A gift for the president

“It was an honor to meet the president of the country in person. He arrived a bit late but still we managed to give him a bike and the team Astana kit. Vino made the introductions and maintained the conversation. We just shook hands and exchanged basic pleasantries. He spent around five minutes with us,” Romand revealed. They had flown to the Kazakh capital city by a small propeller plane with two stopovers, so the journey was quite lengthy. “We made it there at 6 am local time, then headed straight to bed and after that, we all went out for lunch. Then we participated in the presentation at the velodrome then the press conference followed and finally, we had dinner with the main sponsors,”Roman described. There was no time for anything else. “But from what I saw I must say it is a beautiful city. All the buildings there are newly built. I am sure it wasn’t the last time I’d been there so I believe that next time I will get to know Kazakhstan better,” said one of the team leaders. Roman was captivated by the new velodrome track. “It looks like a gigantic helmet from outside and when I got inside I was pleasantly surprised. I had never seen such a beautiful track before. It is a multipurpose modern building with a hotel, swimming pool and recreation facilities. For the Asian Games it will be converted into an ice rink for the figure skating competitions.” Roman flew back to Prague with a stopover in Bratislava on Tuesday evening and the very next morning he flew off to Majorca where he will be practicing until 24th December. “My teammate Gasparotto is coming with me, plus my dad and Štyby (Zdeněk Štybar) so we will make a great crew for practice rides,” Roman said.