The popular mountain biking competition “Ikšķile MTB bike ride 2023” took place as usual in the beautiful territory of the “Zilie kalni” nature park. The organizers offered the participants the usual three distances – 12km family, 32km half marathon and 48km marathon, as well as a children’s distance. Altogether, almost half a thousand participants started in all distances.
In the marathon distance, where the 16 km circle had to be completed three times, so having traveled a total of 48 km, in the second half of the distance, three athletes fought for the prized places, who fit in half a minute. The victory was won by Sandijs Kļaviņš, who became the Latvian champion in MTB Olympic cross country (XCO) a week earlier in the “Blue Mountains” as an amateur, or in the CFA group, who was 25 seconds behind the gold medalist in the CFA group in the individual race on the highway Ęirts Cirvelis (ROADEX), who took second place. The trio was completed by the Latvian junior champion MTB XCO and the overall leader of the Vivus MTB half-marathon Rainers Zviedris (Dako Zielmevidzeme), so Cirvelis managed to get revenge on the Swede, who has to concede in the Vivus MTB stages.
Edgars Ābols, Kļaviņa’s teammate from the Ogre cycling team, who won the silver medal in the MTB XCO elite group a week earlier, finished fourth, 40 seconds behind the trio. The next two finishers of the six also crossed the finish line absolutely alone. The fifth was Rainer Zviedra’s older brother Nauris, who also won and won a prized place in this year’s Vivus MTB half-marathon. Rolands Burtsevs (Velo Express Scott), who won silver in his group at the Latvian Championship in Ogre, whose sister Valerija is a multiple medalist and also a winner in cross-country skiing and roller skiing in the youth group, rounded off the six.
If a week before he was busy preparing the track and organizing the LČ MTB XCO, this time Armands Pivors from Ogre was able to go out on his own, ahead of the medalist of the Latvian championship in MTB cross in his Master group, Normunds Griestinas, in an intense fight for the 7th place. Master group medalist Aigars Paegle was close to them, but Jēkabs Vītolas, the two-time winner of the U23 group in MTB cross at the Latvian Championship, who was the fourth representative of the Ogre team in the top ten, had to complete the top ten. The versatile athlete Kristaps Zaļupe, who won 7th place in kayaking at the Olympic Games, finished 13th.
For the women, the multiple Latvian MTB and MTB cross champion Katrīna Jaunslaviete-Kipure (ZZK), who is raising her third child and continues to compete in competitions with good results, won convincingly. The second place was taken by Lāsma Elza Vaivode (LiVelo/Zelta Zeme). The top three was completed by Renāte Rodionova (ĐažiVelo), who achieved many successes in MTB competitions, while the four-time amateur champion in the individual road race Krista Pūcīte (ROADEX) came fourth.
In the half-marathon, which was the most widely represented distance, with almost two hundred participants at the start, and where they had to ride one lap less than in the marathon, or a total of 32km, four MTB riders fought vigorously for the victory and also the prizes. In the end, the MTB cross medalist Aivis Karzons (MTB Nice) won the victory, ahead of Tomas Strėli from Marupia and representative of the youth group by 2 seconds, but three seconds later Strėli’s teammate from Veloshps/MSG Marks Jákobsons completed the top three, but a few seconds later the amateur arrived at the finish line highway champion Jānis Rubiks (Dako Ziemljevidzeme).
In the women’s half marathon, this year’s S16 group champion in MTB cross Ieva Kalniņa (Velorits) remained unbeaten. Another participant Laura Ramane (Bauska cycling team) who was in the top three in this year’s Vivus MTB half-marathon finished second, while the awarded third place went to Evija Ziediņa.
In the 12km family distance, Kristers Karlsson (Baldones Cycling Department) was the first to reach the finish line, with a lead of a little over half a minute over the nearest follower, and MTB cross bronze medalist in her youth group, Katrína Hanson (Belo Cycling projec
2023-07-31 05:17:45
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