Daniel Geismayr and Hermann Pernsteiner have claimed their first shared stage win on day five of the 2015 Craft BIKE Transalp powered by Sigma. Team Centurion-Vaude 2, which had lost about ten minutes yesterday due to technical problems, crossed the finish line in San Martino di Castrozza after 3:28.56,8 hours in the saddle. 2,3 second behind after 73.27 km and 3,137 metres of climbing coming from Alleghe were their teammates and overall leaders Markus Kaufmann and Jochen Kaess of Centurion-Vaude 1.
Third place went to overall second placed Team Bulls pros Karl Platt and Urs Huber who lost about 30 seconds on the yellow jerseys today (3:29.29.6) but were absolutely happy with the result.
Especially seven-time Transalp winner Platt who didn’t have any pleasant associations with today’s very tough stage profile and its never ending ups and downs: “Two years ago I blew it totally. This being the case, I’m very pleased with the outcome today. We didn’t lose that much time.”
The reason why he and his teammate Huber were able to keep the gap as small as possible was a mix of the experience both could throw in and their downhill skills.
“I didn’t play their game and kept my own pace when they broke away in the climbs. We were able to catch up in the descents again so there was no reason to risk too much,” said Platt.
Both Centurion-Vaude teams had kept the pace high right from the start and tried to break away from their competitors. This paid off quickly but a small detour and the strong downhill performance of their rivals led to a smaller lead than they were hoping for.
“We have tried everything right from the beginning of the stage. In the end, we weren’t able to win so much time but we achieved our goal with the stage win. Over the next two days, we will find out what’s possible for us after we were able to reduce the gap to the third rank in the overall ranking,” explained Hermann Pernsteiner who celebrated his career’s first Transalp stage win today.
2015 Transalp – Stage 5 in 60secUps and down, from sun to rain – the fifth #transalp stage from Alleghe to San Martino di Castrozza (TN) had it all. But watch by yourself – here is today’s #60seconds clip!
Posted by BIKE Transalp on Thursday, 23 July 2015
With only two more stages to go, the duel for the third podium spot couldn’t be more exciting. Topeak Ergon Racing 1 consisting of Alban Lakata and Kristian Hynek, which came in as fourth ranked duo (3:30.27,6), is only 1.46 minutes ahead of Centurion-Vaude 2.
Business as usual in other categories
While Topeak Ergon lost some time in the battle for a top-3 result, its female team members Sally Bigham and Christina Kollmann are still setting the pace in the women’s category.
Crossing the finish line in San Martino di Castrozza as 35th team overall, the wearer of the pink jerseys celebrated their fifth stage win in a row (4:25.16,3).
Just like Massimo de Bertolis and Andreas Laner of Wilier Force Squadra Corse 1 did in the masters category (3:54.28,8) and Hansjuerg Gerber and Baerti Bucher of Bikeholiday.ch/BiXS in the grand masters classifier (4:14.23,4).
Silke Schmidt and Sascha Schwindling of Team Herzlichst Zypern 1 extended their lead in the mixed category with their fourth stage win (4:15.57,4).
Tomorrow’s sixth and penultimate stage of the Craft BIKE Transalp powered by Sigma will lead over 88.78 km and 2,530 metres of climbing from San Martino di Castrozza to Levico Terme. The start is scheduled for 9 AM CET.
Full results are online.