My first Downhill race

I was on needls all weekend before the race because the
unicycle should arrive from Germany along with my sponsor t-shirts from QU-ax and KH but the post office from Germany and from Croatia are very VERY slow.
So i was living in temptation for one week because i didn`t know if I am going to get my new KH 24". So I ended up in Grasisce (place where is the race)at early Saturday, 500 km from the place where i live still without my unicycle because they had to go trough every possible kind of tax and other stuff.

The program of weekend started on Saturday: On foot inspection of the stage in the morning (2km of pure downhill i did the 1/5 of the stage was too lazy) and in the afternoon official training without timer. I did the first thing and then went to get my unicycle 200 km away on a bus stop ( no direct lines to that village where the race is from another part of country) and when i return it was already dark of course. but i was so thrilled that i set up my KH and did a little ride on the town. I must say that i haven`t ride 24" for 1 year and that one was the most cheapest 24" money can find and i had to drive tomorrow morning DH with it so i decided to go on a ride in the town to get my hands on it :slight_smile: I was lucky that i found my Friends in town near that village and guess what ? with him were some photographs from Croatian monthly magazine named KLIK and i ended up making a photo session on local drops stairs and squares. Weeeee i am going to be in a newspapers.

Sunday : I went to take ONe ride down the track before the official training starts, then i climbed up 2 km’s then i did another ride that was disaster because i was tired from climbing but fortunately the official training started so the pickup van was waiting for me at the end of the stage.

the route is nothing like the pictures and the video that was online before the race, the organizators decioded to sice up things a little so they made some very big chagnes in the race. So i after that 2 rides i collapsed and fell asleep.

When the waked me up i told them that i can’t drive qualifications and the race, so we decided that i am going to be a test driver after qualifying round before the whole race and that the are going to make UNI category instead of hard tail that i was planing to go.

So i made the whole 2 KM of pure technical, very rocky downhill in front of 200 +
people and i managed to make it from the beginning till the end with only 10-15 times when i had to jump off the uniczcle due to the lack of brake on 24" with 150mm cranks

after that a guy from Croatian national TV came to me, said that the are making the documentary of Croatian x sports and that the would like to do one whole show on ME wow.

so the interviewed me and left

so folks that is about all, i don’t have computer at home so this is written in very little time due to the lack of money for the receive in net-caffe-

i would also like to thank My sponsors QU-ax and Kris Holm for giving me the UNI for the race

There will be more from me folk, talk to you later when i get my computer :smiley:

thez also said that if there will be enough riders thez can make UNI race next year with prices and everything

here are some pictures of the stage, i dont have my pictures yet becouse my friends that was filming the stage was driving after me so i have to wait the pics from local crew

here are some pics of top of the stage and 2 very bad ones from me

http://rapidshare.de/files/36277844/castuw7.zip

Wow thats quite the write up, it looked like alot of fun. Certainly impressive that you did it without knowing anything about the equipment you were going to be using too.

i will post more pictures later when i get my comp

here is the link on croatian news report i will add subtitles when i get my comp

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2658799668833628417

slika 1.bmp.jpg

Hey that all sounds very good for me :slight_smile:
We fight hard to bring the 24"KH to Matej before the race starts.
Some words to the sponsoring of Matej: He is a part of “team unicycle.tv”. This team is powerd by unicycle.tv and monocikl.com (Qu-ax and KH Croatia) and becomes also an official part of the “grassroots teams” of KH. All riders of the team ride on KH and QU-AX unicycles
There will be more info about team unicycle.tv soon here in the forum.

We (the sponsors) would like to say thanks to Matej that he do the race even if he only could pick up the Uni a half day before it starts.

Congratulation to your successful ride, even if it wasn’t an official part of the race. We will provide you a set of breaks soon :slight_smile:

Wow! Congratulations - that looks like a fun course. That’s great that you made the news too. I looked it up on the map and the race was somewhat close to where we’ll be riding next June on our way from Ljubljana to Zadar.

I assume unicycles are rare in Croatia? I read a recent post about going unicycling in Zagreb and the guys said they met “the only unicyclist in Croatia” or something like that.

Anyway, thanks for posting!

—Nathan

yes i am the only one but not for long :d

i will drive most of the downhill races in slovenia next session so i will see you

are you from slovenia

i didn’t ride for 5 months so after 3 races i couldn’t stand on my feet

but now i am going to prepare over the winter for next dh session

I figured it was you. I am from California and am planning a unicycle tour that will start in Ljubljana. We are working on the website now and will announce it here soon when it’s ready. We have the tour members already (11 unicyclists, 2 bike support, 1 car support). We’re still working on route details right now but the plan is to cross from Zadar to Ancona, Italy. Basically the tour is modelled after these:

Alps Tour 2005
Norway 2003
Europe 2001

and others.

That would be great if we could meet next summer!

—Nathan

contact me on apadox@gmail.com msn or mail

i know the best places in croatia for uni tour :smiley:

Sounds great to make a tour through Croatia. For sure, Matej can give you some very useful tips. Maybe I’m also in Croatia next summer (I’m there several times of the year :slight_smile: ) and I would also love to meet you while your trip. When you plan your route, take care that you don’t cross the Croatian /Slovenian border so much. I hate to cross it, its mostly a big trouble. Slovenian like to protect the European community to hard :slight_smile:
Croatia is still outside and maybe it’s better as it is for them.
How ever, it’s great riding there and great people. It’s the favorite place in the world for me and I see a lot nice places while the last 30 years I think.

ok i checked with local drivers, do you want me to draw that route on map ?, or how to tell you