Gore-Tex Transalpine Run
Lopez and Caballero Win the 2011 GORE-TEX Transalpine
Oliver Kraus / 11.09.2011
Trailing the overall victors by merely 17 minutes after eight intense days of trail running are Jethro Lennox and Joe Symonds of Scottish Team Inov-8 Gore-Tex Footwear (26:54:18.5). The finishing touch of their race performance, however, was not just a well-deserved second place position in the overall ranking but today’s stage victory well ahead of any other team (2:50:26.9).
Julien Chorier (FRA) and Philipp Reiter (GER) of Team Salomon International ended the globally recognized trail running event in third place overall after a total of 27:54:37.2 hours on the trail. After logging a distance of 30.2 kilometers today that packed 1,807 meters into a single sustained climb, the two racers even managed to come in second (3:02:33.1) ahead of the Spanish overall race champions.
For the first time in its seven-year history, a Spanish team made up of members of the National Trail Running team, won the Transalpine Run. “It’s simply an incredible feeling right now. We are overjoyed that we ended up winning the race as first-time participants� shared Miguel Caballero who was clearly the stronger of the two team members on the last two stages.
Apparently, his teammate “David started experiencing an increasingly upset stomach. That ended up costing valuable time,� said Caballero. “In view of that, our overall victory ended up being a real piece of work.�
<b>Scottish sprint finish ultimately without appropriate reward</b>
Closest competitors of the Spanish overall victors, Jethro Lennox and Joe Symonds, had experienced similar health issues early on in the race. Having fully recovered, they went full bore today winning the hearts of spectators with a riveting sprint to the finish line in sun-drenched Latsch.
In the end, though, that extra effort didn’t pay off in real terms. Joe Symonds, junior brother of last year’s champion Andrew, put it in plain language “Naturally, it is nice to know that we ended up being the strongest runners in the field today. However, in the end that doesn’t count. The prize goes to those who went all the way in the least amount of time.�
Still, the audacious attack the two Scotsmen launched on the overall leaders was laudable if only as a daring expression of not accepting defeat without at least trying.
After setting a punishing pace up to the Göflaner Scharte (2,396m) and beating it back down to valley elevation (640m) at break-neck speed, Symonds and Lennox had managed to reduce the Spaniards’ extensive lead by one half. That, in turn, prompted Symonds’ tongue-in-cheek request to “extend the Transalpine Run by yet another two stages.â€?
<b>Title Trilogy for Miksch and Philipp</b>
While winning the Gore-Tex Transalpine Run was a first for champions Lopez and Caballero, Dr. Thomas Miksch and Anton Philipp of Berglaufteam Haglöfs-Gore have savored that privilege already twice before. The Masters category, where the cumulative age of both runners must exceed a total of 80 years, has been dominated by this highly experienced race duo (29:15:59.3) three consecutive times by now.
Having spent one half hour longer than the category champs on the trails between Oberstdorf and Latsch, Anton Steiner and Klaus Wellenzohn of Team Schlanders (29:43:34.9) claimed second place in the overall ranking.
Steffen Walk and Christian Stork of Team Salomon/Sport Reischmann (29:51:13.8) had closely pursued Team Schlanders throughout this week. Their courageous effort was rewarded by third place in the end.
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