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Tomas Slavik scoring at his first ever DH race - UCI World Cup Pietermaritzburg
Last weekend Tomas Slavik was racing his first ever DH race and straight on it was first stop of UCI World Cup 2014 in Africa. Slavik in his premiere downhill race ended up on 36th place, what is the best czech result in last 3 years! Whats about to come next?
Baptism by fire - thats how you might call Tomas Slaviks first DH race in Pietermaritzburg. Physically one of the most difficult tracks at World Cup circuit and nowadays very technical in upper part of the track, where even the best riders were struggling. Everybody knew that for fourcross World Champion Tomas Slavik it will be difficult exam, but he passed this exam. From pure 4X rider become also DH rider in 5 months.. Some people would say impossible, but Slavik made it. His priority is still fourcross, but we can expect him on next World Cup races chasing the fastest DH times!
„It was my first ever Dh race and just decided to race World Cup straight on. I had no clue how this race can end up for me. At the end I was surprised as the others were. Anyway everybody on world cup circuit is really on the pace and physically strong, its not easy to fight against the fastest DH racers in the world, but I would say its not unreal. In qualification I have hit the tree and lost load of time at upper part of the track and at bottom I was quite fast. I knew that I have to push it much more then I was used to in 4X. At DH you are just on your limit, all the way down. In final I got 10 s quicker then in quali and got 36th what is not too bad - if I would be 5 s quicker, I could do TOP 15 and its crazy motivation to me you know. Im really stoked that all my training theory were right and made up this challenge! Everything went just as it was suppose to go. I will definitely be racing few more DH World Cups this year as Leogang, Fort William and I would love to race the World Championships in Norway. Back to the roots as 4X riders were racing DH and DH riders were racing 4X. It will be really physical and lets see if I can make it, but this is a big challenge to me and thats what I like!”
For more information about Tomas Slavik and his way through his 4X and DH season follow his social networks.
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