The final stage in the SALOMON 4 TRAILS is always good for surprises given its punishing distance and a gruesome vertical gain. Occasionally, the pecking order among racers changes on that day causing some unexpected rotations in the rankings. Not so among the Men, although Tofol Castaner (ESP), the clear overall winner of the 2013 SALOMON 4 TRAILS, handed today's stage victory to a jubilant Stephan Hugenschmidt (GER). The latter celebrated his first top podium position in the race today and was clearly satisfied with second place in the overall ranking. Castaner, in turn, ended four days of trail running with a comfortable lead of 19 minutes ahead of today's stage victor. Third place deservedly went to Andrew Fallas (GB) who had delivered consistent quality performances throughout the event.   

 

Tofol Castaner had practically not shown any overt signs of fatigue through the first three days of racing but clearly suffered on this last day of racing. Still, calling it a crack-up would be nothing short of a fallacy since the Spaniard arrived at the finish just a single minute behind the young German racer. Castaner commented humbly on his race experience: “I'm simply happy to have reached the finish after 160 km. Today was my toughest day ever. For three days I felt great but en route to Samnaun I developed legs of lead”. 

 

Hugenschmidt recognized his chance and attacked with success. He shared “Before the start in Garmisch-Partenkirchen I would have never guessed that I would win the toughest of the four stages, let alone scoring second place overall. My luck today was that all of us [up front] walked up the extremely steep ramp up the Fisser Joch [rather than run], which really worked to my advantage”. 

 

Today's stage turned out to be a game changer in the Senior Master Men category. Swiss Woody Schoch started out today's stage with an overall lead but suffered an injury that forced him to quit the stage. That allowed Spaniard Javier Rodriguez to win the stage and advance overall to first position. He cherished his victory with a hint of hesitation: “I figured that I could score a good overall position but didn't consider victory. I'm very sorry for Woody”.   

 

For German Dr. Thomas Miksch victory was all but a forgone conclusion. The flying surgeon arrived in Samnaun, Switzerland, with a 20-minute lead on Axel Zapletal. With his overall performance Miksch was able to defend last year's title and also managed to claim being a member of the fastest team with his regular compatriot running buddies Thomas Geisenberger and Anton Philipp.  

 

Scottish Angela Mudge also scored a palpable overall victory as she continued to dominate the competition in today's stage. Her closest pursuer, compatriote Claire Gordon, ended the race 20 minutes behind Mudge which cemented her 2nd position overall, respectively. In the first stage, Gordon had landed a surprise coup on Mudge who retaliated successfully as of the following day winning three of four stages with a lead that tallied up to 50 minutes in Samnaun. 

 

The leading Master Women were good for considerably more suspense than thecompetitors in any other race category. Eva Färberböck delivered a brilliant catch-up race today, which despite all the effort did not pan out as planned. The second-ranked Färberböck (AUT) knew very well that she had to give it all in an all-out attack and indeed managed to win today's stage with a remarkable lead of 22 minutes on the hitherto leading Julia Fatton (SUI). However, all that elbow room was not enough to advance her in the overall ranking. In the end, after 24:25.08,9 hours on the trail Fatton still finished first overall with a diminutive but decisive lead of 2:28 minutes.