Sunday 19th June 2011 will be etched firmly into thousands of Marathon Mountain Bikers minds. There were apprximately 4500 mountain bikers who registered to compete in one of the five distances available:
The Ultra 116km
The Power Track 88km
The Marathon 77km
The Speed Track 52km
The Short Track 43km
Along with a Kids Cup, there really was something for everyone. Something all had to deal with was harsh conditions. Despite warm and still weather earlier in the week, a low pressure cell descended and it brought a solid thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon. Evening rain showers followed on Friday. This became frequent rain showers on Saturday. As dawn came around on Sunday, the weather looked grim.
Temperatures were between 10 and 12 degrees in the valley. Winds were blowing strongly, and the rain looked like it was inevitable, given the dark clouds sitting on the mountains of the Black Forest. Riders stayed away from the start until about 20 minutes to go. Clearly vans, hotel rooms and team cars were a better choice than getting a good place in your start block. The front start block only filled up with less than 10 minutes to go.
With the XCM World Championships taking place next weekend in Montebelluno (ITA) it’s clear some racers we here to hone their form, and chose the distance appropriate to what their training or their legs required. Mike Felderer, Johnny Cattaneo, Thomas Dietsch, Karl Platt, Tim Bohme, Mannie Heymans, David George, Ken Evans and Markus Kaufmann are all more than likely to be in Italy next week. But along with thousands of others, they suffered today.
There was no regular neutral start out of town as the gun went, and the pace was pretty smart for the slight drag out of the village of Kirchzarten. By heading even slightly up hill, on small roads and farm roads, a natural selection is made. This saves frustrating bottlenecks. With a few pinch climbs thrown in, most of the riders were racing where they were able to once the real climb started after about four kilometres.
A lead group was clear by the first feedzone, with Platt, Dietsch, Felderer and company. The temperature had plummeted to 4 degrees, combined with heavy rain. By feedzone two, the group was seven riders, as Thomas Dietsch (Team Bulls) pulled out, being totally frozen. More riders quit by about 75km, as the light snow was falling, along with the strong winds. Fire stations were being used to get cold riders sheltered. Vehicles were amassed to shuttle bikes and shivering people clad in lycra back to Kirchzarten.
But the strong prevailed. Thomas Stohl (IXS) Of Switzerland won the mens Ultra event, from Mike Felderer (Full Dynamix – ITA) and Matthias Bettinger (GER). The womens Ultra was won by Ariane Kleinhans (RSA) who also won the mixed pairs at this years ABSA Cape Epic.
Full results, times, splits and photos can be found on the Datasport site.
An appraisal of his DNF by MarathonMTB.com Rider Mike Blewitt can be read on the Team Website