Fumic grabs German national championship while Spitz wins number seven

The three future Olympians fully occupied the German elite men's national cross country championship podium in St. Märgen while Sabine Spitz captured her seventh national elite women's title.

Manuel Fumic attacked early and got away from the rest of the men. Only Moritz Milatz was able to stay close to him but he couldn't catch Fumic, who won in a time of 1'36"38. Milatz was just 16 seconds behind.

Defending champion Wolfram Kurschat finished third. He had a bad start, but put out lots of energy to make a come back. He secured third place, but did not get to do battle with the top two for the title and finished almost two and a half minutes behind.

"Since my crash at the worlds I have problems with my broken small finger," said Fumic. "But yesterday I felt good and then I intended to try to put early pressure on my rivals. Now I showed that I'm the number one in Germany. It was Fumic's first national title in the elite category.

In the women's race, Sabine Spitz took her seventh national cross country title. Despite coming off a three week training camp at high altitude, she was able to beat Ivonne Kraft, who suffered problems with her back. After first lap of six, Spitz took the lead and held it until the end, finishing in a time of 1'31"58. Kraft was just 56 seconds back.

"I'm happy to win the title near to my home," said Spitz. "It's a special feeling. I missed the aggressive capability [I often have], but that's normal after this kind of training camp."

Adelheid Morath, who is from St. Märgen, was with Spitz in the training camp. She finished in third place, at 1'49.

See Cyclingnews' full coverage of the German National Championships.