Ana Odlazek finished 2nd in inline halfmarathon Linz 2015

19. april 2015

Ana Odlazek has finished 2nd in Linz this year where first three competitors were a skating frame apart on finish line. Tadeja Donko competed our club success with winning the main peloton sprint and ending 9th in absolute women rankings. This year also men did improve a lot, with Peter Korez finishing 14th and Grega Jancigar 31st, while Crt Mori (71st) and Jure Likar (100th), provided some support on start.

Start of spring classics with sectors of poor surface and cobbles resembling the Paris-Roubaix cycling classic is Linz the most perfect start of competitive marathon and half-marathon season. It is also the first race for Austrian Inline Cup where Ana Odlazek is a defending champion and she will be looking to defend her crown this year as well.

Women race:

There were no strong teams on starting line of women race which basically meant there was no major interes in controlling the race at all. Not far from start the top 5 competitors, which included Ana Odlazek, managed to break clear of the main peloton. The have gotten considerable lead quite fast and with all major teams included in breakway the peloton had no interest in chasing them down. Before half of the race it was all but clear that the winner will come from breakaway. Meanwhile the peloton left another small chase group, but the pace was really slow which suited Tadeja Donko. When breakaway came into the last kilometer, Ana Odlazek was first to attack the breakaway, and she created a small gap, but Susanne Fuchs (Eisenstadt) managed to chase her back with Jasmin Habesohn behind her. On small uphill they both passed her, but Ana Odlazek found additional strength and managed to come within wheel length of the win to finish second. Behind in main peloton Tadeja Donko was preparing for bunch sprint which she executed to perfection. Because of easy pace she was able to outsprint the bunch and finished 9th overall.

Men race:

Peter Korez and Grega Jancigar were main contenders for top places within our club, and Crt Mori was acting as a domestique in first kilometer where positioning is critical to cover attacks. But after start the pace calmed down and again no team wanted to commit to setting the pace, while there was no ambition for a long breakaway as the pace remained reasonably high. This non-attacking played into hands of both Peter and Grega who remained in the main bunch up a lot longer than usual and were able to follow the first attacks with just slight increase of pace. When first breakaway formed with a bit bigger group of 10 skaters Grega was not able to follow, while smaller group with Peter kept them on safe distance. First breakaway had a very aggressive stile of racing while the chasers worked well together, keeping the distance small, but on the end stronger breakaway skaters sprinted to close victory, while Peter Korez managed to outsprint everyone in what was left of main bunch to finish 14th. Grega was skating alone most of the time and finished 31st, while Crt and Jure took their own race within smaller groups to finish 71st and 100th.