The Jizerska 50 Classic adventure!

Fri, Mar  7, 2025 - By Allen Sorgenfrei

With a few races on my repaired knee, the longest being the 20km White Pine Stampede, it looked good to handle the originally planned Jizerska 50 classic Worldloppet race near Liberec, Czechia (the Czech Republic). It was too late to register online, it had to be done in person.

Jizerska 50 race course

Some friends from Canada we met in Austria two years ago were already over there. Khris organized flights and places to stay, and off we went. From Gaylord it was off to Detroit, then a flight through Amsterdam and to Prague. We talked to a couple with Birkie bags that were also headed to the race at the airport there. We picked up our car, a Skoda Karoq, drove out through the north side of the city, then an hour through the countryside to Liberec. All the way, not a speck of snow we could see. Our Airbnb was right next to a LIDL grocery store. We parked there and found the owner, who gave us the tour, plus all kinds of keys for different doors, a fob to run the elevator, plus another fob to open the doors to the parking garage.

Sunset in Liberec, tower hotel at the top of the downhill area

We headed for the mall for registration and to meet up with Tom and Liz. I managed to get moved up from wave 5 to wave 3 based on my Marcialonga time, a big relief to actually be registered for the race. We had some goulash and fine beer at the Beer Warehouse, then it was home and to bed. Friday we tried out the grocery store and got some breakfast food, then headed up the hill 15km to Bedrichov, a small village where the start/finish area is. Finally we were in snow land.

Bib pickup

We parked at a small lot up the hill for about $10 and walked half a mile in traffic to the start. Khris and Liz toured the vendors while I skied the course a bit. Tom had already gone out there. My zeros skied well, I ended up doing the 10km race course. I tested glide and grip waxes, the zeros were faster and had decent grip. Conditions were how they would be for Sunday's race: old snow just warmer than freezing. The pro teams were out testing skis too. We then headed out for lunch at a pasta restaurant in town. Good food and fine Czech beer. Went back to the apartment, another trip to the store, and then over to Bedrichov for a home cooked dinner with Tom and Liz, followed by another driving adventure back to Liberec. Road signs need a little help there.

Out on the trail

Saturday was spent walking over to the other mall, close by and right by the bus depot where we would catch the bus to the race. I waxed my skis and got everything packed up and laid out for the race. Time for a trip down to Jablonec to the glass museum, to learn about the history of the local glass craft. There we learned that the finisher medals would be made of glass, with climbing rope around the neck, for the theme of the race which memorializes 15 of the race founders who perished in an avalanche while climbing in Peru in 1970. Next was dinner at our place for the four of us and getting to bed early. Not so easy to sleep with the jet lag.

Monument to the founders that died in Peru

Race Day

Sunday morning started at 5:30. Got dressed, had breakfast, and then off to catch the bus, loaded up, and got going. We managed to get seats. By the time we got to the start we had filled it up pretty well with 4 other stops. Into the changing tent, big and warm, with wooden floors and benches. Found Tom and Liz and got ready to race. The Elite women started things off at 8:00, we could watch on the screen in the tent. Tom was in wave 1, so he headed out and started at 8:30 right with the elite men.

Warm up tent, showing Women elite skiers on screen

Looking back at the start

Ready to go!

I took my official pink drybag to the bag racks and got out in my wave 3 spot, maybe 600 skiers, and off we went at 8:46. The first 2km are mainly uphill with 5 tracks, so it was slow going, then we got down to 3 tracks and kept crowding along, as the trail mainly continued to climb. I tried to switch tracks to move up, it was working slowly, but it was not efficient going. At 10km we reached the top and we had flat terrain to cruise. The tracks were decent, mostly shallow, a few grades to climb and a few scruffy downhills. The course winds through a huge park filled mainly with hemlock trees, which still had snow on them even after two weeks of warm temperatures and no snow. The sun was out and it was about 35 degrees, and the tracks were pretty fast. Awesome skiing!

Going fast

At the turning point of the trail, a few miles from the Polish border, we had an amazing long downhill run, then back into the trees for a long grade back up. I passed Tom at 26km, his glide was not so great, and he was not so well recovered from his bronchitis. My hope was the long grade was the big hill near 30km. It was not. We got to another aid station, which were all well staffed, and had gel, food, tea and energy drink. It took a bit for me to figure out what to ask for, but it went fine. The dried apricots at the second one were very tasty, but it took about 2 km for me to chew them up.

Caught in traffic

Then we climbed from 27km to 30km, the first part was herringbone action with room for one lane. Later I could use the tracks, but it was a long slog of losing a lot of positions. Finally we were at the top, now just to cruise down to the finish. We had about 5km where they couldn’t set tracks, just thin snow on ice. But fast and mostly down. Finally we hit 40km and into areas where I had skied a little. The tracks were back and I was starting to cramp up in my abdomen and pectoral.

I was hanging with a few skiers. I would get ahead on the downhills and they would pass on the uphills. Dang kids. Then I saw the sign, 2km to go. Just a little up grade, then back down on the pole line to the finish. I arrived at the finish zone, quite a few people along the sides. I saw Khris and Liz, and then crossed the finish. 47km, 3:17:31. 852nd overall, first place American, 57th in the men 60-69 age group.

Finishing in Jizerska

Recovery

I got my glass medal and some snacks, I felt pretty good mostly. I went and found the girls and we waited for Tom to finish. Once he arrived we got together, took some pictures, then he and I went in and got our food, a nice chicken sauce on rice. Tasted great. Tom and Liz then got on the bus and headed back - they were loading up and driving 4 hours into Austria.

Got my medal, 10 Worldloppets done

We stopped at the Worldloppet tent to get my stamp. I mentioned that this was my tenth race, and then things started happening. There was a lady there from the home office in Estonia, who reviewed my race information and gave me my masters number, 5628, along with my pin and a fine, gaudy gold medal. All for $35. After that I got a new Worldloppet passport from the local crew and they added stamps for the Birkie and Engadin races which I had done multiple times. So I am back on the wheel again. We went back to the finish area, I got my free beer, we checked out the glass blower tent, I got my skis out of the storage area and we caught the bus back to Liberec. I had a shower, some leftovers, and we watch a 007 movie overdubbed in Czech. They got Roger Moore’s voice pretty good. Time to sleep.

Monday we slept in some, then packed everything up and loaded the car. We drove down to Prague and into the old town, right under the Charles Bridge and found our hotel right there. We managed to get lucky and find parking right next to the hotel for $30. The hotel was $60. We stored our luggage and headed out to see the sights, along with all the other tourists.

We walked miles of cobblestone streets, saw the famous clock, lots of towers, many fancy tourist shops and chimney cake shops, and then a nice glass shop off the beaten path. We bought some glasses made by the artist that did the glasses for some show called Game of Thrones and headed back. Our goal was to find glass buttons, but even after getting some help and finding a nice mall, we only found a huge wall of plastic buttons from Germany. We had a snack and some beer at FatCat brewery, and then back to check in at the hotel. We wandered out along the river and found a classic restaurant for original Czech food and Pilsner Urquell.

Glass ornaments at the museum

Back to the hotel to pack and sleep. 5:30 am arrives and we pack up the car, head for the airport, drop the car, lug the baggage in and hop the plane back to Amsterdam and on to Detroit. Success.