Hynek and Bigham win AlpenTour opener
Deja vu at frosty first AlpenTour stage
Rainy, six degrees Celsius in Schladming, temperatures below zero on top of the Reiteralm and Hochwurzen mountains with snow falling down to 1,500m. These were the inhospitable conditions the riders of the first stage at the Alpentour Trophy faced. The Czech rider and last year's winner Kristian Hynek repeated his victory at the first stage in 2012 and had the current European MTB Marathon Champion from Lienz, Alban Lakata, claim second place by 1:45.
"I almost lost one of my fingers to frostbite," moaned the Austrian Lakata at the finish near the Planai Stadium.
With 69 kilometers and 2900m, the first stage of the Alpentour Trophy in Schladming via the Hochwurzen and Reiteralm mountains and back into the ski world championship venue demanded everything of the more than 500 participants. A considerable number of amateur riders even decided to finish their race early and were brought back with shuttles.
The one who coped with today's difficult conditions the best was the Czech rider Hynek, who celebrated two stage victories and the overall race win last year at the Alpentour Trophy and not long after also became the European Marathon Champion.
In a lead group of six riders about 10km from the start, Hynek attacked already and was able to increase his solo lead to more than five minutes at the Reiteralm peak. Hynek rode towards an impressive stage win and second placed Lakata was able to decrease his gap only on the last descend to the finish.
"I risked everything and got more than two minutes back. In the beginning I struggled to get into a rhythm and I felt uncomfortable in all the thick clothing. But towards the end I was able to get into it. The conditions today were extreme and we don't expect any improvements over the next few days," said Lakata at the finish.
Hynek was completely exhausted after the race, looking for the closest warm shower right away. "It was brutal out there today. I can't remember when I last did such a difficult race. But it went well for me today and I am happy about the win!" said Hynek.
The second-fastest Austrian and two-time Olympian Christoph Soukup came in sixth place.
The fastest female racer of the day was Sally Bigham whose plan for the evening was to "Eat, eat, eat and get those muscles warmed up again."
Stage 2: Time trial
Tomorrow's stage will be a time trial onto the Schafalm with race start at 9am. The track length will be 15km with 1100m of climbing.
Full Results for stage 1 and general classification after stage 1
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Kristian Hynek (Cze) Elettroveneta - Corratec | 3:13:50 |
2 | Alban Lakata (Aut) Topeak Ergon Racing Team | 0:01:45 |
3 | Jiri Novak (Cze) Superior-Brentjens Mountainbike Racing Team | 0:02:09 |
4 | Hansueli Stauffer (Swi) Wheeler-Ixs Pro Team | 0:02:34 |
5 | Frans Claes (Bel) Eco MTB Team | 0:03:06 |
6 | Christoph Soukup (Aut) Hitec Team | 0:05:48 |
7 | Ronald Beckers (Bel) B-Cycle Team | 0:09:39 |
8 | Karl Markt (Aut) Ötztal Scott Racing Team | 0:09:57 |
9 | Hermann Pernsteiner (Aut) Team Rad.Sport.Szene Ausseerland | 0:10:08 |
10 | Frank Schotman (Ned) MPL Specialized | 0:10:32 |
11 | Tom Meeusen (Bel) Telenet Fidea Ct | 0:10:49 |
12 | Petr Stastny (Cze) Ceska Sporitelna - Specialized 01 | 0:11:00 |
13 | Matous Ulman (Cze) Ceska Sporitelna - Specialized 01 | 0:11:20 |
14 | Bart Aernouts (Bel) AA-Drink Cyclocross Team | 0:12:08 |
15 | Thijs van Amerongen (Ned) AA-Drink Cyclocross Team | 0:12:22 |
16 | Hans Becking (Ned) Superior-Brentjens Mountainbike Racing Team | 0:13:22 |
17 | Simon Scheiber (Aut) Ötztal Scott Racing Team | 0:13:58 |
18 | Urs Huber (Swi) Team Bulls | 0:15:24 |
19 | David Schöggl (Aut) Zweirad Janger SiMPLon | 0:15:25 |
20 | Matthias Leisling (Ger) Blacktusk Racing By Tomotion | 0:16:14 |
21 | Daniel Eymann (Swi) Imboden Bike Lauterbrunnen Switzerland | 0:16:21 |
22 | Cory Wallace (Can) Kona | 0:17:29 |
23 | Lenart Noc (Slo) Uni Team Zipvit | 0:17:46 |
24 | Micha van den Eynde (Bel) Bike-Inn Team Herentals | 0:18:16 |
25 | Patrick van Leeuwen (Ned) AA-Drink Cyclocross Team | 0:19:26 |
26 | Simon Stiebjahn (Ger) Team Bulls | 0:19:35 |
27 | Kris Sneddon (Can) Kona | 0:19:36 |
28 | Joeri Adams (Bel) Telenet-Fidea | 0:19:58 |
29 | Sebastian Batchelor (GBr) Fluid Fin Race Team | 0:20:03 |
30 | Florian Thie (Swi) Bergamont Swiss Team | 0:21:45 |
31 | Philipp Gerber (Swi) Ixs Bixs Swiss Team | 0:21:48 |
32 | Tomáš Vokrouhlík (Cze) Bmc-Savo Racing | 0:22:32 |
33 | Frank Beemer (Ned) MPL Specialized | 0:23:40 |
34 | Barry Wicks (USA) Kona | 0:25:01 |
35 | Spencer Paxson (USA) Kona | 0:25:09 |
36 | Rick Reimann (Swi) Orbea Suisse MTB Team | 0:25:12 |
37 | Hamish Batchelor (GBr) Fluid Fin Race Team | 0:25:46 |
38 | Alexey Medvedev (Rus) Team Full Dynamix | 0:26:32 |
39 | Thomas Dietsch (Fra) Team Bulls | 0:26:44 |
40 | Qvortrup Bachmann Allan (Den) Slettestrand MTB | 0:28:08 |
41 | Jiri Danek (Cze) Ceska Sporitelna - Specialized 01 | 0:29:03 |
42 | Jeroen Boelen (Ned) Superior-Brentjens Mountainbike Racing Team | 0:29:29 |
43 | Cristobal Silva (Chi) Lapierre Cs Coaching System Chile | 0:30:30 |
44 | Dominik Buksa (Cze) Ceska Sporitelna Specialized | 0:30:31 |
45 | Grega Cehner (Slo) Zweirad Janger SiMPLon 01 | 0:31:17 |
46 | Jakub Kavalír (Cze) Bmc-Savo Racing | 0:34:45 |
47 | Thijs Al (Ned) Telenet-Fidea | 0:35:34 |
48 | Jan Denuwelaere (Bel) Style & Concept | 0:38:47 |
49 | Sören Nissen (Den) Elettroveneta - Corratec | 0:39:29 |
50 | Alexander Speisekorn (Ger) Team Best-Bike-Parts/Kubis-Bikes | 0:40:04 |
51 | Rob Peeters (Bel) Telenet-Fidea | 0:50:35 |
52 | Tobias Schmidtmann (Ger) Egf Bunstruth Racing | 0:53:44 |
53 | Christoph Mick (Aut) Ktm Donau Fritzi Racing | 0:53:45 |
54 | Mos Gerben (Ned) Visscherhollandteam | 0:53:47 |
55 | Martin Knape (Ger) Panoramic Stevens Racing Team | 0:55:41 |
56 | Kenneth van Compernolle (Bel) Style & Concept Cycling Team | 0:56:36 |
57 | Johannes Thumm (Ger) Team Best-Bike-Parts/Kubis-Bikes | 0:56:40 |
58 | Jens Vandekinderen (Bel) Telenet-Fidea | 0:57:03 |
59 | Martin Edelsbrunner (Aut) Giant Stattegg Edelsbrunner | 1:01:34 |
60 | Tommy Galle (Ger) Panoramic Stevens Racing Team | 1:03:04 |
61 | Stefan Richter (Ger) Raceteam Radleck Mering | 1:04:19 |
62 | Andreas Fuchs (Aut) Team Protek | 1:09:48 |
63 | Sven Carstens (Ger) Team Best-Bike-Parts/Kubis-Bikes | 1:12:07 |
64 | Ben Kindermans (Bel) MTB Trust Team Vzw | 1:12:55 |
65 | Julian Scherer (Aut) The Austrian Musketeers | 1:15:31 |
66 | Paul Rodenbach (RSA) Superior-Brentjens Mountainbike Racing Team | 1:16:19 |
67 | Chris Pedder (GBr) MarathonMTB.Com/Juice Lubes | 1:35:50 |
DNF | Tom Ettlich (Ger) R2-Bike.Com MTB Racing Team | Row 67 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Martin Horak (Cze) Bmc-Savo Racing | Row 68 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Brian Brog (Swi) Free Mountain Team | Row 69 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Thomas Edelsbrunner (Aut) Giant Stattegg Edelsbrunner | Row 70 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Jarno Messing (Ned) Univega-Pro-Cycling-Team | Row 71 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Ilias Periklis (Gre) Team Protek-Hellas | Row 72 - Cell 2 |
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Sally Bigham (GBr) Topeak Ergon Racing Team | 4:11:31 |
2 | Milena Landtwing (Swi) Topeak Ergon Racing Team | 0:06:39 |
3 | Kristin Aamodt (Nor) Team Specialized - Bab Racing / Statoil | 0:12:03 |
4 | Christina Kollmann (Aut) Rc Ausseerland | 0:17:53 |
5 | Jolien Janssen (Ned) Sforzracingteam | 0:27:39 |
6 | Sabine Sommer (Aut) Www.Sportlehner .At Arbö Freistadt | 0:30:45 |
7 | Monique Zeldenrust (Ned) Giant Dealerteams | 0:33:30 |
8 | Verena Krenslehner (Aut) Conway Racing Team | 0:33:43 |
9 | Nadia Walker (Swi) Stöckli Pro Team | 0:34:42 |
10 | Andrea Kuster (Swi) Mountain Heroes | 0:34:51 |
11 | Mirre Stallen (Ned) Cube Nutswerk | 0:37:25 |
12 | Alice Pirard (Bel) Merida Wallonie MTB | 0:41:12 |
13 | Manon van Hees (Ned) Merida Bassa Biking Team | 0:46:58 |
14 | Denisa Stodulkova (Cze) Ceska Sporitelna - Specialized | 0:48:50 |
15 | Kristina Weber (Ger) Mountain Heroes | 0:50:44 |
16 | Helen Wyman (GBr) Kona | 0:54:26 |
17 | Theresia Kellermayr (Aut) Velochicks.At Sportograf.Com | 1:44:18 |
DNF | Christina Verhas (Aut) Trek Mountainbiker.At | Row 17 - Cell 2 |
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