Germany in Ideal Position for Tomorrow's Final Stage

News Release / 08.09.2014

Great sportsmanship at the finish in Villabassa mid Friday! Spectators had gathered to welcome the first team across the line and were surprised by a threesome! Leaders Stephan Hugenschmidt and Mirco Berner (both Germany) had hitched up with lighting-fast Ryan Smith (USA) who has been running by himself for a few days now. The three joined arms and crossed the finish line in unison – a tribute to the spirit of equity irrespective of whether a racer is still in or out of the official ranking. While Smith's astonishing performance was met with roaring applause as his only reward, Team SALOMON GERMANY's time of 3:58:15 hours counted towards the official ranking.

Their fifth stage victory padded the German's overall lead with another eight minutes on the second-ranking Spaniards Alfredo Gil and David Lopez Castan (Team LA SPORTIVA – MULTIPOWER, 4:06:20 hours).

Given a cumulative lead of over half an hour, only injury could foil race victory for Hugenschmidt and Berner. The former – generally known to hedge his bets – appears confident that he and his partner have it in them to cinch victory tomorrow. “We started with the intention of putting enough distance between us and the others today and we managed to do just that. From here on out it's all about managing our lead with some prudence”. Team LATSCH – MOUNTAIN HEROES (Daniel Jung / Ivan Paulmichel, 4:30:16) claimed third place among the Men with the fourth fastest time today  - minutes after the fastest MASTER MEN team.

However, it was two local heroes who received the biggest applause in Villabassa and took home the laurels today. Master Men Eugen Innerkofler and Ivano Molin (Team DOLOMITI SUPERBIKE) came in as the third (!) team today with a red-hot time of 4:25:25 hours. It clearly must have been a matter of pride to beat the French leaders (Team SCOTT GORE-TEX® FOOTWEAR, 4:31:36 hours) on home turf – something they accomplished with ease.  Team MAMMUT / PLAN-B (Stefan Zäh / Anton Philipp) took third place with a time of 4:33:18 hours.

The first woman to cross the finish line was Emma Roca with her partner Gerard Morales (Team BUFF, 4:48:51 hours). The Spanish Mixed team has likely decided the race in their favour given an overall lead of three quarters of an hour over their closest pursuers. Today's victory seemed all the more surprising given an ankle injury that Roca incurred on yesterday's stage. Julia Böttger and Daniel Locher (Team WOLY SPORT - SALOMON) once again ran to repute and came in second place ahead of the overall second-ranked French Team GARMIN ADVENTURE (Freslon-Bette) who managed to claim third place on the podium again.

In the Women category Tamara Lunger and Annemarie Gross accepted a setback today and were passed by Kathrin Schichtl and Yvonne Lehnert (Team THR33KY TRAIL-SQUIRRELS). The two Germans celebrated first place in deserving manner given their stellar time of 5:43:31 hours. The overall leaders of Team GORE-TEX® ACTIVE trailed them by over eight minutes but likely were managing their sizeable lead with strategic thought.  Cati Llado Cati and Angie Bibiloni Rigo of Team SA MILANA – ALARO faced a low in form today arriving in Villabassa after 6:10:22 hours on today's technical alpine trails.

The Senior Master Men seem to have a sure thing going by now. There's no compelling reason to expect any major changes among the top ranks on tomorrow's final stage. Peter Paul Steinhauser and Michael Steger of TEAM AHRNTAL have assumed the lead as of late and today was no exception. 4:46.12 hours was all the Italians needed to cover the 41.8 km distance with its walloping 1,950 meters of positive vertical. Rudi Schöpf and Alfred Psenner of Team LATSCH SKINFIT BOZEN had to concede that it is unlikely that they will finish the race in first place given Schöpf's injured rib cage. However, their time of 4:47:04 hours – just seconds behind the leaders - was clearly good enough for second place given that TEAM SEXTEN 2 (Alois  Untersteiner / Franz Kröss, 5:24:38 hours) took over half an hour longer to reach Villabassa.

It turned out a bona fide home run for Annelise Felderer and Markus Planötscher of TEAM NIEDERDORF (5:31.39 hours). They were greeted in their home town by numerous friends and family as the laudable winners of today's 7^th stage in the Master Mixed category.  The local heroes faced no threat by Francisco and Encarni Perez Martinez of Team HOCKEY ALCALA - SIERRA SUR (5:54:12 hours) who arrived in second place today but needed an additional 24 minutes to cover the distance between San Vigilio and Villabassa. Dominique Rocheteau and Monika.

​Turra of Team HIGH-LÄNDER (5:56:05 hours) arrived shortly after the Spaniards - happy about yet another podium position. 

­

See All Stories On This Race