Originally a local event, the race weekend in Czech Hradec Kralove has grown and can meanwhile pride itself of an UCI category 2.2 pro race, Bohemia Tour.

This year’s edition was a very successful one for Continental Team Vorarlberg on STEVENS Xenon: young rider Francesc Zurita finished third on the first stage covering 159 flat kilometers.

The young Spaniard could escape with two other riders on the last technically demanding 1,500 meters of the race and the group not caught again by the field until they reached the finish line.

Motivated by this good result, Zurita and his teammates went on the second stage that covered 178 kilometers and included some ascends. Surprisingly, it was not the climbers who dominated the stage, though. Sprinter Francesc Zurita did not lose contact and managed to escape together with teammates Sérgio Sousa and Patrick Schelling as well as with 27 other riders after 70 kilometers, at the end of the mountain section.

Though team Vorarlberg did not succeed in further reducing the number of riders, Zurita again finished third and won the runner-up title overall behind Jan Tratnik of team BMC Amplatz.

Schelling and Lehner show good climbing skills
While Zurita was still enjoying his success, teammate Patrick Schelling was already on his way to Switzerland where he was to compete in a mountain race from Chur up to luxury ski resort Arosa – after only four hours of sleep. The lack of nightly rest did not seem to slow him down, however.

On the contrary: he was not only the fastest rider on the race’s 29 kilometers and 1,200 vertical meters, he also pulverized the course record with a finish time of 1:00:59 hours.

Teammate Daniel Lehner proved to be in a comparably great climbing condition. At Austrian mountain championships in Tyrol he only succumbed to mountain biker Hermann Pernsteiner: runner-up title for the Austrian rider on home soil.