Video: Blinduro 500 Race

After a successful first edition of Blinduro, blind racing format returned last weekend to Lipno nad Vltavou. "Total of 380 riders competed in Lipno last year, so I thought why not try to attack limit of 500 riders," says director of the race Michal Prokop. This number was sold out in 8 hours, but due to the incredible interest the final number of registered riders stopped at 532.

Michal Prokop cooperated again with Pavel Schwarz, the trail builder at Lipno bikepark. "During the summer we did some research of the location here. The main goal this time was to find as many new trails as possible and upgrade the race a little bit more again. We looked for natural trails, best of all, in the popular fresh dirt.


On Saturday, three stages were waiting for the racers, plus one bonus night stage. From the first stage in Lipno, the riders were slowly moving towards to Frymburk. Although Saturday's weather forecast did not indicate any rain, a rain cloud settled over the Lipno reservoir uncompromisingly for the day. So not only muddy stages but also demanding transfer between the second and third trail challenged all riders and their bikes. During the afternoon, the rain stopped, and the trails began to dry slowly. Evening stage took place in the Lipno bikepark beneath the cable car.



After rainy Saturday, sunny Sunday came. The first racers started at 9 am in the morning and the last ones closed the starting list about 14 pm in the afternoon. The start was again in the Lipno bikepark and the uphill ride to the first stage was quite tough to the top of the Luč hill. The fifth stage, the first on Sunday, led from Luč hill down and was one of the best of the Blinduro. After all, the whole day was an enduro advertisement. Beautiful natural stages, relaxed atmosphere and nice weather.



"It was amazing again, I was not bored the whole weekend. It was not easy to control everything, but I think it all went good in the end. Thanks to an eBike, I had the chance to ride the race on Sunday, which was great. Experiences of racers during the race are just great ", added the director and co-organizer of Blinduro race Michal Prokop.

The event was attended by about 500 racers from the Czech Republic and abroad, which is an absolutely record number of mtb enduro events in the Czech Republic. Reminding that it was "blind race", so without previous training. It was great, no big injuries, just a few smaller ones ", added Prokop after the race and he is already planning the autumn Blinduro edition.


Overall winners

1. Jakub Riha, CZE N1 Team
2. Milan Mysik, CZE Cannondal Kur Enduro
3. Frantisek Zilak, CZE Rock Machine