Bringing the silver from Champéry
Michal Prokop, the factory rider of Author and reigning 4X World Champion and World Cup winner comes with the silver from second round of the UCI Fourcross World Cup held in Swiss ski resort Champéry this past weekend.
Starting early after the start of Friday’s qualification on the wet and slippery but drying course, Michal finished over one second ahead of the rest of the world with only one exception. Brian Lopes starting from some reason at the end of the pack was just flying on the almost dry course in the fastest time.
As every day of last week in Champéry, the rain came also on Saturday afternoon. Shortly after beginning of the 1/16 final, just before Michal’s first round, few minutes of very hard rain, upper part of the race course have changed into real water fall. Deep mud, very slippery stones in the rock garden and asphalted turns, it all made the race very challenging. Once again, Michal demonstrated a set of amazing starts and excellent first turn moves all the way to the final round. There were three Red Bull riders on the gate of the last round of the day. Michal Prokop, Filip Polc and Gee Atherton. Last but not the least was Brian Lopes.
Michal presented another Holeshot and was leading the pack. It doesn't happen very often that someone can resist Michal Prokop's pedal power and riding skills. But during Saturday’s 4X finals in the rainy beauty of the Swiss Alps Brian Lopes provided good move on Michal in the rock garden and toke the lead. On a course which started with a mountain bike layout and ended in a parking lot the World Cup Champion of 2005 managed to stay in front of the Czech rocket all the way through the finish line. Silver in Champéry and third place in the World Cup standing after two races for Michal.
“Coming home from the land of world’s most precise watches makes me confused. I fell off two times in the training but thanks to great working UFO body protectors I always stood up without problem. After all, second place behind Brian is good one. That man is just amazing and we all would be lucky to be in such a shape at his age. On the other hand, it was not a race that I could really enjoy. Why to organize the World Cup race where it looks like people are neither happy nor proud to host such a top class event?! They call it the World Cup but many local events are way better organized. I don’t see any other reason why to organize that important race there, except because it is so close to the UCI headquarters. Most of us are traveling thousands kilometers to make a good show with hope also promoters will make their best. Some do, some not… unfortunately!
I believe Phil Saxena made his best to build this race course but I really missed more flow. So short first straight followed by soft flat turn was maybe spectacular but at first it was great place for dangerous moves! You know this new idea of tracks combining downhill like and BMX like sections is basically ok but it is not possible to build any 100% working race course without a chance to test it before the World Cup race. We need to improve the courses step by step. To change this part and that, make new turn or a straight, add a rock garden…. Not to remove everything and start from zero again! To build brand new course on a green field for every single World Cup round is expensive and stupid. For example, I like the course in Mont Sainte Anne. It is still on the same place and they just improve it every year a bit. That works!
Someone said that those new school DH like tracks are here because of pursuit to get DH riders back to fourcross. Forget it until UCI will change the World Cup weekend schedule. Nobody can stop DH session and jump on his 4X bike at the same moment. Those guys are tired and have another trainings and race next day! Did anybody think how dangerous is to race fourcross after so many hours of training on such a slope like in Champéry?! So, the World Cup schedule is something to think about. Why to spend so much time in a sleeping ski resort waiting for one hour long show? Are we all that rich?! We are not downhillers, our race courses are ten times shorter and remain almost the same during a day. We could easily have two races during four days… Or, what about to have two hours training session on Friday afternoon, another hour and a half on Saturday a.m. followed by qualification? Then short warm up and finals on Saturday afternoon or night? Just an idea.”
Next weekend will be free of racing for Michal, so the promotion events are on the schedule. On Tuesday June 12 Michal will attend Autosalon, the biggest car show here taking place in Brno ready to sign hundreds of posters on SEAT booth. Day after, there will be traditional downtown cross country race called “Prazske schody” where another autograph session of Mr. Prokop is scheduled.
Next race will be the UEC BMX European Championships taking place in Kampen, the Netherlands on the weekend of 23-24th June. Unfortunately, because of this Olympic qualification event, Michal can’t attend round three of the UCI 4X World Cup taking place in his favorite venue Mont Sainte Anne in Canada.