Arnis Pētersons Wins the Mārupe MTB Cycling Marathon
Published: 12.09.2016
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On Sunday, 11 September, the Mārupe MTB Cycling Marathon, a high-level mountain biking competition, took place in Mārupe Municipality after a two-year break. Alongside professional cyclists, the marathon also attracted enthusiasts of all ages from not only Latvia, but also Lithuania and even distant Belgium. This year, 22-year-old Arnis Pētersons of the “ZZK” team won the men’s 55 km Sport distance, while Katrīna Jaunslaviete finished convincingly fastest in the women’s category.
The Sport distance started at 11:00, and in less than two hours the leading riders appeared on the finishing straight – the “ZZK” team athletes, recording a time of 1 h 49 min 43 sec. Arnis Pētersons was the first to finish, while the photo finish determined the second- and third-place winners – Pētersons’s teammate Mārtiņš Blūms and Matīss Preimanis of the “Sportlife” team (1:49:43).
In the women’s category, this year’s Latvian cycling champion Katrīna Jaunslaviete was convincingly the fastest, with a time of 2 h 4 min 36 sec. Madara Fūrmane took the honourable second place, finishing less than seven minutes behind, while Inese Zvirgzdiņa came third (2:24:39).
Arnis Pētersons, winner of the Sport distance at the Mārupe MTB Cycling Marathon and an athlete with the “ZZK” team, on the race: “I have to admit that the race was not particularly difficult. Since this was our second consecutive race with the team’s leading group, the pace was somewhat slower today. There were sections where we rode calmly, but there were also more challenging parts where we had to pick up the pace to get past roots, sand and several bends. There was a fairly large group of us at the finish line, and in a tense battle everything was decided only in the last 200–300 metres.”
