Cycling: Moritz Milatz, fourth in the World Championships, won the final cross-country race of the KMC MTB Bundesliga in front of a large crowd of spectators in Bad Salzdetfurth ahead of Swiss Fabian Giger and German champion Markus Schulte-Lünzum. As expected, the women's world number one, Jolanda Neff from Switzerland, won ahead of Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa and Maja Wloszczowska. The overall victories went to Adelheid Morath and Simon Stiebjahn.
The spectators, who streamed in large numbers to the route in the Sole-Stadt or to the Sothenberg, were offered two exciting races in one for the men. In front Fabian Giger and Moritz Milatz dueled. In the third lap, the Swiss pulled away from the crowd favorite in Bad Salzdetfurth, but he always stayed within striking distance, around 15 seconds behind.
“I had great legs and on the third lap the pace was a bit too slow for me. I thought I'd just try it and walked away", Giger explained about his attack. But Milatz did not give up. "I thought, if I go there now, I'll explode. If he had stuck it out, I would have had no chance.", said Milatz on the situation.
Cheered on by the crowd, he came back to Giger's rear wheel in the sixth of eight laps. "There was still power hidden somewhere," he said later. He passed the Swiss Giant driver and immediately attacked. "Moritz was stronger", known Giger, but was not disappointed. “I like this track, but maybe Moritz likes it even more. It was a great atmosphere again I would love to come back”, the Vice European Champion acknowledged after finishing 1:04 minutes behind.
Milatz was visibly moved on the home straight. He put his hands in front of his face and then let himself be celebrated. “This is kind of my race. I can't explain why that is. It felt great to win here again.” It was Freiburg's sixth win in Bad Salzdetfurth.
Third place (+1:42) went to Markus Schulte-Lünzum (Haltern), who prevailed in the chasing group. He struggled a little on the first lap, but then caught up with the chasing group by lap three. "I trained the week after the World Cup, which I enjoyed. That's probably why the legs weren't that fresh at the beginning. But then it was great”, explained the German champion from the Focus team.
With the world number one Jolanda Neff, the favorite prevailed among the women. After the first lap, a four-man lead group had formed, which split into two duos in lap two of seven. Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa and Jolanda Neff continued to increase their lead over Maja Wloszczowska from Poland and Blaza Klemencic from Slovenia.
After 41-year-old Dahle-Flesjaa repeatedly asked her 20-year-old competitor to take the lead, she allowed herself to be persuaded in the fourth round. "I thought, now I can't refuse anymore. Then I'm in the first position and at some point it wasn't there anymore", Jolanda told Neff.
It's that easy for the overall World Cup winner at the moment. The Swiss finally won with a lead of 1:46 minutes over the Norwegian. "It's really great that it worked again with the 90 world ranking points," she says happily. “The track is really cool, really mountain bike. They did really well here”, said the biker from the Liv Pro XC Team after her Bad Salzdetfurth premiere.
Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa (Multivan-Merida) was happy with her day's work. “Jolanda was stronger. I would have had to go beyond my limit to follow her. But today, in contrast to the World Cup, it felt normal again and I'm happy that I was able to end the season like this.", said the record World Cup winner.
Maja Wloszczowska (Liv Pro XC) rode alongside Blaza Klemencic (Feenstra Felt Kenda) until lap five. “In the beginning I was in front, but I noticed that Jolanda is in better shape. When Gunn-Rita attacked on the descent, I couldn't close the gap on the climb. I recovered a bit and then attacked Blaza. I really like the course here and I'm glad that things went well again after the disappointment at the World Championships.", according to the ex-world champion.