After a horror start to the season, Moritz Milatz returned to racing action this past weekend at the Racer Bikes Cup in Buchs, Switzerland, where he finished eighth.
While racing the Maremma Cup in early March, the German Multivan Merida mountain bike rider crashed and sustained serious facial injuries. Surgery on his broken nose and the subsequent recovery forced him to take a break from training and competition and before the start of the Swiss event, Milatz wasn't sure how he would handle the physical and mental aspects of the race.
He took a controlled approach to the start, given that the course was wet after heavy rains overnight, and then he bridged up to the lead group of 10 on lap two. He continued to work his way up, earning two more places before the end of the race.
"For me the race went perfectly. In particular, given the backlog in my training after the crash, I could go out at my own pace and not at the pace of the top riders."
"This race was very important to me. Now I know that I'm back to my 'old' self and can attack again."
Milatz has been training with his coach in Switzerland. He will race next at the next round of the Racer Bikes Cup in Lugano / Tesserete on April 11. A week later, he'll contest the opening race of the German Bundesliga series in Münsingen and then he'll head to the opening World Cup in Dalby in the United Kingdom.
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Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
