St. Christina, July 18, 2017 – Following a jury decision, today’s winners of the third stage of the BIKE Transalp powered by Sigma Daniel Geismayr and Hermann Pernsteiner of Centurion Vaudehave been penalised with additional five minutes. The Austrians riding in the yellow jerseys had infringed the rule to not ride the mountain bikes in the pushing section through the nature park Fanes-Sennes-Prags located in the downhill from Tadega Pass.
Due to the penalty time their German teammates Jochen Kaess and Markus Kaufmann were named winners of the one-week event’s third stage which led via 65.28 km and 2,461 metres of climbing from St. Vigil to St. Christina.
As a result, Geismayr and Pernsteiner dropped back to rank three behind of Jeremiah Bishop (USA) and Kristian Hynek (CZE) of Topeak Ergon Racing 1 but remained overall leaders with an advantage of 1:50 minutes over Kaess and Kaufmann.
Just like the defending champions also Italians Diego Cargnelutti and Johnny Cattaneo of Wilier Force Squadra Corse as well as Luis Mejia (CLO) and Joseph Chavarria (CRC) of team 7C were also penalised for the same offence.
But the lead remains on the shoulders of Pernsteiner and Geismayr.
The day on the trails at Transalp
On the third day of the 2017 Transalp, the leading duo of Geismayr and Pernsteiner were able to set a successful attack in the first descent of today’s stage.
While the quartet had been racing side by side in the climb to Limo Pass controlling the pace from the front, it was able to break away in the pushing section from Tadega Pass down to Capanna Alpine as Jeremiah Bishop (USA) of Topeak Ergon Racing 1, who cemented his third rank in the overall classifier by coming in in third position with Kristian Hynek (CZE) today (3:09.50,0) commented:
“It’s definitely the race of Centurion Vaude. They knew that they would need good shoes for running today. My shoes weren’t very good for the 15 minutes walking section. The bike was slipping a lot and falling on you. But it was a beautiful stage in the Dolomites.”
In addition, the 41-year-old, who is racing the Transalp in the top team for the first time, said: “The last three years I have been on the support team. This is really an honour to race on the lead team now. It surprises me how well we do although we had a flat yesterday.”
An early start in St Vigil.
Some bad luck which almost did hit the leading racers from Austria, too.
“The legs weren’t that good anymore after the pushing section but we tried to gain some more lead in the next climb in order to have a bigger buffer for the next couple of days,” said Geismayr before the 2017 MTB marathon world championships bronze medallist, who experienced a moment of shock today, added:
“Close to the finish, the leading moto crashed, and I didn’t notice that the rocks were slippery when I passed it. I slipped away and got caught in some wire ropes which suppose to give hikers some sort of security. But fortunately I only sustained scratches and nothing serious.”
Change of lead in Transalp masters category
After their attack didn’t work out yesterday, Thorsten Damm (GER) and Peter Vesel (SLO) were finally able to reap the fruits of their labour today.
The duo racing for Scott Fahrradladen Gudensberg mastered the third Transalp stage in a time o 3:34.06,1 and therefor not only crossed the finish line more than 21 minutes earlier than Hansjuerg Gerber and Daniel Christen but also took over the lead from their Swiss rivals.
Team bikeholiday.ch/bike arena emmetten had lost precious time due to chain problems in the final ascent.
In the women’s event, Esther Suess (SUI) and Jennie Stenerhag (SWE) of Meerendal CBCtriumphed in a time of 4:07.53,7 while Massimo Debertolis (ITA) and Dax Jaikel (CRC) of Wilier Force 7C dominated the masters category in 3:27.12,2 again. Germans Silke Ulrich and Sascha Schwindling of Team Herzlichst Zypern 1 came in as best mixed pair (3:45.18,4).