RALSKO — Two Podiums and a Team Celebration

Ralsko, the final race of the Kolo pro život series, welcomed us with weather that you'd wish for at every race: sunshine, pleasant temperatures, and ideal conditions.

For some of us, however, this wasn't just the final Kolopro race. The overall series standings were also on the line.

Pavel Šorf set out on Route B, and he was certainly motivated. Before the final race, he was among the top three in both his category and the overall series standings. But the competition in Ralsko was really fierce. Pavel finished 10th and held on to an excellent 3rd place in the overall series standings—not only in his category but also in the absolute rankings!

The rest of the team set out on Route C—Martin "Kawas" Kavalír, Naďa Kavalírová, Klára Tomsová, Jakub Šorf, David Koželuh, Vít Koňařík, and Daniel "Vargič" Varga. And we experienced a real adrenaline rush on this route, too.

Martin Kavalír has been racing in the Kolo pro život series for eight years, but he'd never made it onto the podium. This time, though, he rode brilliantly and it paid off! We were all overjoyed.

Klára Tomsová had already secured a fantastic third place in the overall standings—she couldn't move up or down—so she rode alongside Naďa Kavalírová. Naďa also had a chance to make it onto the podium, but there was a slight disappointment at the finish line—4th place for Naďa.

An even bigger surprise awaited us at the awards ceremony. Naďa's competitor was disqualified, so the Kavalír family is taking home two bronze medals!

Vít Koňařík took a great 4th place, Jakub Šorf came in 5th, Klára Tomsová 6th, David Koželuh 38th, and Daniel Varga finished 50th. Huge congratulations to everyone!

Kolopro is over, but the season isn't over yet…

We wrapped up this year's Kolo pro život series in Ralsko. But that doesn't mean we're putting our bikes away in the garage just yet. We still have the Author Cup in Bedřichov ahead of us, which will serve as our farewell to the racing season.

After the race in Ralsko, though, we didn't have to rush anywhere. We rode just a few kilometers to our cottage, where we celebrated the end of the season together that evening. After all the races, training sessions, and team events, we definitely deserved a proper team celebration.

And since we still hadn't had enough of biking, on Sunday we set out on a group ride to Luž. This time, without race numbers, without a stopwatch, and most importantly, without any nerves. We simply hopped on our bikes and enjoyed the ride together.

So Ralsko wasn't just Kolopro's final race, but also a great team weekend.

Two third-place finishes in the race, two third-place finishes in the overall series standings, and—after eight years—Martin finally on the podium.

Now the season's final race in Bedřichov awaits us. And then, hopefully, it'll really be time to put the bikes away for a while.

Although… we know each other.