The fifth edition of the All Czech Republic race was held August 23-26, 2001. This year, it was a RAAM qualifier for the first time. The start and finish of the 1.111 km (691 mile) course is in Ostrava in the eastern part of the Czech Republic. The course roughly follows the Czech border counterclockwise through the mountain ranges of the Sudetenland, the Erzgebirge and the Bohemian Forest. The topography is very difficult with 9,600 meters (31,500 ft.) of climbing.

Race start

On August 23rd at 3 p.m. nine male solo riders, two female solo riders and three two-person relay teams from four different nations lined up on Masarykovo square in the city center of Ostrava to take on this challenge. The weather was cloudy with temperatures around 26 degrees C. The forecast for the next days was excellent which turned out to be true. A pace car neutralized the race until we left the city limits. Patrik Bartik from the Czech Republic established an early lead. A group of Martin Kerekes (Slovakia), Alexander Gepp (Austria), Udo Feldmann (Germany) and myself followed not too far behind.

After two major climbs through the Sudetenland I reached the first time station in Hradec Kralove (242 km) in third position. Riders were not obliged to sign in personally, so I continued alone through the city without my crew. This saved a lot of time and brought me into second position. I felt great so I cranked up a good pace on a relatively flat part of the route. Shortly behind Jicin (290 km) I passed Bartik and took the lead. We exchanged positions a few times until Mlada Boleslav (324 km). After this city I noticed that my nutrition plan wasn't working. Diarrhea forced me to take more and longer breaks than planned, so I lost contact with Bartik. I reached the second time station in Dubi (449 km) at almost the same time as Kerekes and Gerhard Hahn from Austria who moved into fourth position during the night. At the third time station in Karlovy Vary (553 km) we were still separated just by a few minutes.

Reinhard Schroeder

At the 24 hour mark I crossed the city of Pilsen (636 km) and shortly, Hahn came from behind. We both had an absolutely low point. For 15 minutes we rode side by side asking ourselves who felt more miserable. In the next three hours we both wasted a lot of time. I decided to go to a restaurant to change nutrition and to lift my mood. Gerhard had knee problems and tried all kinds of treatments. He decided to give up the race at kilometer 690.

Fortunately, I started to recover. After crossing the river Moldau, I felt strong as a horse again. This was good timing since the next 150 kilometers offered the most grueling climbs of the whole route. The hills of the Bohemian Forest are a never ending roller coaster with constant 12% gradients. I wanted to chase down Kerekes, so I attacked these hills aggressively.

In Jihlava (823 km) I rode into another low point and in Zdar nad Saz (859 km) I decided to take a 1.5 hour sleep break. I couldn't sleep but I felt a bit better when I hit the road again at 5 a.m. on a foggy and cool morning. In Prostejov (964 km) the grueling hills were finally over and I was happy to see a flat stretch of land again.

Patrik Bartik

At the last time station in Roznov (1053 km) we realized that Bartik had finished as first solo rider a few hours ago. Until then we believed him to be a member of a two-person relay team! It dawned on me that I might not qualify! I pushed hard to the finish but it was already too late.

Patrik Bartik had set a fantastic new course record with 41 hours 32 minutes. I finished in 49 hours 8 minutes, missing the RAAM qualifying standard by 1 hour 22 minutes. I bow my hat to the performance of Patrik Bartik! ACR is the most difficult ride I've ever done. Nevertheless, I will try to qualify next year in the same race - because it is so difficult.