Lipnolopet was also the end of the roller skiing competition season, both in the Ski Classics Challengers series and in the Czech Republic’s roller skiing tour. The 55-kilometer course included flat terrain along the shore of Lake Lipno and two long climbs. One of the climbs took the competitors to the finish. Race runner-up Andreas Nygaard, Team Ragde Charge, admitted that the final climb was too long and hard for him.

While covering the race on-site, Teemu Virtanen, our Ski Classics commentator on SC Play, reported on Maastohiihto.com that the event would also be an excellent end to the summer season for professional and recreational skiers. The course is varied, the scenery is beautiful, and the weather is pleasant with sunshine and temperatures of fifteen degrees Celsius, providing an enjoyable experience for the competitors. 

Read More: Bing and Janatová winners of Energamo Lipnolopet 2023

Virtanen stayed overnight in a cozy village called Frymburk. The night before the main race, a sprint event was held in the center of the same village, and Andreas Nygaard won. The Ski Classics Legend had come straight from Prague, where he had been on holiday with his girlfriend. After the race, Frymburk also hosted an awards gala and an “after-ski” party, where the best of the race and the top skiers of the whole roller skiing tour were rewarded. The tour consisted of 13 different roller ski races, showing that the Czechs are enthusiastic summer sports fans.

There are other villages around Lake Lipno, but Frymburk is an excellent place to stay for those considering a training camp in the area. The village is small but cozy, with a few restaurants and guesthouses. You can take a bicycle from the village center, and a cycle path runs past the village along the lakeside. The raft also provides easy access to the other side of the lake, where the race took place. The raft takes a few cars and pedestrians, and the trip takes a few minutes and costs a few euros.

The race started right from the ferry harbor, and the first 15 km were flat. Teemu Virtanen skied that stretch, and the course was perfect for roller skiing. It was a well-maintained road through a small village to the dam at the end of the lake and back along an ideal cycle path, which was perfect for roller skiing. After crossing the dam, you reach the other side of the lake, and the cycle path continues along the shore for almost 10 km to Frymburk. The cycle path is sometimes surrounded by a forest, with the narrow lake and the opposite shore peeking through the trees.

There is also hilly terrain on the other side of the lake, which had the race’s most challenging climbs. If you come to the area, the ferry is easy to cross, and the first hard climb starts after only a few kilometers of skiing from the ferry harbor. Of course, from Frymburk, you can ski all the way up to the climb, with an initial warm-up of about 15km. Some climbs are on very narrow roads, but there is very little traffic. The asphalt is a little cracked in places, but this does not affect roller skiing.

The area around Lake Lipno used to be a military area when the country was under the communist regime. At that time, hardly anyone lived in the area except for the soldiers. The lake region is a popular holiday destination for Czechs and people from neighboring countries such as Austria and Germany. The journey to Lake Lipno takes about three hours from Munich and Prague airports.

Virtanen had the honor of spending two intense days with Fabián Štoček, Vltava Fund Ski Team, and his teammate Jan Šrail. Fabian speaks excellent English, having moved to the US at 15 and attended school there. He talked about the US university system and how it was much more supportive of skiing than in Europe. Jan is a forest ranger, and the job has been in the family for a long time.

Jan had come to the race site with his wife and daughter, who is just over one year old. Always smiling and happy, Jan said he was a proud father, even if fatherhood is not always all flowers. He confessed that he usually goes jogging when his daughter is asleep, which sometimes even means starting his workout around midnight. However, the skier likes to train for 3-4 hours daily, so finding the time is sometimes challenging.

Fabián, on the other hand, does not have the same problem and has just finished his studies. He now wants to focus on skiing, and his goal for next season is to become a consistent top-20 skier in the Ski Classics while picking up sprint points whenever possible. Jan has similar goals, to take a step towards the very top.

Also Read: Štoček trained hard in Australia and New Zealand – now the goal is Lipnolopet.

Jan used to represent the Vltava Fund Ski Team on Lukas Bauer’s Pro Team. He said he learned a lot from the former champion skier. He said the first five years were great with Bauer’s team, but the last few were challenging.

Fabian has always skied long distances with the Vltava Fund Ski Team. He described the spirit of the team as human and family-like. He acknowledged that the team had learned much from its foreign members, including Finnish and Swedish skiers. 

Jan and Fabián train together whenever possible, and both admit that they train well together because they push each other forward. But Jan describes Fabián as a highly competitive person who doesn’t want to lose. Fabián, on the other hand, says Jan is a very strong skier and better than him on the uphill.

The final celebration of the race took place in a restaurant in the center of Frymburk, where all the skiers and the organizers gathered. Among the celebrants was, of course, the winner of the race, Thomas Bing, eD system Silvini Team, who is now entirely focused on the Ski Classics and wants to be on the podium in the winter. Race runner-up Andreas Nygaard, Team Ragde Charge, was not worried about his defeat and said he really enjoyed the race and the course. Third-placed Stanislav Řezáč, 50, received several prizes at the ceremony, including the overall Tour win.