Gore-Tex Transalpine Run
Hugenschmidt & Berner (Team Salomon Germany) Crown Junior Trail Running Career With Success
News Release / 08.09.2014
Stephan Hugenschmidt and Mirco Berner have won the GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN on its 10th Anniversary in 2014. The two new champions of Team SALOMON GERMANY put the finishing touches on eight days of consistent race performance when crossing the finish line in Sesto, Italy, as the first of 190 teams that started today's final stage. The two Germans were in elite company all day as they ran side-by-side with Ryan Smith and Johan Johansson, both top-notch racers who unfortunately had to compete outside of the official ranking as a result of loosing their partners to injury several days ago.
Stephan Hugenschmidt and Mirco Berner finished today's 33.4 km course with its cumulative elevation gain of 1,269 meters in a mere 2:57.58 hours. For 275+ km and over 13,000 m of positive vertical they spent no more than 25:38.41 hours on the trail. Second in the overall ranking are Alfredo Gil and David Castan Polez (Team LA SPORTIVA – MULTIPOWER, 3:04.41 hours) of Spain who arrived in third place in today's stage, but whose cumulative time over eight days of racing was 26:16.37 hours and thus good enough for 2nd place overall. However, the Spaniards were outdone on today's stage by keen Team SZIOLS SPORTGLASSES / ASICS FRONTRUNNER of Germany (Wolfgang Hochholzer/ Markus Mingo, 3:02:53) who successfully acted on their last chance for a podium position but had to be content with 5th position in the overall race ranking.
The leading Master Men Pascal Giguet and David Pasquio of Team SCOTT GORE-TEX® FOOTWEAR once again claimed the distinction of running the third fastest stage time (3:08:49 hours) on this final day of racing. This eminent performance also assured them 3rd place in the overall ranking with a cumulative race time of just 27:49.36 hours. Team DOLOMITI SUPERBIKE (Eugen Innerkofler and Ivano Molin, 3:14.53) may have trailed the French throughout much of the race but maintained a steady position in 2nd place most days, which also secured 2nd position the official overall ranking with a total time of 28:52.47 hours. Third fastest among the Master Men today were Stefan Zäh and Anton Philipp of TEAM MAMMUT / PLAN-B with a neat time of 3:16.00 hours on today's single-climb course. The two veterans of the GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN had improved their race day-by-day over the course of the last week which was rewarded today with 3rd position in the overall ranking for their category.
The fastest Mixed teams arrived one by one today with Team ORTHOMOL SPORT - RUNNING (Susanne Wings and Samuel Nef, 3:22.26) in the undisputed lead. The two Germans may have won today's stage but have to be content with second place overall (32:46.45 hours) ceding the laurels to Emma Roca and Gerard Morales of Spanish Team BUFF. The latter spent appreciably less time on the trails (30:50.54 hours) over the course of the week and thus were rewarded with 1st position overall. Julia Böttger and Daniel Locher of Team WOLY SPORT – SALOMON arrrived in third place in Sesto, Italy, today with a time of 3:33.28, just two minutes after Team BUFF. Their cumulative time tallied up to 32:47.44 hours of running over the week which seems just a hair over Team ORTHOMOL SPORT – RUNNING's race performance. The Swiss-German team claimed 3rd place overall for staying so close on the heels of Susanne Wings and Samuel Nef all week.
The leading Women's Team GORE-TEX® ACTIVE (4:16.52 hours) took a bit of a beating today on account of Tamara Lunger's issued with back pain. Luckily the cumulative time of 36:05.56 hours of Annemarie Gross and Tamara Lunger over eight days of racing in the GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE RUN afforded them enough of a lead to take it easy and still claim 1st position in the overall ranking in the Women category. Once again it was Kathrin Schichtl and Yvonne Lehnert of Team THR33KY TRAIL-SQUIRRELS who picked up where the Italians left off. When the TRAIL SQUIRRELS reached Sesto, time-taking clocked them as the first women across the finish line with only 4:08.43 hours on the trail. This performance brought their cumulative race time to 37:57.43 hours – an achievement worthy of 2nd place overall among the Women. Spanish Team SA MILANA - ALARO lost over 12 minutes on today's victors and, thus, were relegated to third place. Cati Llado and Angie Bibiloni Rigo had fought hard to stay ahead of Team THR33KY TRAIL-SQUIRRELS over the last few days but increasingly lost ground on them. However, their impressive cumulative time of 38:15.46 hours (84 minutes ahead of the fourth team overall) was clearly meriting 3rd place overall.
There were few surprises near the top of the Senior Master Men as the leading teams already had found their niches by the time they raced south of the High Divide. Peter Paul Steinhauser and Michael Steger of Team AHRNTAL took just 3:21.15 to cross underneath the world-famous Tre Cime and hoof it to Sesto today, a performance which earned them first place in the category of racers aged 50+.
Their convincing cumulative time of 30:51.06 hours was also good enough for 1st place overall.
Rudi Schöpf and Alfred Psenner had already admitted defeat to Team AHRNTAL a couple of days ago but still gave all they had – at least to the extent possible given Schöpf's injuries. Team LATSCH SKINFIT BOZEN (3:30.29 hours) may have arrived nine minutes after today's victors but some of their lead ealry on in the race carried over and in the end secured them second place in the overall ranking (31:12.10 hours) among Senior Master Men. Team SEXTEN 2 (Alois Untersteiner and Franz Kröss,34:28.47 hours) took 3:59.16 hours for today's stage which landed them squarely in third place overall but was only good enough for 5th place today. Team SEXTEN 2 had to yield the podium for today's stage to Team SALOMON SPORT PAULI TEAM (Günter Pauli and Josef Schiele) whose time of 3:49.08 advanced them into the limelight on the last day of the race.
Leadership in the Master Mixed category stayed in firm hands on the last day of racing in the 10th GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN. Local heroes Annelise Felderer and Markus Planötscher of Team NIEDERDORF once again proved lightning-fast (3:53.40 hours) today, thereby advancing their overall cumulative lead to 2:49 hours over their closest pursuers. The 8th consecutive stage victory neatly translated into 1st place overall for Team NIEDERDORF. Dominique Rocheteau and Monika Turra of Team HIGH-LÄNDER arrived in Sesto in 2nd place today after 3:55.52 hours on the trail. Their reward after eight days of racing was 3rd place overall among the Master Mixed teams with a cumulative time of 38:04.56 hours. Encarni and Francisco Ramirez Perez of Team HOCKEY ALCALA - SIERRA SUR spent half an hour less than the HIGH-LÄNDERs on the trail over the course of this past week which earned them 2nd place overall. As such, they could afford to slack off on today's stage on which they arrived in 3rd place (3:58.57 hours).
The finishers of the 2014 GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN can be expected to throw a wild party tonight before racers from 28 nations will disperse to every imaginable corner of the globe again. The 10th award ceremony on the eve of 06 Septemeber 2014 will conclude the first decade of organizing the GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN.
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