Gore-Tex Transalpine Run
The GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE RUN is off to a wet start!
News Release / 03.09.2014
Racers braved a distance of 48.70 km en route to St. Johann, Tyrol, collectively ignoring what will be remembered as incessant downpour and total lack of sunshine for much of the day. The course packed a punch on account of distance but other than that provided an even mix of trail surfaces, gradients and a balance between straight-forward and technical sections. After all was said and done, two hitherto unknown racers claimed victory and are suddenly on everybody's radar.
Johan Johansson and André Jonsson (TEAM PEAK PERFORMANCE) of Sweden managed what few had thought possible comfortably passing the ever strong Stephan Hugenschmidt and Mirco Berner (Team SALOMON DEUTSCHLAND) on the home stretch. The suave Swedes took no more than 4:07:34 hours to make it from Ruhpolding, Germany, to St. Johann, Austria with a lead of 1:26 minutes on the long-held favorites of Team SALOMON DEUTSCHLAND. Spaniards David Castan Lopez and Alfredo Gil (Team LA SPORTIVA – MULTIPOWER) arrived another 12 minutes after the German team but managed to secure a podium position after all.
David Castan Lopez, the 2011 winner of the Transalpine-Run, didn't seem flustered about arriving nearly one quarter of an hour after leaders on today's first stage. “Fourteen minutes are next to nothing this early in the race. There are still seven days ahead of us”. The veteran racer described today's pace as being “fast”given the distance of 48.7 km.
The fastest Women of the day without a doubt were Tamara Lunger and Anne-Marie Gross (Team GORE-TEX® ACTIVE, 5:43:17 hours). The two Italians arrived at the finish 18 minutes ahead of Carmen Otto and Anne Gerlach of Team SAUERLAND GORE-TEX® TEAM 1. Third to finish were Cati Llado and Angie Rigo Bibiloni (Team SA MILANA – ALARO) with a time of 6:05:59 hours. Annemarie Gross, twice a winner of the TRANSALPINE-RUN, had apparently gotten over an ankle injury she suffered just a week ago. She admitted though to have been concerned on the downhills as “the descent were really treacherous. Tamara took the odd spill up front mopping things up which happens once in a while”.
Three Mixed teams duked it out today fighting hard for the lead. Emma Roca and Gerad Morales of TEAM BUFF (5:04:06) were able to decide the stage in their favor but vitrtually felt Caroline Freslon-Bette and Christophe Bette breathing down their necks (5:05:40 h). The French themselves must have repeatedly chanced a glance over their shoulders as Susanne Wings and Samuel Nef (ORTHOMOL SPORT – RUNNING TEAM, 5:07:48) kept nipping at their heels. The three teams had separated relatively easily from the rest of the field and all have the stuff needed to become podium regulars - in today's or any other order. The top two teams seem to prepare for a tight competition. Both claimed to have started the race “slowly as not to injury [themselves]. Caroline Freslon-Bette seemed eager to add that they “were also out to enjoy the landscape”.
The leading Master Men teams also ran formidable times given today's trail conditions. Pascal Giguet and David Pasquio of France (Team SCOTT GORE-TEX® FOOTWEAR) managed to cover the 48.7 km in 4:24:21 hours arriving at the finish eleven minutes ahead of Team SALOMON RUSSIA (Artem Rostovtsev/Oleg Kharitonov). Another 1:39 minutes later the Italian Team DOLOMTI SUPERBIKE (Eugen Innerkofler/Ivano Molin) arrived to complete the podium lineup. The lightning-fast French leaders were also good for a surprise in terms of managing to run to 4th position in the day's overall ranking. “That wasn't necessarily our goal, but naturally it's nice to shake things up in the front. We'd like to stay somewhere in the front”.
Two regulars at the GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN managed to grab the lead in the Senior Master Men category. Italians Rudi Schöpf/Alfred Psenner (Team LATSCH/SKINFIT BOZEN dominated the course in their category and arrived in St. Johann / Tyrol after 5:13:52 hours. This translated into a lead of 7:20 minutes over their fellow countrymen Peter Paul Steinhauser / Michael Steger (Team AHRNTAL). They, in turn, managed to stay ahead of third-ranking Team SEXTEN 2 (Alois Untersteiner/Franz Kröss) from Bella Italia.
Italian teams also seemed to dominate the newly-formed MASTER MIXED category. Anna Pedevilla and Patrick Costabiei of Team SAN VIGILIO claimed first place in 5:41:14 hours, a little more than five minutes ahead of Annelise Felderer and Markus Planötscher of Team Niederdorf (5:46.47,8 Std., 5.33,8 Min. zurück). Third place went to the Swiss-French Team MAMMUT (Sebastien De Sainte Marie/Marion
Overall the first stage of the 10th GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN was good for a few refreshing surprises that should add some spice to the race as it progresses towards the High Divide and beyond. For instance, nobody had had the winning team from Sweden on the radar ahead of the race. Not surprisingly, barely five hours with the first stage underway Johanssen/Jonsson names seem to be household names and the talk of town. The two victorious guys from Oestersund, Sweden, shared over a post-race brew that they came to Ruhpolding “to race among the Top Ten”. Today's victory was their first big race success to date which didn't seem to rattle them too much. Other leading teams were clearly surprised by the Swede's prowess as they never showed any signs of weakness on today's varied terrain. Stephan Hugenschmidt and Mirco Berner seemed unable to shake them and finally were passed by the Scandinavians on the final flat six kilometers to the finish. The German team were impressed that the “Swedes had stuck with [them] until after the day's last descent and yet were still able to up the ante on the home stretch and bite off another two minutes to the finish”.
Nonetheless, Hugenschmidt/Berner are a force to be reckoned with as the most technical trails (on which they usually shine) still lie ahead in the 10th TRANSALPINE-RUN. As a newly formed team, Hugenschmidt/Berner seem to jell.
The former (2014 winner of the SALOMON 4 TRAILS) seemed elated to have Berner as a partner: “If I had run by myself I would have been ten minutes slower. This way, Mirco [Berner] pulled me along”.
Comraderie and a mutually supportive approach should be highly beneficial for any team continuing in the race as tomorrow's weather leaves much to be desired. Rain is expected along the entire 49.2 km course between St. Johann and Neukirchen am Grossvenediger (both Austria). Tomorrow beckons with a single sustained climb right off the start. Racers will not get much of a reprieve from climbinguntil Kilometer 40, at which point a steep 1,200 m technical singletrack leads them downhill to the finish. The day's cumulative climb amounts to 1,819 m – positive [vertical] in the technical sense.
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