This summer's training and racing vacation included a trip to the island of Krk in Croatia.

I'm a bit late in writing this post, it's December and in the middle of winter, but here goes...

Summary

This is the third summer in a row that I visit the island. The trails are just so nice and the weather is perfect. There's a mountain with good downhill trails, there's a lot of technical singletrack, and there are good gravel roads for long distance rides. I haven't found any better alternative.

Krk / Croatia

One thing was different this summer: Instead of starting my vacation with the stage race Beskidy Trophy, as previous years, I instead travelled to Poland for the race after my stay in Croatia. This meant that I had to keep track of my weight while on vacation, and while enjoying all the great food, but I managed somewhat. I don't really know for sure as I didn't weigh myself throughout the trip. Just before leaving however I was at about 71kg, which is pretty normal for Beskidy.

The plan was also to partake in any races in Croatia that I could find. This year that meant two:

XC Rezanci - One hour cross-country race
Rab Island Hero - 70km MTB marathon

I used Airbnb to get an entire apartment in main city of the island which is also called Krk (yeah, same name as the island). My aunt joined me for her own vacation. She's not a cyclist though so she spent most of the time on the beach.

The cycling on Krk:

17 days of riding (1 rainy day)
1323 km - 78 km per day average
23 697 meters altitude gain - 1394hm per day
86 hours - 5 hours per day

The Races

XC Rezanci

This is a great cross-country MTB race on a fun, flowy and challenging circuit. I managed to win the race even though I had a puncture early on. Puncture was fixed with some CO2 and I was able to continue after that.

Here's the video from the race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_UUzCtx-ro

Rab Island Hero

Rab Island Hero is one of the races in the Croatian marathon MTB cup. It was on the neighbouring island so we took the ferry across early in the morning. Almost missed the start of the race, only made it by a few minutes margin. Very very hot but still a lot of fun. I managed a second place.

Trip over to the neighbouring island of Cres

I decided that it would be fun to take a bike ride over to the island of Cres. There's a ferry that just takes half an hour or so from Krk. I done a bit of research and got some tips of where I could ride. I have to say that I was a bit disappointed though as I was unable to find much, if any, fun singletrack. The fact that the day was scorchingly hot and I had some punctures didn't make things better.