EN The first of the two international highlights of the season is in the past. European riders gathered in Valmiera, Latvia, where they fought for European bicross titles. We had the opportunity to watch the UEC livestream on the YouTube channel from Friday to Sunday, and as far as our competitors were concerned, they were definitely visible. Mistrovství Evropy The participants of this year's Sazka Championship of the Czech Republic may have had enough of the sunny weather. But different conditions awaited them in Latvia. Although Wednesday's training took place in good weather, Thursday's all-day rain was certainly not pleasant. There was nothing left but to adapt to such a situation and concentrate on performance. Let's start with the Saturday race of the Championships category, where we had several of our representatives. This day was exceptionally sunny. Sabina Košárková came to Valmiera as the reigning bronze medalist from last year's European Championship in Verona, and based on her form we could have expected another valuable metal. And we waited. In the Women Under 23 category, she was only able to beat home defending champion Veronika Sturiska and Michalle Wissing from the Netherlands, and thus repeated the third place! Elen Lapková, a first-year among the juniors, performed well, which earned her 12th place, and elite athlete Eliška Bartuňková finished her race one position higher, i.e. 11th. Štěpánka Fremlová, competitor of the Girls 15 category, made it to the finals of her category, where she took the final eighth place. On the men's side, it was junior Viktor Oldřich Chudoba, who confirmed his position among the top Europeans and was not absent at the start of the final of his category even in Valmiera. A place on the podium was very realistic, but in the end Viktor dares to take sixth place. Vít Gruntorád also showed a fighting performance, which earned him 12th place overall. Vít Stloukal unfortunately got involved in a fall in the round of 16 race, and Vít Novotný did not start the race due to an injury from training. We didn't do so well in the U23 Men. The best result was achieved by Jakub Cidlinský (24th place). The Challenge categories were divided into two days. Friday's program was dedicated to Cruiser categories and Sunday to traditional age categories. Štěpánka Fremlová won a double in the form of final placement in both her categories. Friday's Cruiser Girls 16 and Under category race brought her fifth place. Martin Barabáš competing in the Cruiser 40/44 category took eighth place. Štěpán Havelka presented himself in the Cruiser 13/14 category and finished just below the podium. Among the competitors in the Cruiser 15/16 category, Šimon Aksamit took sixth place. And finally, in the Cruiser 12 and Under category we had two Czech representatives in the final race. Fifth Florián Hošek and European vice-champion Miroslav Dreiseitl deserved it! On Sunday, we saw the decoration of two European champions in their age categories. In the Boys 11 category, at this year's European Cup races, we got used to the fact that our competitors like to fill the entire podium together. They lived up to expectations in style and in Valmiera, bronze Jan Očenášek, silver Tomáš Souček and gold Jiří Luska took the podium! The second winner in his category was Matěj Chalupný, who competed in the combined Men 30+ category. Boys 8 competitor Sebastián Štěpánek placed 6th. In the Boys 10 category we had two finalists, namely Max Roškot (5th place) and Albert Kohoutek, who finished the race in 8th place after a fall. In the Girls 11 category, Rubiana Hošková finished her race in 6th place. The next girl in the final was Barbora Maarová, who took 8th place among 13-year-old girls. The same place also belonged to Dominik Ráliš in the Boys 14 category after falling in the first corner. Results: Men Junior: 1. Apels (Lat.), 2. Wahlberg (Sweden), 3. Lüthi (Switzerland), ...6. Chudoba, 12. Gruntorád, 52. Stloukal, DNS Novotný (all Czech Republic). Men U23: 1. Noordham, 2. Pipers (both Netherlands), 3. Langmanis (Lat.), ...24. Cidlinský, 29. Vesecký, 38. Neužil (all Czech Republic). Men Elite: 1. Ragot, 2. Pillard, 3. Andre (all Fr.). Women Junior: 1. Challis, 2. Rendall (both Brit.), 3. de Oliveira (Fr.), …12. Lapková (Czech Republic). Women U23: 1. Sturiska (Lat.), 2. Wissing (Netherlands), 3. Košárková (CZ) Women Elite: 1. Shriever (Britain), 2. M. Smulders, 3. L. Smulders (both Netherlands), …11. Bartuňková (Czech Republic). Photo: Nico van Dartel