The Malevil Cup suits Kristian Hynek, as he won the 19th Malevil Cup by Author ahdead of 70 elite marathon mountain bikers from 13 countries. The current Czech champion repeated his triumph from 5 and 2 years ago. He beat Jan Škarnizl in the last stretch before the finish line. In the women’s race, favourite Sally Bigham claimed the victory.
This time it was not the peak of the route, Hvozd mountain, that decided the race. Jan Škarnizl conquered the peak with incredible speed and left the rest of the leading group of five far behind. Kristian Hynek, Filip Adel (CZE, Superior Suninvent), Tomáš Višňovský (SVK, Česká spořitelna Accolade) and last year’s winner Johny Cattaneo (ITA, Wilier Force 7C) struggled to follow.
“I wanted to win the mountain prize on the top of Hvozd mountain so I accelerated. The group broke up, but Kristian’s problems helped me too,” Jan Škarnitzl described the most important moments of the race. “Then I waited for Filip Adel so that I wouldn’t ride alone. Kristian wasn’t far behind us, we were expecting him to catch up with us but it took him a while, he reached us at Myslivny, some 20 km before the finish line. However at that moment Adel wasn’t there anymore, he was also slowed down by a defect.”
Kristian Hynek lost around one minute dealing with a mechanical problem and he reached the top of the Hvozd mountain third after Škarnizl and Adel. “I had a problem at the front wheel but it wasn’t anything critical so I managed to fix it quite quickly. The guys were keeping their lead at the beginning but with the increasing number of kilometres their energy was probably decreasing and I caught up with them,” said Hynek after finishing the race, just one second before Škarnizl.
“I felt confident about the final sprint but I made a small mistake close to the finish line… However Kristian proved today that he is a great marathon man and that he deserves to be the Czech champion, he managed to get rid of one minute of delay in 30 kilometres,” evaluated Jan Škarnizl who won the silver medal already in 2014.
“I did a good job but my feeling wasn’t so good, I was lacking energy at the beginning. The race was shorter than I prefer but longer than Škarnizl does.. So a good compromise. At the end Škarnizl had bad luck when preparing for the final sprint. It was a wonderful race with a good finish,” commented the winner Kristian Hynek.
Bronze medalist Tomáš Višňovský was very satisfied with the result. “I was here for the second time, last year it was seventh position, so today I’m really happy. I rode without any problems, I had one small crisis but soon I overcame it and accelerated again. The Hvozd climb was extremely hard, I lost a bit there but in the end I managed to grab the bronze medal,” said this year’s acquisition of Česká spořitelna Accolade team. Also manager of the team Radim Kořínek must have been happy for this result as Matouš Ulman did not start due to illness, Jan Strož did not finish and Pavel Boudný finished in ninth position.
The position just below the podium belongs to Filip Adel who seemed to be really strong and motivated today. But his plans of repeating his victory from 2015 were ruined by a defect. “There was a stone in the grass and it wasn’t visible so I rode over it at full speed. I tried to fix it quickly by myself but my tools weren’t enough and I had to stop in a depot to inflate the tire properly,”, said Adel, disappointed after the race.
One of the biggest stars of this year Karl Platt (GER, Team Bulls) finished in fifth position and last year’s winner Johnny Cattaneo was struggling with the hot weather and finished eighth.
Bigham takes the Malevil Cup win
The women’s race was won by the experienced mountain biker Sally Bigham from Great Britain. However her triumph was not that clear as the second Milena Cesnakova (Maloja – Rocky Mountain) arrived to the finish line only one minute and a half later. The mother of 5 months old Max did not participate in many races this year so she had even bigger cause for happiness. “I didn’t know what to expect from the race, it wasn’t easy at all and the local girls were really strong,” said Sally after the race.
“For the first time it all went well on Malevil Cup,” rejoiced Cesnaková. “The girls were in front of me at the beginning but I managed to catch up with them quite soon and for some time we all were riding together. After some time Jana wasn’t able to keep the pace, I was trying to stick to Sally but she was too fast. I saw her all the time in front of me, she was riding with a group of men so I didn’t have a chance. But I’m very satisfied, finally I felt great here and it felt great to ride behind such an excellent biker,” commented Milena Cesnaková on her second position result.
Jana Pichlíková, Czech champion, told us: “I decided to take part at the last moment, I had challenging races in the past weeks but still I wanted to come. I like Malevil Cup and I’m very satisfied with the third position. After four hours on the track I didn’t have any energy and just hoped to finish the race.”
Winners of the shorter 65 km course were Regina Marunde (GER, Scott fizik) and Josef Jelínek (CZE, Mitas Trek).
Full results can be found online.