keep my second place and I've did it.

I had a nice surprise to see that Oli, the other team mate, came third, so it was a team.marossport.ro podium.
Regarding me I have to admit that I don't feel strong enough, due to some knee problems, but I hope that I'll get stronger. The bike went really nice and I didn't had to much problems with the mud even if I was running a 2.3 Continental Speed King Supersonic tires. On the push bike zones I didn't had what to do, as everyone was pushing, but on the descends everything was supersmooth.

I would like to say a thank you to Maros Sport for making this trip possible but also to the other sponsors and partners: Cannondale, Ashima, Continental, Cratoni, Syntace, Joe's No Flats, Xpedo, Adidas Eyewear, Sapim, Thule, Grip Grab, Novatec, VDO, Zakudo, KMC, Buff and Project 312.

Some photos from there race can be found HERE

See you soon*,
Vlad


*soon meaning in a few minutes when I come back with the race report for Balaton MTB Festival.