Hellas Salamina UCI MTB Races - Petros Gkotsis
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The Battle for Rio
On each of February's four weekends, the island of Salamina (Greece) hosted world class UCI races, all of which were organised by the local cycling club Proteas. The island is well known from ancient times, mostly for the Battle of Salamis, the Themistocles' decisive naval victory of the allied Greek fleet over the Persian Empire in 480 BC, but also as the birthplace of the mighty warrior, Ajax the Great and the great playwright, Euripides. This time, however, a new type of battle took place. World Champions, such as Periklis Ilias, Simon Andreassen, and Kathrin Stirnemann, but also other big MTB names, threw themselves into the ring in search of precious qualification points for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.