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Bulls Lead Again

22.07.2008

Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm have won the third stage of the 2008 JEANTEX BIKE TRANSALP powered by NISSAN from Ischgl to Scuol. After 75.24 kilometres and 2,542 metres of elevation gain, the two pros from Team Bulls made it to the finish in a time of 3:20:14.4 hours. With an average speed of 22.55 km/h the defending champions were only two seconds faster than the winning time of the 2006 stage to Scuol. Austria’s Martin Kraler and Heinz Verbnjak from Craft and Friends came in as runner-ups (3:21:34.3) being thrown back by a technical defects once again. Silvio Wieltschnig and Thomas Nicke from Fiat-Rotwild placed third (3:24:07.5).

At their second day win after their triumph at the first stage, Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm once again benefitted by a flat tyre of their main competitors for the title. “Actually, we were together the whole time. At first, we started pretty mellow but all of the sudden we were three teams on the way up to Idjoch. After the Costa Ricans had technical problems we and Craft and Friends biked together. About 10 kilometres in front of the finish they had a flat tyre and left them. That’s the sport� said Stefan Sahm.
Martin Kraler had a similar impression of the race commenting on the bad luck of his team mate: “This is mountain biking. So far, the rankings of the leading pairings have been decided by technical breakdowns. But we are of similar strength and there are five more days to go, so a lot of things can happen.�

As the two top teams battled for victory, Daniel Rubisoir and Daniel Federspiel had to give up due to fever after they had placed third yesterday. Team Imst Gurgltal Radcenter Wolf made it up to the Idjoch but then, the two young guns had to ride back.

Team KTM with third stage victory
Ekkehard Doerschlag and Heinz Zoerweg from Team KTM are all alone in front in the master category. The bearers of the blue jersey needed 3:27:26.3 hours for the third leg. The runners-up in the Masters classification Walter Platzgummer and Johann Grasegger from Scott-adidas-Naturns came in second (3:31:47.8), only seven seconds ahead of Team Generali consisting of Siegfried Hochenwarter and Georg Koch (3:31:54.8).

Team Rocky Mountain also on top again
Alison Sydor and Pia Sundstedt of the Canadian-Finnish pairing Rocky Mountain were able to extend their lead in the womens category by five minutes over their main competitors due to their third stage win in a row. The top ladies pedalled 3:53:15.0 hours on the 75 kilometres long leg.

Anna-Sofie and Kristine Norgaard from Team Cube 5 seem to get better stage by stage as the two Danish sisters placed second today (3:55:59.6) putting some pressure on today’s third ladies pairing Sandra and Peggy Klose from Zwillingscraft-Ideal (3:58:26.7). The Norgaards are now only 20 seconds behind the Klose twins in the women table.

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