Craft Bike TransAlp
Snow Storm Forces Organizers To Shorten The Course
New Release / 21.07.2011
The two leaders of the overall ranking Urs Huber and Konny Looser have claimed victory on the shortened fifth stage of the 14th CRAFT BIKE TRANSALP powered by NISSAN from St. Vigil (ITA) to Alleghe (ITA) (2:17:17.1) after successfully competing in a sprint final of the top ranked six teams. The Swiss riders frin ‘Team Stöckli’ edged out Germany’s Markus Kaufmann and Rupert Palmberger of ‘Centurion-Vaude’ (2:17:18.1) as well as Italians Massimo de Bertolis and Johann Pallhuber of ‘Silmax Autopolar Cannondale’ (2:17:18,2) to second and third.Ice cold temperatures around zero degrees, strong wind and permanent rains as well as snow fall over the course had forced the organizers to shorten the original 73.59 kilometers long stage down to some 50 kilometers, thus wrapping up at the second time keeping station right behind of Cianzope.
The bad conditions on top of Rifugio Averau, this year’s highest peak, which would have been next on the route, made a safe execution of the stage impossible as the race director reported a snow storm on top of the mountain. Accordingly today’s stage was the third in the last four years to get shortened or cancelled due to bad weather.
Due to the unavoidable early race finish and the close finish at the second feeding station, Urs Huber and Konny Looser are still leading in the overall ranking with an advantage of some 1:45 minutes over ‘Team Bulls’, consisting of Karl Platt (GER) and Thomas Dietsch (FRA), who came in fourth today - a mere 1.6 seconds behind.
<b>Mountain Heroes Best Ladies</b>
In the women’s category, Martina Miessgang (AUT) and Katrin Neumann (GER) were able to bring home their third consecutive stage win (3:05:32.7). The ‘Mountain Heroes’ thus extended their lead in the ranking by another four minutes to a total of five and a half minutes.
Still in runner-up position of the ranking sit Natascha Binder (GER) and Danièle Troesch of ‘Felt Ötztal X-Bionic/Rotwild’, who had been setting the agenda on the first two stages and finished today as second team (3:09:35.2). The German ‘Craft-Rocky Mountain’ pairing Yvonne Gassenbauer and Antje Hammelehle rolled in third (3:15:12.9) and secured their first podium result at the 2011 Transalp.
<b>Craft-Rocky Mountain Again Fastest Mixed</b>
Among the mixed teams, ‘Craft-Rocky Mountain’ triumphed once again thanks to an impressive performance by Pia Sundstedt and Carsten Bresser. The Finnish mountain bike ace and her German companion crossed the timing mats after 2:30:44.5 hours, 6:50 minutes faster than Kristina Weber and Daniel Jung of ‘Mountain Heroes’ (2:37:34.7), who nailed their best result so far.
Milena Landtwing (SUI) and Martin Kiechle (GER) of ‘Centurion-Vaude’, which is still the second ranked team in the mixed category, finished today’s stage in third position (2:39:04.7).See All Event Posts
