The Prague Post
December 5th, 2008
Endowment Fund     Business Listings ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    star Gift Subscriptions

Home » Archives » Sports

Leading man

Lukáš Bauer clinches country's first cross-country World Cup title

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 12th, 2008 issue

enlarge
Cross-country skier Lukáš Bauer secured his greatest sporting triumph in an unusual place: the comfort of an armchair.
Bauer, the leader of the World Cup, was sitting in a hotel armchair in Norway when Janko Neuber, coach of the cup’s second-place competitor, René Sommerfeldt, passed by.
“I asked him whether Rene would compete in the upcoming race ... and Neuber immediately congratulated me on winning the World Cup,” Bauer said.
With Sommerfeldt’s abstention from the race, Bauer clinched this season’s World Cup title in Drammen, Norway. He becomes — after the ski jumper Jakub Janda and ski-cross competitor Tomáš Kraus — only the third Czech skier to win the World Cup.
“It’s certainly the greatest achievement of my career,” Bauer said. “I have more regard for the World Cup victory than even winning the silver medal at the Turin Olympics [in 2006].”
Bauer ripped through the World Cup this winter, recording six victories and finishing in the top three nine times in total. By the March 4 race in Norway, Bauer had a substantial lead over Germany’s Sommerfeldt, and, if Sommerfeldt hoped to take Bauer’s place, the German would have had to win every remaining World Cup race.
Sommerfeldt saw little reason in trying to overtake Bauer, he said.
“There was no point to do so,” Sommerfeldt explained. “I only had a small chance of succeeding out there and so I preferred saving my energy for the following events.”
Bauer said the short encounter with Neuber did not spark any major euphoria in him.
“To be honest, I had counted on the triumph for a while, so my feelings were different from how it would’ve felt winning [the cup] on the track,” he said.
Wall hanging
Bauer was not so optimistic for the whole season. In fact, he had little faith in himself before the season’s start last fall.
“I had to undergo two surgeries last summer and I did not feel good in the preseason training,” Bauer said.
However, he started the cup strongly, finishing second at the opening race in Germany in November. It was his first podium finish since the Turin Games.
In early December, Bauer celebrated his first win in the season at a 15-kilometer race in Kuusamo, Finland. The victory marked only his third win in the World Cup. For the first time, Bauer then donned the yellow jersey designating him the World Cup leader in the overall standings.
He had members of his team sign the jersey, which he was ready to put into a frame and hang on the wall, commemorating that once he was the World Cup leader.
“One doesn’t get a yellow jersey every day,” Bauer said.
But Bauer kept winning, and took perhaps the season’s decisive step by winning the World Cup’s Tour de Ski — a series of eight races in only 10 days.
“From then, I was determined to win it all,” Bauer said.
En route to winning the Tour de Ski, Bauer did face controversies. Several Norwegian newspapers speculated on whether Bauer was using performance-enhancing drugs. Bauer strongly rejected the accusations.
Also, the tour’s complicated format for awarding prize money and bonus points angered Bauer after he was ordered to return bonuses previously paid to him as the tour’s leader, even when he did not win particular races.
The International Ski Federation (FIS) ruled after the third leg of the tour that the bonuses had been paid wrongfully, with the money supposed to be paid to stage winners rather than the overall leader. When Bauer heard the news, he considered withdrawing from the tour.
“I wanted to pack up my stuff and go,” Bauer said. “I found it ridiculous to be the race’s leader, have a check in my pocket and then be ordered to return it.”
A discussion with his coach, Miroslav Petrásek, and a phone call with his family convinced Bauer to continue. He then won the fourth stage outright and from then on finished on the podium in every World Cup race in which he participated.
Bauer said that sealing an early victory in the cup, with four races outstanding, will not take anything from his motivation to succeed in the remaining competitions.
“I want to prove that I deserved to win and I just want to keep winning everywhere,” he said.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


Other articles in Sports (12/03/2008):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Business Listings

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.