Results tagged “plzen”
Plzen evaluation
1. Venue
- Getting there: Plzen is situated around 50 miles southwest from Prague and is easily accessible by train or car. 4 points
- Sights&City: Plzen is a quite nice city and probably it's most famous of the beer brand Pilsener Urquell. The factory has a museum, a gift shop and a decent restaurant, that offers a wide range of traditional Czech food. 4 points
2. Course
- Getting there: The course was very close to the town center and it was easy to get there. 5 points
- Layout & getting around: It rained quite a lot before the race, however, it didn't ruin the course too much and it remained rideable for the most part. The layout was great and offered many good vantage points. 5 points
- Skill level: It was rather a fast than a technical course, probably the least challenging (in terms of technical skills, of course) cyclo-cross course I've seen so far. 3 points
3. Press services
- Distance from course: it took a good 5 minutes to get from the finish line to the press center, partly because the press center was situated in the building of a nursery school and we had to walk through many corridors to get to the actual press room. 3 points
- Internet - excellent internet connection. 5 points
- Handouts - As there was only one race, it wasn't to hard to present the result handouts as soon as the race finished. 5 points
- Staff - extremely helpful, in every aspect. When approached them to help me to get to the top of one of the neighboring buildings, they helped me out without hesitation. 5 points
- Catering - Some crackers and water, not too impressive. 2 points
Overall score: 41/50 points - well done!
It was a tough race
Start of the World Cup Race in Plzen from a different angle
I asked the guy in the press centre if he could help me but he wasn't too helpful and added that he mustn't leave the press room anyway but I should try the accreditation center. So I did. The guy there was much more helpful and said why don't we give it a go. We approached the building that happened to be the closest to the start-finish area and was tall enough.
>>> CONTINUE READING FULL POST + COMMENTS
UCI World Cup Cyclo-cross 09/10: Elite Men's race in Plzen, Czech Republic
Zdenek Stybar darted off, as soon as the start gun went off, and managed to put a 20 sec gap between him and the chasing group.
Niels Albert managed to pull away from the chasing group that consisted of Kevin Pauwels, Klaas Vantornout and Sven Nys, who was able to make his way to the front of field, despite the fact that he started the race from the sixth line.
By the fourth lap, Albert took over the lead, whilst Stybar was unable to keep up with the current World Champion's pace.
Nys and Pauwels chases Albert
The camera guy snapped some pictures when he wasn't supposed to cover things with his big camera.
Wherever Stybar rode, the local crowd went berserk, they created an amazing atmosphere. At this point in the race, the gap wasn't more than 10 sec between Albert and his chasers, so he kept checking how far behind they were.
Nys, Stybar and Pauwels were quite close indeed.
The contents of the chasing group were changing constantly, sometimes it was Stybar who had to work hard to catch up; in this lap it was Pauwels who had problems to keep up with Stybar and Nys. Nys seemed to be pretty strong, he left his Treviso-form way behind.
Great champions tend to win with grace and ease but that's just the tip of the iceberg. They have their fair share of suffering.
Albert starts his last lap. The gap was above 35 sec now and he didn't seem to slow down, at all.
The chasing group starts it last lap. It consists of Stybar, Nys, Pauwels and Frenchman Francis Mourey.
No matter how hard the chasing group put the hammer down, Niels Albert was the fastest again.
Champions are allowed to make funny faces.
Stybar led the chasing group to the final sprint but he was unable to outpower Nys, so not long before the finish line he gave up and let Nys take the silver medal.
Niels Albert, interviewed by the press.
Albert's bike and some fans.
I wanted to snap a couple frames at the press conference, however, I didn't take into consideration the effects of coming in from the cold had on my lenses. They were covered with a layer of fog which rendered them basically useless for the next 20 minutes.
Plzen
I'm still not finished with the final Plzen race photos, but in the meantime, here's a couple pictures from the day before. We went out to have a dinner at display restaurant of the renowned Pilsener Urquell beer factory. The picture quality is a bit dodgy, they were taken with my Blackberry.
Niels Albert nailed it again
Thijs Al and Eddy Van Ijzendoorn warms up
UCI World Cup Cyclo-cross 09/10: Morning races and the official practice in Plzen, Czech Republic
As it turned out earlier today, there would be no women's World Cup race, so I was hanging around the course and snapped photos of the other races that included junior and women ones.
Pavla Havlikova
Sven Nys was one of the first elite riders on the course when the official practice started. Since he didn't finish the race in Treviso, he will start from the penultimate, 6th row. However, overtaking other riders on this course won't be an issue.
A hearty Czech meal
Klaas Vantornout
Niels Albert
A Zdenek Stybar fan with an amazing piece of equipment
No World Cup race for women
This was probably obvious for most people but I didn't read through the official information thoroughly. No wonder Katie Compton isn't here and I'm sitting on my own in the press center 10am. How lame.
Niels Albert's bike
UCI World Cup Cyclo-cross 09/10: Saturday preparations in Plzen, Czech Republic
The day started very early, we left Budapest at 6am and arrived to Plzen a bit after 1pm, it was more then 600 kilometres. The race is situated in the outskirts of the city and there weren't many signs that would have helped us to find the venue, the directions, provided by the hotel staff, proved to be useful, however. The accreditation centre was situated in a school building and two very kind organiser provided me with my press pass and the photographer's bib. It stinks like hell, so apparently it hasn't been washed since Treviso.
Technicians install the photo-finish thingy.
Zdenek Stybar arrives in style - it felt like he's playing for Real Madrid - a team famous for driving top-of-the-range Audis.
The first rider I saw on the course was Niels Albert. The reigning World Champion and the winner of the first World Cup race covered another few laps and then retreated to the team bus.
One of the tricky slopes. It would be all right in dry weather but it rained all day on and off, so the off-camber descent challenges the less skilful riders.
Sybar rides his first training lap.
Ceske Televisie
Unlike in Treviso, the depo area will play an important role tomorrow, due to the mud situation.
Treviso's bronze guy, Klaas Vantournout tackles the only stairwell section on the course.
Robert Gavenda, the winner of the U23 race in Treviso.
Fellow Hungarian, Zoltan Tisza riding past the scene of the awards ceremony.
Zdenek Stybar exchanged thoughts with Belgian fans and UCI head honcho Peter Van Der Abeele.
It is quite likely that Pavla Havlikova would play an important role tomorrow in the absence of Katie Compton and the fact that she would be riding before home crowd is also on her side.
Warm up in the back of a van.
Pre-Plzen
They were really keen on the idea, however, not so keen on the cycling race part, so they might visit Prague for the duration of the race - it's their loss, after all.
Long story short, I'll be back on Saturday, live from Plzen.
