Huber and Looser celebrate their first 2012 TransAlp stage win

Image 1 of 16

Urs Huber and Konny Looser achieved their goal of winning a stage on Friday at the TransAlp. Defending champions Team Stöckli mastered the 72km long stage from Ponte di Legno, Italy, to Madonna di Campiglio, Italy in 3:53:34, thus cementing their third rank in the overall standings.

Alban Lakata and Robert Mennen of Topeak Ergon Racing crossed the finish line two minutes later ranked second in today's stage (3:55:33). However, the men in yellow were able to extend their lead on Centurion-Vaude/BiXS iXS as Markus Kaufmann and Thomas Stoll came in in third position (3:59:23) with a deficit of 3:50 on the overall leaders.

Today's results probably cemented the overall standings. It's unlikely that the current leaders will lose their lead again.

Topeak Ergon Racing again dominated today's stage. They were the first team on top of the Passo Tonale, today's first pass. In the end, Team Stöckli might have been able to catch up and take over the lead in the climb to Rifugio Orso Bruno, but Lakata and Mennen weren't going full speed anymore.

"Our goal was to avoid any mechanicals. So, we weren't up to using the sledgehammer; especially as we had seen that Thomas (Stoll) had some serious troubles keeping up," said Mennen, who is now close to a big result at his first ever TransAlp.

With only the final stage to come, Lakata and Mennen have now a lead of 4:18 on their main pursuers.

"It should be enough to make it to Riva del Garda. But it's mountain biking and there can always be flat tires or other mechanicals. But to be honest, we have had enough bad luck already. However, a lot of things can still happen," said Mennen.

Landtwing and Bigham show no mercy

Nailing their seventh win in seven stages Milena Landtwing and Sally Bigham kept a clean sheet. Team Centurion-Vaude/Topeak Ergon made it to Madonna di Campiglio in 4:48:19.

Catherine Williamson and Louise Stopforth of Bizhub-fcf finished in second position (5:40:50), Andrea Kuster and Angelika Niklaus of Team Metz-Kraftwerk in third (5:51:16).

Press Riva del Garda with second stage win

After their triumph yesterday, Lorenza Menapace and Claudio Segata were able to celebrate a back-to-back win. The second ranked duo in the mixed category crossed the finish line in the time of 4:47:51.

Due to some major effort, Antonia Wipfli and Patrick Jauch of Team Gisler took the second spot on the stage podium (4:53:02) successfully dealing with a flat tire, continuous problems with the chain, a broken derailleur and thus an intermediate deficit of more than five minutes.

The third place, only one and a half minutes behind the orange jersey weares, went to Daniela Storch and Torsten Mützlitz of Scott freaky fi'zi:k Friends (4:54:36).

Team Adamelloski still on top in masters' category

Massimo De Bertolis and Marzio Deho of Team Adamelloski are a class of their own in the cateogry organized for the teams with a total age of 80+. The men in the blue jerseys completed today's distance of 72km from Ponte di Legno to Madonna di Campiglio in 4:11:34.

The second spot went to Viktor Paris and Thomas Piazza of Sunshineracers Nals (3:23:02) who came in some 12 minutes later. Another seven minutes behind followed Andreas Laner and Johann Grasegger of Team Scott finishing third (4:29:55).

Swiss Senior Masters on the road to their first title

Bringing home their fourth consecutive stage win (4:49:50), Renato Burch and Bärti Bucher of BiXS Suisse have done another major step on the road to senior master TransAlp title.

Thorsten Herrmann and Hartmann Stifter of Team Sigma celebrated their so far best result by taking the second spot in 5:01:54. Georg Niggl and Walter Perkmann of Craft & Friends 7 rounded out the podium as third (5:07:20).

The eighth and thus last stage of the 2012 TransAlp will lead over 75 kilometers and 1,178 meters in elevation from Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, to Riva del Garda, Italy, on Saturday.