Third place at TDN 2023

This year, I managed to once again secure a nomination for the national team in the Trial des Nations for the Czech Republic. The team composition was identical to last year, so I competed alongside David Fabián and Martin Křoustek. This competition takes place every year, and I have participated in it a total of 11 times. I have a total of 4 gold, 1 silver, and 5 bronze medals from the event. Unfortunately, one year we did not make it to the podium.

It's a team race where each team consists of the three best riders from a specific country, and these teams compete against each other. Each of the 15 sections is ridden by all three team members, with the results of the best two being counted. The race takes place in two rounds, totaling 30 passes through the section. The team with the fewest penalty points becomes the winner.

The race took place on September 10th in Auron, which is an alpine resort with picturesque nature situated approximately 1600 meters above sea level in France. Our participation was in the International Trophy category, which is the second level of the competition. The main category had only 5 participating nations: Spain, Italy, Great Britain, France, and Norway. In our category, we competed against a total of 17 national teams from various parts of the world. The track was built on limestone rocks and, given the nature of the competition, was relatively challenging and quite technical.

The Japanese won the sunny race in our category with just one penalty point. Germans finished second, earning 7 penalty points. However, they accumulated all these points in the second round, while they had a flawless first round. We secured the third position with a total of 25 penalty points. In the first round, we got 8 points, and in the second, 7. Unfortunately, an additional 10 penalty points were attributed to us due to a technical error, for which we were not at fault. In one section, the judge's tablet for scoring likely malfunctioned, and the system indicated that one of our team members did not pass, which was not true. However, this situation was likely not addressed, as this technical error had no impact on the overall standings, as we had a sufficient lead over the fourth-placed Americans.

International Trophy results here

In the Women's Championship category this year, unfortunately, the Czech team did not start. This happened due to the injury of Petra Budínová.