The atmosphere: Like at a mountain stage of the Tour de France – unfortunately in winter. After four days of baking heat, a cold front in the Alps caused a significant sudden drop in temperature. Whereas the participants of the 11th GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN had to cope with temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius in the beginning, the thermometer read only 6.5 degrees Celsius at the overcast summit station Alp Trida Sattel today. And together with the partially quite heavy constant rain these were not very pleasant conditions at all.
At exactly 9.50 a.m. the first athletes were sent up the steep climb in intervals of 20 seconds. They started in reversed order of the overall ranking of course. And this mountain sprint was a really challenging one: 6.3 km long, a vertical gain of 731 m. The cableway needs about 5 minutes, hikers about 3 hours and the fastest runners today made it in 42 minutes. Unbelievable. But what can bare figures tell you? It was a great sprint with steady gradient percentages and a single trail which due to the moisture got more and more slippery over the day and thus also extremely exhausting and debilitating. A real trail experience in a barren mountain scenery.
The best legs in the fight against the clock belonged to the overall second placed team Oscar and Marc Casal who celebrated their third stage victory extensively and literally jumped over the finish line with joy and happiness. “This is our specialty. The distance, the trails, the temperatures everything suited us well”, rejoiced the two with respect to their success. This brings back real suspension to the 11th GORE-TEX® TRANSALPINE-RUN. For the first time since the beginning in Oberstdorf last Saturday, the two Italians Daniel Jung and Ivan Paulmichl have shown some slight weaknesses. The time deficit of 2.31 minutes speaks for itself. “Of course we knew that the Casals are really good at such a mountain sprint. They definitely deserved the victory today, but we managed to keep the deficit within reasonable limits”, says the obviously exhausted Daniel Jung.
Also in the other categories we witnessed some surprises at the mountain sprint today. In the women’s category, the US team Brandy Erholtz/Christine Lundy (1:51.11 h) stood at the top of the podium for the first time.
The Scottish leaders Helen Bonsor/Claire Gordon, however, took it a bit easier today (1:51.37 h). “This was definitely Scottish weather today, but I didn’t feel that well and thus focused on myself at a more relaxed pace” explained the winner of the SALOMON 4 TRAILS Helen Bonsor: “But in return, Claire was unbelievably strong today.”
In the category “Mixed”, Ragna Debats/Pere Bove Aurell (Netherlands/Spain) celebrated their fifth stage victory in 1:42.10 h ahead of the South Africans Landie and Christiaan Greyling (1:44.51 h). The Swiss Urs Jenzer and Ruedi Bärtschi also wanted to clinch their fifth stage victory but they were stopped by two German underdogs. The surprisingly strong team Marco Schneider/Holger Finkelmann won the mountain sprint up to the summit station Alp Trida Sattel in their category with a slight lead of 14 seconds.
An exciting exchange of blows between the teams Joerg Schreiber/Thomas Miksch (Germany) and Richard Wenin/Oswald Wenin (Italy) dominates the category “Senior Master Men”. The catching-up of the Italians continued on the mountain sprint. The Wenin brothers from South Tyrol carried of their next stage victory in 1:43.09 h ahead of Schreiber/Miksch (1:48.21 h) who, nonetheless, were able to defend overall rank one.
In the category „Master Mixed“, Stephan Tassani-Prell/Cäcilia Schreyer (1:41.54 h) won the mountain sprint ahead of the old and new overall leaders Annemarie Gross/Franz Kröss (1:47.57 h).
The fastest runner in the individual ranking was Tim Pleijte from the Netherlands, he arrived at the finish after 43.24,4 minutes and Oscar Casal came in second after 44.49,3 minutes. However, the absolutely fastest one today was the former world champion Helmut Schiessl who started as a guest runner and as the unofficial winner of the individual ranking, he crossed the finish line after 42.47 minutes.
On Thursday, the 6th stage will lead from Samnaun to Scoul (37.1km) and the athletes will have to cross not only one but four mountains that are over 2500 m high.
Results: 5th stage mountain sprint Samnaun – summit station Alp Trida Sattel
Men
1. Oscar Casal/Marc Casal (1:29.41 h)
2. Daniel Jung/Ivan Paulmichl (1:34.43 h)
3. Marcus Baur/Matthias Baur (1:36.39 h)
Women
1. Brandy Erholtz/Christine Lundy (1:51.11 h)
2. Helen Bonsor/Claire Gordon (1:51.37 h)
3. Caroline Freslon-Bette/Maud Gobert (1:54.51 h)
Master Men
1. Holger Finkelmann/Marco Schneider (1:40.22 h)
2. Urs Jenzer/Ruedi Bärtschi (1:41.25 h)
3. Clemens Keller/Armin Friesinger (1:42.59 h)
Senior Master Men
1. Oswald Wenin/Richard Wenin (1:43.09 h)
2. Jörg Schreiber/Thomas Miksch (1:48.21 h)
3. Thomas Sommer/Kurt Scherrer (1:51.04 h)
Mixed
1. Ragna Debats/Pere Bove Aurell (1:42.10 h)
2. Landie Greyling/Christiaan Greyling (1:44.51 h)
3. Jasmin Paris/Konrad Rawlik (1:45.06 h)
Master Mixed
1. Stephan Tassani-Prell/Cäcilia Schreyer (1:41.54 h)
2. Annemarie Gross/Franz Kröss (1:47.57 h)
3. Petru Muntenasu/ Andre Feuerstein-Rauch (1:50.45 h)
Overall ranking after the 5th stage: Men
1. Jung/Paulmichl (17:21.38 h)
2. Casal/Casal (17:29.27 h)
3. Sperl/Nägele (18:05.31 h)
Women
1. Bonsor/Gordon (20:21.24 h)
2. Freslon-Bette/Gobert (21:35.52 h)
3. Erholtz/Lundy (22:47.07 h)
Master Men
1. Jenzer/Bärtschi (18:13.17 h)
2. Karlowits-Juhasz/Németh (18:42.24 h)
3. Keller/Friesinger (19:50.33 h)
Senior Master Men
1. Schreiber/Miksch (20:07.20 h)
2. Wenin/Wenin (20:58.20 h)
3. Salzmann/Schertenleib (23:13.34 h)
Mixed
1. Ragna Debats/Pere Bove Aurell (19:18.01 h)
2. Greyling/Greyling (20:12.54 h)
3. Paris/Rawlik (21:08.57 h)
Master Mixed
1. Gross/Kröss (20:39.16 h)
2. Muntenasu/Feuerstein-Rauch (21:20.02 h)
3. Tassani-Prell/Schreyer (21:23.17 h)
