Late crash ruins 21-year-old’s chances of taking gold.
Martin Svrcek took his first podium of the season in a UCI race at the National Championships, which were held in Jevicko. The circuit of this year’s edition was 18.5km long, with Krenov – a 1.3km climb averaging 5.6% – as the main difficulty of the day, which was tackled a total of eight times.
The 21-year-old came at the start after a solid outing at last week’s Belgium Tour and was confident in his chances of fighting for a medal, especially as he had by his side Soudal Quick-Step teammates Josef Cerny and Jan Hirt, as both Czech and Slovak Nationals were raced together. When the race exploded, leaving only a handful of men at the front, Martin was there, part of a strong group from where he attacked several times to make a selection.
Svrcek managed to get clear on the last lap together with Lukas Kubis (Elkov-Kasper), together opening a solid gap on the others. Unfortunately for our rider, he crashed going into the last corner, with just 200 meters to go, and had to settle with second place.
“A big group went clear in the beginning, but we controlled their gap. Then, when the pace went up and the team who had the numbers began attacking, I responded to those moves and tried a couple of accelerations. I got away with Kubis, but then I entered with too much speed in the final bend and hit the ground. I’m disappointed by this, but on the other hand I take confidence from my display going into next week’s Tour of Slovakia”, said Martin after the race.
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen / Getty Images
