Lakata and Mennen victorious in TransAlp stage 4

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Alban Lakata and Robert Mennen secured victory in stage 4 of the 2012 TransAlp. Their Team Topeak Ergon mastered the shortest stage (53km) of the eight-day event from Nauders, Austria, to Scuol, Switzerland in 2:15:17. With their win, the pair reduced the gap to overall leaders Centurion-Vaude/BiXS iXS by 1:40 to 3:15.

Markus Kaufmann and Thomas Stoll defended the yellow leaders' jerseys by coming in third on "Plaz" in the lower town (2:16:58), just one minute behind of defending champions and today's second ranked athletes of Team Stöckli, Urs Huber and Konny Looser.

After almost 300km of racing this week and the race only halfway done, the battle for the title promises to be a close one.

"Making up that much time on this stage is not that bad," said Lakata. "We had very strong legs again. At the moment, everything is quite perfect. If this streak holds on, we might be able to take over the lead."

After the Austrian and his German comrade-in-arms had dictated the tempo on the climb to Bergkastelalm, both sought refuge in flight at the second ascent to Reschner Alm, underlining that they have the strongest legs in the field of the almost 500 teams of two remaining in the race.

"We noticed that the leaders had some problems so we gave it a try," said Mennen. "We knew that our real advantage would be the last quarter of the leg with its continuously increasing meters in elevation."

Being forced to fight back, Kaufmann and Stoll tried their best but were set back by some technical problems the German Marathon Champion had to face.

"The chain flew off several times, so I had to stop quite often. I guess this did cost some additional and very precious time," said Kaufmann.

Landtwing and Bigham again fastest women

Milena Landtwing and Sally Bighamof Centurion-Vaude/Topeak Ergon won their fourth stage in the women's category in 2:48:05.

Catherine Williamson and Louise Stopforthof Bizhub-fcf took the second rank again (3:06:25). Andrea Kuster and Angelika Niklaus of Metz-Kraftwerk finished third (3:19:25).

Team Gisler conquers mixed lead

While Kathrin Neumann and Daniel Jung of Mountain Heroes celebrated their first 2012 TransAlp stage triumph in 2:42:59, Antonia Wipfli and Patrick Jauch were able to take over the lead in the mixed classification in their home country.

By coming in as today's second fastest team (2:44:03) and thus with a lead of more than 2:30 on the so far leading Katharina Alberti and Matthias Gärtner of Black Tusk Racing by toMotion, Team Gisler entered the top spot of the mixed table.

Team Adamelloski a powerful team in blue

As expected, Massimo De Bertolis and Marzio Deho of Team Adamelloski were the first masters duo to reach Scuol today. The classification leaders earned their fourth consecutive stage win in 2:19:46.

Thirteen minutes later, Viktor Paris and Thomas Piazza of Sunshineracers Nals rolled in as second, coming out ahead in a sprint with Andreas Laner and Johann Grasegger of Team Scott.

BiXS Suisse take over as new leaders in senior masters category

Just like Kaufmann, another category leader had to handle some difficulties, however with a more bitter outcome. When Silvano Janes broke his crank, the Italian racer and his fellow countryman Walter Platzgummer decided to call an unwanted halt before it was too late and drop out of the stage race.

While they didn't accept their fate, BiXS Suisse riders Renato Burch and Bärti Bucher took advantage of the so far dominant senior master duo's early TransAlp end by winning their first stage (2:42:22), thus also taking over the lead in the classification for the teams with a total age of 100+.

Georg Niggl and Walter Perkmann of Craft & Friends 7 took the second spot (2:52:11) while Thomas Herrmann and Hartmann Stifter of Team Sigma rounded out the podium as third (2:55:40).

Tomorrow, the fifth stage of the TransAlp leads over 70km and 2,531 meters in elevation from Scuol, Switzerland, to Livigno, Italy.

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