The legendary race near Bad Goisern, Austria's biggest and toughest marathon, attracts thousands of competitors every year. Klárka and Pavel have already experienced the atmosphere; they've competed here several times, and Pavel Šorf even finished second on his first attempt! Kawas was entered for the first time and had only heard about the race second-hand until then.

We gathered at our makeshift camp as early as Thursday before the race and immediately hopped on our bikes to ride through the most interesting sections of the course, including the Ewige Wand rock tunnel, an iconic spot on the route.

Pavel Šorf set off at nine in the morning; Route B covers 119.6 km and 3,521 metres of elevation gain! Pavel was among the favourites at the start, not just on this course, but he was also setting his sights on the overall standings in the Marathon Man Europe series following his excellent results at the King of Šumava and Malevil. From the start of the race, he held around tenth place at all the split times and even had a ten-minute lead over his biggest rival in the series! Unfortunately, on the final descent, ten kilometres from the finish, his rear tyre punctured so badly that he was unable to finish the race. A terrible shame, but that's cycling for you...

Klára Tomsová and Martin Kavalír tackled Course F, which was 37.3 km long with 1,071 metres of elevation gain. They both rode brilliantly, with Klára finishing 4th in the women's category and Kawas 7th in his category. A fantastic result in this gruelling race – huge congratulations.

The Salzkammergut Trophy isn't just about tough climbs and sporting achievement, but also the fantastic atmosphere along the entire route, which we all enjoyed – and we'll be back again next year...

TOUR DE RALSKO

There was also a race in Bohemia at the weekend, and on home turf in Mimoni, no less. At the former Ralsko military training area, Jakub Šorf finished 4th and Daniel Varga came 37th. It's just a shame that these two races were scheduled at the same time...