With the new president of the National Czech Footbike organization - Jan Pacina - at the rudder, a great 2010 Eurocup weekend in Louny and Lesna became a reality. Many thanks to the Czech and all helpers for realizing it.
We left for Czech on Friday morning from Netherlands. Back home it was incredibly hot for Dutch standards: 32C and with the always very high humidity in the lowlands that is far from fun I can tell you. I prefer 40C in the inlands then 30c in the lowlands I can tell you that. With all that water around us, it's like steam pan.
So we escaped the tropics and stepped in to our cooled car and hit the highway, trough Germany towards direction Dresden. (Car was partly thanks to footbike team Zwolle's sponsor Blankier.nl). In the afternoon we tried to get some Dutch radio to be able to follow World cup football match Holland-Brazil ... but that did not work :(. So we had to rely on German radio, which is was not a great success. Anyhow the evening ended in great mood because orange won!
We stayed at a German camping in the evening before crossing the border with Czech next morning. 
The IKSA eurocup races in Louny took place within an international hand bike event. Greatly organized, as least year: superb. But also again hot weather. A fire brigade truck sprayed the asphalt with water in order to keep it from melting too much. And it helped partly, still some asphalt spots on the frame. But thanks to the organizers for preventing it getting in to total hot melted mess!!
Right after start of the distance race 5 men formed a leading group. Ladislav Provod, Richard Jisl, Petr Pesta (all CZ) and Hannu Vierikko (FIN) and Jasper Stringa (NED). After a few rounds the Czech guys speeded up in the climbs and in the last rounds Provod was simply too fast for all and won the race. 
In the women's field Dutch Rosanne Reijne, who is also leading eurocup competition took the lead, Martina Smitkova (CZ) followed with gap of 700 m and became 2d, followed by Margaret Pestova (CZ).
In Louny there is a good after match support by the organizers: 
After race we drank something in a cafe down the street while to watch World cup German-Argentina together with the German footbikers Lars and Hans Chr. and the Finns. Followed by pizza. In evening when it was slightly cooler we drove to wards Lesna which is on the Czech-German border. Lesna is located in the Ertsmountains. And we could camp with our tents next ot start line on top of the Ertsgeberge. Very nice place.
The races on Sunday started with an individual time trial of 10km. A very specialized track, ideal for climbers. So not so much for us lowlanders. It was also a matter of not braking in the downhill. Just diving in heaven, and climb to hell? I wasn't sure I would make it with my 'over weighted', not trained and slightly lazy body, but I managed to walk all climbs and put my too much weight in battle during downhill. Not the way to do it!... people. But I wanted to test the chosen track. Conclusion: Oeff I need to start kicking again.
During my walk uphill the 18 year old Czech Catherine Beroušková passed me with a slightly crazy high tempo, which I have not seen before in women field. I thought to my self "... I have no idea who that girl is, but if she does this all the way she will end up on podium for sure...". And so it was. Catherine won the women's race. Her first footbike race ever. Oefff what would happen if she kicked all eurocups?... but we have seen that before; very fast top athletes from other sports doing well in our races. The thing is: how do we attract them to our competitions on a national and international level.
In men's time trial victory was for Richard Jisl (CZ), followed by the ever strong Ladislav Provod (CZ) and 3d ranked Alois Onderka (CZ) of which I had never heard before either. Richard showed already during the German eurocup that he is very fit in uphill events, wonder what he is going to do in Italy. Underneath Richard during time trial back from turning point (which was located next the antenna mast you see on this photo): 
The men's relay was won by team PSP KK Plzen-1 and the women's relay was won by team VKK Rožnov pod Radhoštem.
After this Czech IKSA relay eurocup it became clear that the High Level - Van der Laan team has already gathered a lot of points and can not be overtaken anymore in Europe's team competition. Even not with still one team relay eurocup to go in Den Helder. (The relay during the WC is not part of eurocup. This because in WC relay only national teams are allowed and IKSA eurocup competition allows commercial teams (with mixed nationalities). Though the individual races during WC in Italy are part of IKSA eurocup competition).
In the individual IKSA men's classement it is becoming a close call. (4 Of the worse resulted or not kicked races have to be subtracted from the point total in order to get the end results). So several riders make a chance to win the competition in men's category.
In the women's field Dutch Rosanne Reijne takes the lead with a lot of points. So only some one super strong can keep her from winning the 2010 IKSA euro competition. Ladies who takes up the challenge?
It's allways nice to be in Czech. During these events you see old friends which kick already for decades. Nice to know that they are still 'in the family' alive and kicking. See you all in coming eurocups in Ivrea Italy and Den Helder (NED) .
