You may or may not remember the February 28th Soiled Chamois post In Search of Ira, where I contemplated the whereabouts of pint-sized, Russian XC racing badass Irina Kalentieva. Well I am happy to say that today, for those race fans who may care, I received official word of her whereabouts (thankfully not in a Siberian gulag) and a hint of her 2014 race plans.
Carlo Rosenkranz of the German newspaper Rhein-Zeitung sent me an email this morning to report that he recently had the chance to interview Irina near Koblenz, Germany (where she resides). It seems that Kalentieva is indeed racing for a newly formed mountain bike squad within the RusVelo team and will be starting her season this coming weekend in Italy [presumably the Trofeo Delcar race] before moving on to the BMC Racing Cup in Lugano, Switzerland, followed by a full schedule of XCO World Cup racing. You can check out the interview on rhein-zeitung.de. It’s in German but if you open it in Google Chrome you can have it translated to English (or language of your choice) enough to understand most of what the article is saying.
Big thanks to Carlo Rosenkranz for the email. Man, the Inter-web thing sure does make our world small these days.
Now cue up the 2012 Vo2 test video montage, complete with techno soundtrack, Irina sporting a breathing mask and having her ear pricked for blood. Good times… good times…
Photo: AP Photo