GORE-TEX® Transalpine-Run
Saab Salomon Stretch Their Lead
07.09.2009
The two 'Saab Salomon Outdoor Team' racers have extended their overall lead to nearly 50 minutes, a comfortable lead even with nearly two-thirds of the race still lying ahead.
Roland Osele and Michael Fischer of the Italian 'Telmekom Team Südtirol' (04:01:22.2 hours) arrived in Galtür over 17 minutes later, celebrating a first podium position and advancing to third place in the Men's category.
Ahead of them in the overall ranking is still 'Team Dr. Steinbauer' (Thomas Geisenberger and Michael Veit, 04:06:14.8) who managed to defend their overall rank by finishing third today, but by a decreasing margin.
There were several more upsets today that changed the relative positions of the top-ranking teams. A landslide change happened in the Men's category as soon as the news broke that Matthias Dippacher and Christian Stork of 'BLT Laufsport Saukel Haglöfs' had to quit half way through today's stage. Stork had suffered on the punishing ascent up the Kuchenjoch (2,730 m) falling far behind. When he twisted an ankle soon after, the team decided to withdraw on the suspicion of an ankle fracture.
Michael Veit of 'Team Dr. Steinbauer' had noticed "that they experienced some type of problem but we continued to run our pace. It was not our intention to attack." Nonetheless, the team benefited from Dippacher's unfortunate mishap defending the second place in their category. Yet, the experienced racer Veit is aware that "'this advance means nothing. You're not through with the race until the last mountain is behind you. That's what's so brutal about this race. But it is going well for us right now."
<b>Italian Men's team demands attention</b>
The race hasn't been so kind to others. Roland Osele of 'Team Telmekom Südtirol' knows because he wasn't feeling particularly well on both previous stages. "Already on the first day I fell and suffered greatly yesterday.
Fortunately, it went a lot better today." A great deal better to be precise since the Italian team delivered a demonstration of what they have in store by running to a well-deserved second place. Michael Fischer added "We're satisfied with today's run. It was great that our strategy worked because we wanted to gain some visibility in the race by attacking before the leads between the top teams get too big."
The performance of the top-ranked Men's team still seems unreachable for any other team at this point. Tom Owens is convinced that it was key to "put some distance between the others and us right on the first day." That the two Brits are experiencing tired legs isn't a big deal given their sizeable lead. Neither is admitting to "praying for a first sight of the finish line. It was a long and very hard day" Indeed.
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