Ziener BIKE Festival

Mennen and Herrmann with 1-2 punch at Rocky Mountain BIKE Marathon Willingen | Elferink fastest woman

Press Release / 29.05.2016

­Robert Mennen (GER) has won the 2016 Rocky Mountain BIKE Marathon which took place as one of the highlights of the Ziener BIKE Festival Willingen powered by MINI today. The former German champion who has retired from professional racing last year, mastered the long distance through the Upland region (130.04km, 3,476m of climbing) in 5:09.08,8 hours. 19,5 seconds behind of the 2014 cape Epic winner was defending champion Peter Herrmann (GER, 5:09.28,3) therefore clinching the double win for Team Firebike-Drössiger.

Uwe Hochenwarter (AUT, Craft-Rocky Mountain-Factory) rounded out the men's podium of one of Europe's flagship mountain bike marathon events in 5:10.48,1.

Urs Huber of Team Bulls had to settle for fourth (5:11.11,1) after his attack placed at the outset of the last round didn't have a successful end.

The Swiss powerhouse had plucked up courage around kilometre 95 and opened up the elimination race of the six-racer leading group successively. However, the 30-year-old had to confess that he had tried to break away too early.

“I then was all alone on the flat part. That wasn't a smart move at all. Then I got some cramps and they drew level with me again. As a result, they had more in store in the last climb and therefore won well-deserved,” explained Huber before guessing that his intensive training for the up-coming European championships might have left him not recovered enough for today's race.

In the end, 31-year-old Mennen was the one to come out successful of the three-way fight for victory – despite a phase of weakness before: “That's amazing. Considering the strong and deep field I never expected anything like that. My goal was to ride with the boys passively as longs as possible in order to save some energy. That paid off in the end.”

Mennen also admitted that he owed the victory to his teammate: “When Urs [Huber] broke away, I couldn't keep up the pace. Then it was Peter Herrmann who worked a lot in the wind finally closing the gap again. I was just hoping that none of the others would capitalize on his effort. It's nice that it all worked out for me although it was pretty close in the end.”

Teammate Herrmann was also all smiles about the outstanding squad's result: “I'm very pleased with the results. We brought home rank one and two. That's as good as it could be!

Elferink triumphs in women's race

In the women's event, Hielke Elferink (GER, RSV Hochschwarzwald) triumphed after 6:24.38,7 hours ahead of last year's winner Katrin Schwing (GER; Katrin Schwing Trek, 6:38.52,6).

Rank three went to Sarah Reiners (GER, 7:02.11,8) of Focus Rapido Racing.

Fink and Beige pump the best

Already yesterday evening, Geraldine Fink (SUI) and Klaus Beige (GER) prevailed in the RADON Pump Battle, the second sportive decision of the Ziener BIKE Festival Willingen powered by MINI, in pouring rain.

For further information on the last dual stop of the Pump Battle World Series and much more visit willingen.bike-festival.de.