Milatz ends season sick

By Bjorn Haake

Moritz Milatz (Merida - Multivan) ended his season last weekend in southern France, at the Roc d'Azur. Milatz had been going well lately and was highly motivated, but suffered from an untimely sickness that marred his last races. This wasn't his only problem, as he forgot to bring his bike shorts to France. Fortunately, a friend was able to help out. And his mechanic had his work cut out for him, too, when Milatz broke his fork just one day before the 88-kilometre race, on a warm-up ride.

Overnight, Milatz got sick, but decided to start the marathon event anyway. A 12th place was not what he had set out to do, but was hoping to improve his health for the cross-country race. The 25 degrees centigrade temperature and the sunshine were good conditions in the Mediterranean region to try to get healthy. The day off in between the events didn't hurt, either. Nonetheless, time was too short to fully recover and Milatz cut the event short, stopped by a sore throat.

While he was not satisfied by his season-end performance, overall Milatz was happy to be back near the top of the current crop of German mountain bikers and is now hoping for a start in the Olympics in Beijing, China. With his season ended, Milatz can relax some and pursue other activities.

He will host an autograph session in Freiburg, Germany, on October 20 as part of the festivities associated with the opening of the Radlabor, which now offers the same performance diagnostics to hobby cyclists that previously were only available for professionals through the University in Freiburg.