Red Bull Dolomitenmann
To the Limit in the Dolomites
14.09.2006
Right at the start, the mountain run through the Lienz Dolomites, where runners had to cover 12 kilometres and an altitude of 1700 metres, demanded everything of the athletes. Team Fackelmann from the Czech Republic were ahead over the varied terrain and the steep final section, with Jiri Magal (CZE) beating Markus Kröll across the line. "Brutal! We ran at breakneck speed," gasped Austrian world-class mountain runner Markus Kröll. Jiri Magal's winning time was 1:23:06.
The runners handed over to the paragliders. After a breakneck run towards the starting point, Pavel Stepan (CZE) was the first to take to the skies, but was shown the way by Wendelin Ortner (34:07.3 minutes/Team Red Bull). The 19-time Red Bull Dolomite Man competitor swooped through the valley to Moosalm, leaving the competition standing. "The flight was technically on the limit. The 2 kilometre run to the second take-off point was hell thanks to the 20 kg of equipment," said an enthusiastic and exhausted Ortner, whose win in the paragliding event gave his team the overall lead.
Whilst the paragliders began undoing the knots in their chutes, it was the turn of the kayakers to feel the strain. To get to their kayaks, they first had to swim across the River Drau. Seven-metre jumps and a five kilometre white-water race peppered with upstream stretches, Eskimo rolls and 34 gates followed. The ride through the Drau was critical to the outcome of the overall result of the competition.
Harald Hudetz (Team Red Bull) from Carinthia was ahead of the competition by an arm's length, thereby securing a clear victory in the kayak event with a time of 28:09 minutes. "I'm totally finished, I gave everything I had," said Hudetz, expressing how he felt in a nutshell. His win gave mountain biker Roland Stauder a head start of more than three minutes on the 14.8 kilometre mountain bike stretch (1400 metre ascent).
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