Gore-Tex Transalpine-Run
Men’s Leaders Carve up the Territory
News Release / 09.09.2010
With only two stages to go, it would seem that short of disaster very little could shake up the ranking among the top three Men’s teams. Day after day, Andrew Symonds and Tom Owens of SALOMON TRAIL TEAM MEN have set the time to beat without meeting a serious challenge yet. Second-ranked ORTHOMOL SPORT TEAM (Matt Dippacher and Christian Stork) manages to cling on to the leaders on the uphills but loose some valuable seconds on the descents. However, “loosing time� is a relative term in this context as the latter two athletes still clock phenomenal times that would make most grown men weep. TEAM SKINNY RAVEN around Americans Brandon Newbould and Brenton Knight seem to run their own pace - lagging somewhat behind the aforementioned teams – but still furiously fast on the technical trails and well ahead of the pack.
This synopsis of the past five stages also sums up today’s race action on a course that started out dead flat but packed a sustained climb to the summit of famous Kronplatz ski area, followed by a vicious technical descent into St. Vigil. SALOMON TRAIL TEAM MEN finished work 03:25.21 hours into the race, whereas ORTHOMOL SPORT TEAM called it a day roughly five minutes later after 03:30.37 hours on the trail. TEAM SKINNY RAVEN weren’t to be outdone by much and started their recovery in beautiful St. Vigil after 03:33.48 hours. Hustling paid of for the two Alaskans since it also advanced them to third place in the overall ranking. They displaced the infamous Master’s team BLT LAUFSPORT SAUKEL-HAGLÖFS who had held claim to that coveted position for the last three consecutive stages.
Honourable mentions on this 6th stage would have to be Patrick Costabiei and Markus Winkler of local TEAM SAN VIGILIO. The two locals ran on familiar territory to a respectable 9th place in a time of 03:53.41 hours. During an interview the two resident athletes confided that they preferred to ski on the local slopes rather than run. “However, we’ve never been as fast as today, something I wouldn’t have believed but good teamwork and sharing the lead off and on got us ahead� Patrick shared. Great work, that also advanced them to 13th position in the overall ranking!
<b>Masters Leaders Win Their Category, but Lose Overall Podium Place</b>
Thomas Miksch and Anton Philipp (BLT LAUFSPORT SAUKEL-HAGLÖFS, 03:45.02) once again won big in their category but had to yield important psychological ground on today’s course. The two Germans dropped to fourth place overall, a position with which the two uberathletes are unlikely satisfied. Without a doubt, they will crank it tomorrow in order to regain an overall podium ranking. In the process, they should meet much resistance from the bold U.S. team that will want to defend that newly-won ground.
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