Craft Bike TransAlp 2010
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Stage 1: Füssen - Imst 17-07-2010 83,76 km - 2105 hm After a absence of 4 years mainly due to injury I am back to a race that made me famous in Europe. The very first Trans Alp Challenge was also one of the first races with the 2 man concept back in 1998 and I was the first winner with my German team mate Marcus Rheicle sponsored by adidas.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/41374481
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Stage 2: Imst - Ischgl 18-07-2010 Stage 2 totals 78km and 3060 meters of climbing. The stage started with a climb of 1300Hm and again Reini could not follow the wheels he normally leads. With my experience I told him not to panic and take it easy because this is an 8 day stage race not a one or 2 day event. We did manage a 4th place finish in the masters category today but lost more valuable time on the podium finishers.
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Stage 3: Ischgl - Scuol 19-07-2010 73,64 km - 2504 hm Today started with some of the nicest weather I have ever seen here in Europe, just right for the 1400 meter ascent up to Idjoch. A short loop through the town and then it was up to every team to make sure they don’t kill themselves to quickly on such a long climb. Reini looked a bit stronger today and we were climbing in 4th place in the masters cat. Halfway up the climb we were lying in 3rd place and had the 2nd team in our focus. We just did not managed to catch up before the looong decent and it was me in pursuit of the 2nd place master team. Another long climb and the gap stayed at about 20 seconds with Reini just not strong enough to close the gap with me.
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Stage 4: Scuol - Livigno 20-07-2010 73,91 km - 2377 hm So overnight we made up another place as Georg Koch, the master rider that crashed yesterday could not make the start with cracked ribs. Good luck I know how that hurts.
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Stage 5: Livigno - Ponte Di Legno 21-07-2010 106,87 km - 3461 hm The stage started with a short controlled start through Livigno and then we turned right and 25% gradient was the order of the day. Aua. Reini was not feeling too great today and team KTM got away from us and it was up to Mr-african to keep a steady pace that was comfortable for Reini but not losing too much time to KTM.
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Stage 6: Ponte Di Legnol - Male 22-07-2010 72,61 km - 2363 hm Today will be easy after yesterday’s tough stage or so did race director Uli Stansio said. But climbing to a height of 2370m and that nearly all on a old army gravel road made me think back to the last stage of this year’s Cape Epic. That was also supposed to be a easy stage but this climb hurt just as much as that final one.
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Stage 7: Male - Madonna D.C. 23-07-2010 47,73km - 2321 hm A day with only 47km sounds easy but more than 2300Hm of climbing also interesting. And like always if a stage is shorter the speed is higher. That meant a lot of hard pacing for mr-african until we hit the second long STEEP climb of the day. After about a kilometre it also happened to us and Reini was shouting “Mannie my rear wheel is losing air”. “No stress” I said and we stopped, inflated the wheel and hoped the Joes will do the trick. It did work for the next 10km but then with about 2 km to the top of the climb it was time to replace the tubeless system with a tube. While doing this our rivals for the 2nd place passed us but with a 6 minute gap it was still not necessary to worry.
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Stage 8: Madonna D.C. - Riva 24-07-2010 67,26km - 1462 hm And another great day at the 2010 Trans Alp Challenge. Sunshine, mountains, trails and the finish, Riva del Garda. |
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