Record rider number at 13th Alpentour Trophy

Organisers had expected 250 – 300 participants, however, by now 332 riders from 24 countries have registered. “We’ve exceeded our goals by far”, says a visibly content Gerhard Schönbacher. What pleases the organiser of the four-day MTB stage race for elite and hobby riders is, as he adds, that “Both quantity and quality of riders in the starting field is outstanding”.
In fact, the list of registered riders, reads like the MTB industry’s “Who-is-Who”: Olympic Champions (Bart Brentjens, NED), World- (Ralph Näf, SUI) and European Champions (Katrin Leumann, SUI) are among the riders, as well as World Cup Racers (Mary McConneloug, USA), stage race experts (Luis Leao Pinto, POR) or last year’s winner (Uwe Hochenwarter, AUT). Young sprint athletes (Daniel Federspiel, AUT) will line up next to experienced racers (Mauro Bettin, ITA), elite road racers (Annika Schirmer, AUT) next to Crocodile Trophy-heroes (Monique Zeldenrust, NED). And also highly adorned representatives of other disciplines, including winter triathlon, MTB-orienteering, ski mountaineering, will be on parade, most of all Snowboard Double-World Champion Benjamin Karl from Austria.
Adventure- and E-Bike-Trophy.
Not surprisingly the Alpentour Trophy with it’s UCI category S1 is one of the four most endowed MTB stage races in the world and a highly coveted place of collection for world-wide ranking points, as well as some major prize money. Overall, the international MTB elite is fighting for monetary and product prizes worth 22,000 Euros and TV stations from eight countries will cover the spectacle.
But the stage race in the well-known ski region Schladming-Dachstein, Ramsau, Reiteralm and Haus/Ennstal is not only attracting elite riders. “The fact that we have more riders participating in the Adventure Trophy than ever, shows that the MTB Festival Schladming-Dachstein has established itself also among hobby bikers”, says Schönbacher. The basic idea behind this category is that the Alpentour can be completed in a team of two riders, who have to finish each stage together and can therefore support each other to combat mechanical difficulties and personal lows throughout the race.
And for those who think this is still too exhausting, a separate E-Bike-Trophy has been included. There the riders can pedal up under power to the finish of the daily mountain stages, where they can enjoy the culinary and musical treats and see the athletes up close to cheer them on, before dashing back down the mountain into Schladming.
The start of the Alpentour Trophy is on Thursday, 2 June 2011 at 10:00am in the town centre of Schladming. According to the schedule there will be four challenging stages with 220km and 8,800Hm. A new race feature has been added, which will be an individual time trial onto the Planai (Schafalm) on the third day. All other stages will finish where they started: right on the main square in Schladming.