July 19/08 4:21 am - Transalp Stage 1: Sydor and Sundstedt in the lead

Posted by Editoress on 07/19/08
 

Jeantex Bike Transalp
Organizers report

After 3:36: 08, the first stage victory at the JEANTEX BIKE TRANSALP 2008 powered by NISSAN was home and dry for Alison Sydor and Pia Sundstedt. But to get to the podiue, the Canadian-Finnish pairing had to struggle hard to make it.

Due to their strong performance, the due was able to relegate their main competitors Sandra and Peggy Klose from Zwillingscraft-Ideal (3:39:31.8) as well as Katrin Schwing and Fabienne Heinzmann (3:39:35.6), who both almost crossed the finish line at teh same time, to take the second and third spot respectively.

Sydor and Sundstedt were also part of the bunch of bikers taking a detour. "I didn't expect to lose so much time. In addition, Pia had a technical problem which also cost about five minutes. So, we entered the climb to Marienbergjoch as fifth ladies' team" said the three-time World Champion from Canada. But when it was time to go up, both athletes showed what they were made for. "We just passed them one by one. Although we had planned to ride conservatively we are pretty pleased with today's result" said Sydor.


With a little bit of luck and a great performance, defending champions Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm won the first stage of the 2008 JEANTEX BIKE TRANSALP 2008 powered by NISSAN after 3:05:04 in an impressive way. Earlier, it seemed that it would be a sprint duel of two teams for victory after 80.13 kilometres and 1,961 metres in elevation gain.

But Team Bulls was able to gain a decisive lead over the main competitors Martin Kraler and Heinz Verbnjak (Craft & Friends) on the downhill from Marienbergjoch. In Nesselwang, the top pros from Germany were already 30 seconds in front adding more than another minute on the final flat part of the stage. As third after Team Craft & Friends (3:07:32.7), Frank Lehmann and Uwe Hardter of Team Cube 10 (3:09:10.9) came in.