Gore-Tex® Transalpine-Run
Jung/Paulmichl Strike Back, Mikkelsen Keeps Going
News Release / 01.09.2015
After the clear victory of the two Andorrans Oscar and Marc Casal on the second stage, the two Italians Daniel Jung and Ivan Paulmichl showed their real strength today. After 43 km and a vertical gain of 2019 m from St. Anton am Arlberg to Landeck, the South Tyroleans crossed the finish line after 4:21.28 h with a lead of 5.12 minutes over their strongest competitors Casal/Casal. After three of eight days, their lead amounts to 11.43 minutes now. The German team Benjamin Sperl / Lukas Naegele gets stronger and stronger from day to day and was thus able to consolidate its third rank in the overall ranking of the GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN. With a time deficit of 28.39 minutes they guarantee for continuous excitement and complete the trio fighting for the overall victory in the men’s category.
The day before the so-called “royal stage” of the 11th GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN on Tuesday from Landeck to Samnaun (Switzerland) was quite challenging. 43 kilometers, 2019 meters vertical and again temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius more and more bothered the athletes - especially as the trail climbed to the Leutkirchner hut at 2051 m above sea level right after the start in St. Anton. That proved to be a quite selective part of the stage, although many of the teams had problems with the almost 18 kilometers long descent to the finish in Landeck as well.
“Particularly the final part was brutal, plus the heat. Slowly but surely all the little ailments begin and grow stronger from day to day”, says Benjamin Sperl from Kassel seemingly impressed by the outer conditions. Blisters on the feet, skin abrasions after falls and severe reddening of the skin due to the strong sun exposure and the overall exhaustion are the most common physical side effects after three hard days of the 11th GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN which started in Oberstdorf on Saturday.
“Right from the beginning we just concentrated on our race and our pace. Until the second climb the Andorrans always kept up, but when Oscar Casal then got problems, we stepped up the pace”, commented Daniel Jung impishly regarding the decisive situation of the race today which enters into the overall decisive phase with tomorrow’s 46 kilometers long stage ending in Samnaun. “Today we took out some speed; we did not give our all as we know how hard the stage up to Samnaun will be. The last 7 kilometers are really torturous” says the Italian Ivan Paulmichl full of respect for the 4th stage.
The two Germans Benjamin Sperl (Kassel) and Lukas Naegele (Freiburg) grow stronger and stronger from day to day. They arrived at the finish in Landeck only 1.17 minutes after Oscar and Marc Casal. “First of all we focused on the teams behind us, but maybe we also get a chance to catch up with those ahead of us”, says Naegele clearly showing his fighting spirit.
Whereas the competition remains exciting in the men’s category, three teams dominate the categories “Women”, “Master Men” and “Mixed”. The Scots Helen Bonsor and Claire Gordon celebrated their third stage victory on the third day – this time ahead of the French team Caroline Freslon-Bette / Maud Gobert who seemed to grow stronger and thus moved up to second place in the overall ranking where they replaced the US team Brandy Erholtz/Christine Lundy. In the category “Master Men”, the Swiss Urs Jenzer/Ruedi Bärtschi celebrated their third stage victory, but their lead over the Hungarian team Tamas Karlowits-Juhasz/Csaba Németh, who came in second for the third time today, only amounts to 11.45 minutes so far.
In the category “Mixed”, the team Ragna Debats/Pere Aurell Bove (the Netherlands/Spain) seems to be the measure of all things. After their third stage victory, they have increased their lead over their closest competitors Landie/Christiaan Greyling from South Africa to 47.47 minutes and over the German duo Kathrin Schichtl/Michael Arend to 1:05.06 minutes.
Anne-Marie Flammersfeld however, is living an entirely new experience at the 11th GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN. With her partner Tim Wortmann, Anne-Marie, the extreme runner, was rated as one of the great favorites, but she experienced a really bad start and still does not feel in good shape despite her overall fourth rank today. “I have never felt that bad, I already wanted to give up on day one. Tim had to activate all his psychological skills to convince me not to do so”, says Flammersfeld highly unsatisfied with her own performance. Only four weeks ago, Flammersfeld who was born in Duisburg and is deemed to be one of the best extreme runners in the world celebrated a new world record at the Speed Run to the top of the 5895 m high Kilimanjaro: “This is an exciting and new experience for me. I think maybe it is now time for some others to win.”
The Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen, rally pilot starting for Volkswagen motor sports in the WRC series, showed his enormous stamina once again. Instead of terminating the race at the second refreshment point as planned and to travel to Zurich then, the Scandinavian completed the entire 43 kilometers and arrived in Landeck after 6:59.30 minutes. This is definitely a very special preparation for the Rally Australia Mikkelsen will take part in next.
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