Photo © Pambos Aristodimou
An extreme day today in Macheras mountains where the Cyprus National MTB Downhill Championships were held. Definitely not for the faint of heart! The race has run on the Macheras downhill track, which was built by the riders themselves to the standards of high-level downhill courses in Europe. A beast of a course with many and big jumps, lots of rocky and technical sections, some super-fast descends and extreme inclines that push the riders to their limits!
With the course perfectly prepared by the Macheras Bikeland crew and the help of the previous days rainfall that created the amazing grip that Macheras is known for when its dirt is wet, as well as perfect weather on the day, everything suggested that we were up for a great day of racing! And great it was! The 14 riders that stepped on the start ramp, offered huge doses of adrenalin and amazing show!
With a time of 2’ 13’’ 209, Andreas Theodorou claimed his 4th National Championship in Downhill and proved once again that, for the time being, he is on a level of his own.
What was different this year though, was the increased presence of cadet riders, who in their first taste of DH racing, not only managed to tame the rough course, but also gave the Elite and Junior riders a run for their money! In an impressive run, Giorgos Kouzis managed to post the second fastest time of the day just 9 seconds behind Andreas and to win the Open Men U19 category!
Raphael Papachristoforou was crowned Junior National Champion and Akis Savva Posted the 3rd fastest time of the day and won the Open Men 40+ category. Michalis Pieris was the fastest in the Open Men 30-39 race and Andreas Hadjicharalambous in his first DH race, managed to claim the top step of the podium in the Open Men 19-29 category.
Check out the full results
The race was co-organised by the Cyprus Downhill Club and the Cyprus Cycling Federation.
With the National MTB Downhill Championships the 2020 cycling season comes to its end! In an extremely hard year, with the many additional challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, cycling has managed to hold the races of a full calendar in all disciplines! Quite an achievement, especially considering the mess that the national governing body of the sport is in. An achievement made possible because of the determination and commitment of a select few members of the board of the Cyprus Cycling Federation. With the board elections coming next week, we can only hope for better days!
