Spotlight on Prachatice - August 9

August is the dream season for the adventurous, adrenaline-seeking XTERRA athlete.  It all starts in the medieval city of Prachatice (pronounced pra – ka –teets – ay.) The village is located a few hours south of Prague in southern Bohemia in a verdant valley surrounded by heavily forested hills and dairy farms.

“It’s our third year in this spectacular place,” said organizer Michal Piloušek. “It’s a wonderful historic town in the center of the Sumava Mountains. We finish in ‘the Great Square with renaissance buildings all around and hundreds of cheering people…it’s a life time experience.”

Indeed, the event showcases the entire area as it is a point-to-point course. The swim is about 10K from town at a wonderful natural lake up in the mountains. It will be a 2 lap swim in typical XTERRA fashion.

“The swim part of race is on Kristanovicky Rybnik, the highest situated lake in the Czech Republic, but the water is warm (20C) and very clear,” said Piloušek.

Out from the lake riders will have a few K of paved secondary road before heading into the hills. The bike course is roughly 35K long and fast.  “It’s very challenging, as usual in the Czech. This year we will add some new single tracks, to make the course more fun to ride. On 36K there are 3 aid stations, all will be greatly equipped thanks to our new big sponsor - Isostar.”

The bike return is smack in the middle of the Prachatice town square, followed by a run featuring two laps that loops that go ‘up and down all the time…mud, wood, sand, gravel, all you can imagine,” said Piloušek.

Of note for the frugal traveler, Czech is one of the least expensive places on tour.

“Our basic start fee is just 60 Euros and athletes can pay it with their credit card through our new system, you can check it out on our webpage http://www.xterra.cz/.  This year we will have a big pasta party the day before race, and host an XTERRA KIDS race in Town Square. After the race you can count on our typical Czech crazy after party with live music, food, and drinks,” said Piloušek.

Defending XTERRA World Champion Ruben Ruzafa has already committed to race at XTERRA Czech, “so if you want to race against the best in the World, this is the place,” smiled Piloušek.  “We are looking for everybody, Czech Republic is very inexpensive country with huge history, nice nature and great beer (ask Dave Big Kahuna if you don´t trust me!).”