About two months prior to the 2011 CRAFT BIKE TRANSALP powered by NISSAN, Stefan Sahm has cancelled his participation in the eight-day mountain bike stage race for teams of two (July 16–23), which leads from Mittenwald, Germany to Riva del Garda, Italy. Due to a diagnosed with thrombosis of a leg vein, the German Team Bulls pro, who brought home victory last year together with his fellow countryman Karl Platt, has hadto economize. Thus, one thing is for sure: the most successful mountain bike duo of the last years, which triumphed also at the 2007 and 2008 Transalp, won’t be able to keep hold to its title.
“The diagnosis was a shock. But now, I finally know where I stand and why it didn’t work out since March,” the Swiss-based rider, who had been complaining about a serious pain in the left knee in weeks past, looked back. “When I realized what could have happened in the last couple of weeks, I had to sit down for a moment.”
In the worst case, Sahm could have suffered a pulmonary embolism. “According to my doctors, I was very lucky and had a very good guardian angel with me. And I don’t want to use him too much in the upcoming weeks.” Especially as the risk of inner bleedings as a result of crashes is even higher over the course of the therapy the 34-years-old is currently receiving.
At the moment, “Sahmurai” undergoes a Marcumar treatment, a medicament, which reduces the coagulation of the blood and thus should speed up the decomposition of the thrombosis.
The therapy is expected to last about three months. Due to this, his Cologne based cycling team has been forced to think about some new and possible team formations for this year’s Transalp, which is – according to 670.25 km and 21,504 m Asc – the longest ever in history.
“It’s pretty likely that we will field Karl Platt and Thomas Dietsch. Both are specialized in stage racing and know each other quite a while now. Thus, both should go very well together and also contest the victory,” explained Friedemann Schmude. In addition, the squad might give some talented riders a shot. “But we currently don’t know how the second team could look like”, the team manager added.
For further information about the mother of all mountain bike stage races visit www.bike-transalp.de.