Back to the Roots

This year I understood why the previous year “Surmont MTB Challenge” was called ”Back to the roots”. Ascent and descent parts on trails with roots, push-bike areas and beautiful landscapes seen from altitude were the ‘key words’ of this event. On Sunday, the 10th of July, I attended this race toghether with my team mates. I participated in long distance, though ‘short disance’ of 44 km had about 1700 m total climb, map and profile of which you can see below.

Track registered with Garmin Dakota 10. See the map on Connect.Garmin and BikeMap or download GPX.track

The race started at 11:00 o’Clock, at the outskirts of Azuga. The first uphill part of the track was about 9 km long on a forest road , good for warming up and setting the pace… Unable to keep up with the top 10 riders, I went along with Vlad, my team mate, until the first feed zone, but we didn’t stopped there. From there the track enters a tourist trail, marked as such until the next feed zone, the route is up and down, with roots and grooves, like a real MTB track. I stopped at the second feed zone to get supplies of water, because according to the altitude profile given by the organizers, I had to pass a peak of over 1700 m and it was a long ride until the next feed zone.

Tudor and Kelemen overtook me at the first feed zone, but I was getting closer to Maus while I was going through the first short push-bike zones. Soon after the forest part we get to a path with grass, where I notice that I have to leave the path, to climb on another path which was going straight up. I don’t really like push-bike zones, but I prefer it instead of flat forest roads or instead of asphalt. Maus was still in front of me, and Tudor was in front of Maus, and I was seeing both of them.

Soon begins the climb on the highest peak of the track, where I find out that I was on the 7th place overall. After that comes a downhill part on grass, and then push-bike again. When I got on top, I saw that Tudor was going to the left and Maus to the right, so I take a look to my gps and I see that the track is going to to the right. Tudor didn’t heard us screaming that he is on the wrong track, so I went on with Maus, after a little break, when we stopped at a spring to get cold water. So we didn’t stopped at the feed zone that followed. From there I knew the track because the day before the race I went on the latter part (and I made some pictures, which you can see in this article), which included climbing on the ‘Cocosul’ slope, timed up separately for the title of “King of the Mountain.”

The day before the race I climbed on the slope, but I didn’t during the race, because I was tired after more than 2 hours of riding, so I gave up the fight for ‘King of the Mountain’ title, saving energy for the last push-bike zone and for the downhill part. I got close to Sarosi (from Sibiu), from 40+ category, and I followed him on the downhil part, on a forest path.

There were 3-4 km till finish. He got lost, so I finnished with Maus who got near me in the last flat km, so we finnihed together.

I finished on the 4th place overall, with Maus, after Rosioru, Kelemen and Szentes. I was on the 3rd place in my age category and Maus on the 2nd place in his age range. My team mate Tudor managed to get back on the track and finished a few minutes afte on the 4th place in his age range and on the 2nd place at King of the Mountain. Nicu finished on the 3rd place in his category: 30-39 years and Marius on 8. Vlad finished 5th at medium distance.

It was a real MTB race, even if there were push-bike parts too. It was worth every drop of sweat so thumbs up for Surmont Club for organizing this event and thanks for giving us the opportunity to ride through these places. It would have been great to be better marked in some areas and to have some photographers on the most interesting parts of the track.