Last Alpentour Trophy stage cancelled
Due to strong rainfall, mudslides, fallen trees and the Enns river, which is about to overflow, today the fourth and last stage of the 15th Alpentour Trophy onto the Hauser Kaibling mountain had to be cancelled for safety reasons.
The overall winner of the Elite Male category is therefore again Kristian Hynek, just like last year and also in the women’s field the defending champions form last year, Sally Bigham from Great Britain, claims the title.
"To hold today’s stage as planned would have been irresponsible. We sent our motorbike riders out onto the race track this morning and they reported back about the partly dangerous conditions out there. That’s why together with our UCI commissaries we decided to cancel the last stage”, said organiser Gerhard Schönbacher. And a special guest had been supposed to join the riders at today’s winners ceremony – the local Austrian skiing champion Michaela Kirchgasser had planned to come to Schladming, however, called the organisers in the morning that here village had been cut off by several mudslides and that she won’t be able to make it.
Hynek overall winner ahead of Lakata
Therefore, after two stage wins and one fourth place on yesterday’s third stage, the European MTB-Marathon Champion from the Czech Republic Kristian Hynek claims his second overall victory at the Alpentour Trophy, “I was really looking forward to racing Alban today. But of course, safety comes first. We’ve really had everything at this year’s Alpentour Trophy – from snow to strong rainfall. I would have liked to race today, but if it’s too dangerous, there’s nothing we can do.” The Czech rider wins 2:03 minutes ahead of World- and European Champion Alban Lakata. The rider from East Tyrol had been keen to win the Alpentour Trohpy with a strong performance today, but admitted today that, “If you’re looking out of the window, it’s not surprising that they cancelled today’s stage. I won a stage and am second overall – that’s not too bad, actually. And now I’m in good shape for the upcoming Marathon World Championships in Tyrol!” Another Czech rider is on the overall podium – Jiri Novak takes out the third place with a gap of 4:50 minutes, followed by the Austrian Christoph Soukup (+8:24 minutes) and the Belgian rider Frans Claes (+ 10:14 minutes)
In the elite women’s field the Vice World Champion Sally Bigham repeats her overall win from last year and had a strike rate of 100% with three consecutive stage wins. The British rider wins ahead of her team mate from Switzerland, Milena Landtwing and the Norwegian rider Kristin Aamodt.
In the Elite Masters classification 1 the Austria Georg Koch dominated the field and in the Elite Masters 2 classification the World and Olympic Champion Bart Brentjens claimed this year’s title.
The amateur sports classification 2 goes to Christoph Zaller, who won a brand new Opel Adam car, valued at 11,000 Euros at yesterday’s Opel Hillclimb competition. The 29-year old rider from Salzburg also claims the overall amateur title!