RestPoint 2 receptionist dotwatching RACZ25👍

THURSDAY MOSAIC
On the afternoon of the second day, the starting field, as usual, had already expanded from .

Unfortunately, Radek Sakař withdrew due to numbness in his feet, so Štěpán and Tomáš Křováček are leading the way, have already covered about 690 km after 34 hours and... will soon start climbing the hills of Králický Sněžník.

The fastest 15 have already arrived at FP2, after withdrawal of Radek's and fifth-place Krzysztof (carpals), Michal Dušek (10) took third place, his gap to the duo in front is about 30 km, but there is still about 450 km to Girová.

Martina Boháčiková (87) made a huge leap forward. We welcomed her as currently fastest woman as eighth in general classification, 1h10min ahead of second-place Julka (no. 36, 11th overall). While Martina used RP2 to take a short nap in bed, Julka didnt waste a time and fell asleep on the table in restaurant :-D

The most of Riders are currently whizzing through the Bohemian Paradise, which is once again full of attractions such as Pekařova brána, Kost and Trosky castles, or the chapel in Vyskeř. The area around Hořice also received very good feedback from riders.

Probably the most mysterious section of the entire route then runs just before RP2, through the area around Chlum, where (exactly, on July 3rd) 159 years ago the bloodiest battle on Czech territory took place. The chill runs down your spine especially in the wild Svíb forest, where The Route passes dozens of monuments and graves of fallen soldiers.

The weather has cooled down a bit, also some rain has fallen, and we are pleased with the relatively short "scratch list" - so far only 10 riders have to withdrawn. We must especially give respect to Matouš Kučera (59), who was on RP1 due to repeated vomiting, spent several hours in Rakovník to recover, and is now successfully moving forward.

Dan Hasnedl (81) showed the heart of a fighter, when announced a scratch at 170 km, handed over the tracker to his wife Jarka, but finally slowly reached RP1, where he decided to try to continue, and is heading to Paradise.

https://cs.follow.me.cz/tracking/racz25/

DAY 1 THROUGH THE LENS OF PEŤA JANÍČEK, NO MATTER BAD LUCK
Our most loyal and most universal teammate Peťa Janíček manages not only to film and edit material for a movie and social networks during RACZ, but also takes great photos of our Riders.

Without further comments, you can ...take a look at some of his best shots from the first day, during which he also had to cope with a serious pitfall, when he punctured front tire of his car on the way to the refreshment point at Svatošské skály, and had to repair it at pneuservice in Karlovy Vary :-D

MOTHER PRAGUE
For the first time ever - and as a last time for a long time into the future - we extended RACZ Route through the historical center of the Czech capital.

We placed the section through Prague at cca 280.km, so that most participants could soak up its atmosphere at night or... early in the morning, before it was flooded with thousands of tourists.

We believe that this section was an intense experience for everyone, and that from now on, everyone will immediately remember entire this year´s edition, everytime when they visit Prague again - or at least see the pictures of Charles Bridge or Old Town Square.

At the end of this gallery, we would like to share an authentic passage over Charles Bridge performed by Štěpán Stránský, at 8 pm in the evening :-D

https://cs.follow.me.cz/tracking/racz25/

DOMESTICI AT ČERVENÝ HRÁDEK
Martin Souček, RAAM finisher and organizer of popular cycling/charity projects Kolo Pro Adama, Letovická 24hour and currently especially "Domestici", once again demonstrated his true ultracycling heart. When he saw the conditions in which our Riders ...were fighting yesterday, he spontaneously decided to organize for them great Refreshment Party at about 270 km near Červený Hrádek.

Martin also involved his family with 4 children, and in addition to pleasing our Riders, he also gave his children an interesting experience. They feasted until almost midnight, until the supplies were gone and the children had to go to bed.

For the second year, Martin has been supporting and spreading awareness about palliative care and is involving other - elite and also hobby - cyclists in charity collections organized during their ultra challenges and races. He has already managed to raise several million czk this way, ensuring the most dignified departure from this world for dozens of incurable patients.

This time he took on the role of a Domestik for himself and his loved ones, and we want to say a huge "Thank you and big respect" for this.

Be sure to check out his website https://domestici.cz/ and become his Domestik in return ;-)

NEW LEADER OF RACZ25 RADEK SAKAŘ
Radek Sakař (34) arrived first at RP2 in a very good mood, although he had a non-stop night swing in his legs and 570km in 26 hours.

Radek got to the lead after Elbe section, after Štěpán decided to take a nap (now has a loss of about 30 ...minutes).

Radek took a bowl of plain rice at Hotel U Svatého Jana in Svobodné Dvory, took a quick shower and also went to take a nap for a while.

2m tall Lithuanian giant Karolis Stanislauskas (75) made a great move during the night. On RP1 was 31th, currently on sixth place. So let's hope he didn't get anywhere close to it by train :-D

https://cs.follow.me.cz/tracking/racz25/

FIGHTING WITH THE HEAT
As all of you probably feels, even when not riding a bike, high temperatures are attacking long-term records, so our Riders have to cope with dehydration, burning sun and losing litres of sweat.

So, we see them eating dozens of icecream, using cold showers and ...at least for a while relaxing in a shadow.

After lots of forests in the first 100kilometres, behind Karlovy Vary started a section with fast minor roads, but mostly on open plains. First riders hit our Highlight 2, breathtaking Schiller´s tower, very our teammate Peťa Nečas prepared for them Refreshment Corner with cold Kofolas and birrels.

https://cs.follow.me.cz/tracking/racz25/

DRAMATIC FIGHT ON A WAY TO RESTPOINT 1
We are surprised and excited how tight is a fight in the leading group this year.

It seems that this edition could be the most dramatic in our history, because it has never happened before, that the first 3 riders arrived at RP1 within 2 minutes... and the first six within 23 minutes.

Jirka Turek was the leader for a long time on the section behind Karlovy Vary, but the heat caught up with him among the hop fields around Rakovník, so Štěpán arrived at RP1 first, about half a minute ahead of Radek.

Adam Šánek, Michal Dušek (16) and Tomáš Křováček (91) are fighting for a place on the podium.

In great shape seems to be our last year´s female winner Julianne Andre (36), now on 19th position.

We arranged RestPoint 1 this year at the Šéba restaurant and an hour here is enough for us to say that it was a good choice.

Great food service only for Riders, the possibility to rinse off under the shower and the door opens until midnight.

What more could you want?

https://cs.follow.me.cz/tracking/racz25/

ADAM AT SCHILLER´S TOWER
We cought actually 4th rider Adam Šanek (58) under magnificient Schiller´s tower.

He shared with us, how he cope with heat and his plans for first night.