The one-day Visegrad 4 Bicycle Race – GP Czech Republic served up a relentless alpine headache across 155 km of unforgiving, rolling terrain in Deštné v Orlických horách. Packing 2456 vertical meters of elevation, the race exploded early on as our sports director urged the squad to ride with maximum aggression, prompting a barrage of early attacks where János Pelikán burned immense energy at the front during the first two hours. The peloton vibe was hyper-aggressive, defined by nonstop counter-moves from deeply stacked rosters on the short, punchy climbs. The decisive move of the day came from a select five-man breakaway, where Piotr Pękala of ATT Investments eventually forged ahead to secure the victory at an average speed of 42 km/h. Behind the lead group, Nikiforos Arvanitou showed incredible grit by fighting into the elite chasing selection and effortlessly taking the group sprint to secure a stellar sixth place.
Meanwhile, Stage 3 of the Oberösterreich Rundfahrt from Paneum Asten to Bad Schallerbach delivered pure tactical chaos across 157 km of narrow, technical roads. A dangerous early breakaway stacked with development team riders threatened to derail the day, forcing our sports director to quickly orchestrate a chase alongside the American national team to successfully cap the gap before the peloton shattered under the high pace. The peloton was completely on the limit, neutralizing the moves before a brutal final climb left a select group of just 12 riders at the front. Although Kilian Feurstein of Team Vorarlberg snatched the victory from a late-closing bunch at a blistering 46 km/h, Team United Shipping executed a magnificent finale as birthday boy Zsombor Palumby and Erik Fetter crossed the line together to secure a spectacular double top ten, finishing eighth and tenth respectively.
Niki’s uphill survival and fast finish
“In the last lap, only a small group of riders was left. Many teams had more than four or five guys, and they were attacking constantly. I managed to close many gaps, but nobody would let me go. And of course, when I didn’t follow one particular attack, they let it go. After that, I was just following the pace and managed to stay with this group on the last climb. I won the sprint quite easily since there were only climbers left at that point.
It was a hard race with many climbs, so it was tough.
Currently, I’m feeling good. Not 100%, but I spent some time at altitude, and it helped me a lot. We can expect better results tomorrow, as always when there is excellent teamwork.”
Csongor’s honest look at the cycling grind
“I finally managed to get a good night’s sleep today, and the race went the way it always should. I haven’t looked at the watts yet, but I think I arrived roughly in the position where I currently belong in this field. This continuous up-and-down is not my strength: I mean the short climbs at full gas, then the technical descents. For me, the long mountains go well, just as today I managed to reach the top among the first, but then the field closed back together.
The problem in this sport is that if everything is not in place, you drop immediately. Today, the others weren’t 6 minutes stronger either, but ‘only’ by that 1 or 2 minutes on that climb where they broke away. But of course, if you drop, it’s usually not because you are strong. Overall, today was very difficult and technical, but for me, the greatest joy is that I am feeling the peloton better and better, and the positioning is also going better. I still had problems with this at the beginning of the season, and last year too.
During the Peace Race, some skin irritation broke out on me, which prevented me from sleeping. By now I am better, but I want to have it checked out before the National Championships to see what could be wrong. My legs are good, but due to the many missed hours of sleep, I still tire faster than before. Based on the elevation gain, tomorrow might be easier, but as the experienced guys say: ‘It’s not the terrain, but the pace that kills you…’
Everyone in the team has smaller or larger problems. From the outside, this is perhaps difficult to understand: I am also surprised when a big star drops at the Tour, for whom it would otherwise be ‘obligatory’ to endure the given stage. Everyone is human, and for athletes, sports are not necessarily their whole life, it is just a part of it, albeit a very important one. Difficult things happen in everyone’s life, be it a crash in training, bad grades at school, or any private life issue. These do not disappear with the start. As it was already mentioned, in this sport, if even a little bit is missing from 100%, then you will not be able to bring out the best in yourself: and the peloton could not care less about this.
I think everyone raced well today, and we were involved in many attacks, but when the fight for the victory started, in the end only Niki could follow the wheels. We were in the third group with Zéti and Veljko, and we went for the best Hungarian title with a final uphill attack. On Jani’s part, I can’t even count how many actions he was involved in, he used up incredible energy in the first two hours of the race.
Perhaps it’s hard to accept this, whatever your relationship to the sport may be, but as Erik said: this is a sport where it happens that you don’t win anything for years, yet you still go out to train even if it rains, if you feel tired, or when others go to party. Like the others, we completely emptied ourselves today. So: even though I am the smallest in the team: I am proud of everyone, and tomorrow we will do the exact same!”
Zsombi’s perfect birthday gift
“We positioned Erik for the last hill, where I turned around the top ten in a technical section with him on my wheel. This motivated me to go as long as I could and keep him at the front. I mostly followed Bahrain, the positioning battle was huge, I tried to look around to see where he was and meanwhile not lose position. Here I was already pretty much at my limit, and since I didn’t feel too well before either, I told Erik to ‘use’ me calmly. This was my motivation, I knew that later until the finish we could rest a bit on the flat, and at the end do the sprint for him.
At the top of the mountain very few of us remained at the front, 10 or 12 people, and Erik was not there. A technical descent followed, where the Devo teams pulled the line the whole time so that no one could catch up, and I just held their wheel. I tried to rest because I saw that either I had to sprint from this small group, or they would catch us and then I would have to help Erik. Before the last kilometer it was already visible that they would catch up, and I was sure that he would be in it too. I moved forward within the group so that the peloton wouldn’t swallow me up, and Erik joined me here around 500 meters out. From then on I sprinted full gas until the end, because I wasn’t even sure if he was still on my wheel, and even then I wanted to get a good result for the team. So you could say, this was my gift from him 😀
The day was quite chaotic: many technical sections, narrow roads. Then a breakaway went away that was very unfavorable for us, with several Devo riders in it, because of which we could fear that we would completely stop. In the end, together with the American national team, we started pulling the line and kept the gap. At the middle of the stage, the Americans completely tore the field apart, and the breakaway’s advantage also evaporated, it was visible that they would be caught. This gave birth to a lot of attacks, sometimes we split, sometimes we caught up with each other. Finally at 50 km to go the field closed back together, and two riders managed to go away, so finally a status quo was formed, and we could start concentrating on Erik.
Now I feel very good, perhaps the best in the season, the hard work that we have been pushing in the past months has matured. The complete transition from mountain biking is starting to pay off, and I was motivated by the opportunity I got on the first stage, plus today is my birthday, so everything came together. I also wanted to help Erik, especially after yesterday, and I feel there would have been a little bit more in this day today as well. I am happy that managed to close in the top 10, and I hope tomorrow we can still add a bit to it, there is nothing to lose. It will be a difficult stage, but we are in a good enough condition to make a better result.
Everyone arrived fine in the end, but I think this day didn’t really feel good to anyone. So much happened today as well that I feel like we’ve been racing for a week already…”
Márkó on the limit
I can feel the fatigue now, the first day was quite a serious low point for me, and I had to get back into the groove mentally a bit after that. Honestly, I went into the second stage just hoping to survive and cross the finish line, but I managed to pick up the rhythm in the end and it wasn’t a struggle, in fact, it went well.
Fortunately, the feelings weren’t bad today either. I’ve been able to get some really good sleep over the past few days, and I think that helps. I raced a bit more cautiously because I didn’t know what to expect, but tomorrow I have nothing to lose: I will work myself to the bone for Erik, and then I can finally go rest after the race. My coach and I will figure out for how long, but I will definitely spend a few days without the bike. I need to recharge mentally a bit as well, and after that, I will prepare for the National Championships.
Photo: Marcell Lippai
