BIKE Transalp powered by Sigma

Third Stage Win For Defending Champions

Press Release / 19.07.2017

Daniel Geismayr and Hermann Pernsteiner have once again underlined their outstanding form on the third day of the 20th BIKE Transalp powered by Sigma. The Austrian champion and his fellow countryman mastered the brand-new stage through the Dolomites which led via Limo Pass, Tadega Pass, Groedner Pass and Sella Pass from St. Vigil to St. Christina (65.28 km; 2,461 m) in a time of 3:07.34,9.

Due to its third consecutive stage win the top duo of Centurion Vaude extended its overall lead on German teammates Jochen Kaess and Markus Kaufmann who rolled in as second (3:09.16,7).

After three of seven stages of this year's MTB classic through the Alps, the defending champions have already summed up an advantage of 6:50 minutes on its support team with which Geismayr and Pernsteiner were able to set a successful attack in the first descent of today's stage.

While the quartet had been racing side by side in the climb to Limo Pass controlling the pace from the front, it was able to break away in the pushing section from Tadega Pass down to Capanna Alpine as Jeremiah Bishop (USA) of Topeak Ergon Racing 1, who cemented his third rank in the overall classifier by coming in in third position with Kristian Hynek (CZE) today (3:09.50,0) commented:

“It's definitely the race of Centurion Vaude. They knew that they would need good shoes for running today. My shoes weren't very good for the 15 minutes walking section. The bike was slipping a lot and falling on you. But it was a beautiful stage in the Dolomites.”

In addition, the 41-year-old, who is racing the Transalp in the top team for the first time, said: “The last three years I have been on the support team. This is really an honour to race on the lead team now. It surprises me how well we do although we had a flat yesterday.”

Some bad luck which almost did hit the leading racers from Austria, too.

“The legs weren't that good anymore after the pushing section but we tried to gain some more lead in the next climb in order to have a bigger buffer for the next couple of days,” said Geismayr before the 2017 MTB marathon world championships bronze medallist, who experienced a moment of shock today, added:

“Close to the finish, the leading moto crashed, and I didn't notice that the rocks were slippery when I passed it. I slipped away and got caught in some wire ropes which suppose to give hikers some sort of security. But fortunately I only sustained scratches and nothing serious.”

Change of Lead in Masters Category

After their attack didn't work out yesterday, Thorsten Damm (GER) and Peter Vesel (SLO) were finally able to reap the fruits of their labour today.

The duo racing for Scott Fahrradladen Gudensberg mastered the third Transalp stage in a time o 3:34.06,1 and therefor not only crossed the finish line more than 21 minutes earlier than Hansjuerg Gerber and Daniel Christen but also took over the lead from their Swiss rivals.

Team bikeholiday.ch/bike arena emmetten had lost precious time due to chain problems in the final ascent.

In contrary to the classifier reserved for the male teams with a combined age of 100+, the leaders of all other remaining categories were able to extend their lead by bringing home a respective third consecutive stage win.

In the women's event, Esther Suess (SUI) and Jennie Stenerhag (SWE) of Meerendal CBC triumphed in a time of 4:07.53,7 while Massimo Debertolis (ITA) and Dax Jaikel (CRC) of Wilier Force 7C dominated the masters category in 3:27.12,2 again. Germans Silke Ulrich and Sascha Schwindling of Team Herzlichst Zypern 1 came in as best mixed pair (3:45.18,4).