Cycling: One week after the World Championships in Norway, many world-class bikers gather in Bad Salzdetfurth on Saturday and Sunday for the final of the KMC MTB Bundesliga. The two newly crowned U23 world champions, Jolanda Neff and Michiel van der Heijden, are among the drivers from 16 different nations, as are Moritz Milatz, fourth in the World Championships, and Emil Lindgren, runner-up in the sprint.
"I'll give everything that's still in the tank", announces Moritz Milatz. He has just returned from the World Championships in Norway, where he missed the bronze medal by a paltry five seconds and finished fourth, the best World Championship result of his career. He has already won five times in Bad Salzdetfurth and he is something of a public favorite in the brine city. Incidentally, this is based on reciprocity.
"Whether I can win again is another matter, but I want to take as many world ranking points with me as possible. I hope the competition is just as tired mentally as I am after the exhausting season.", says BMC driver Milatz and laughs.
The competition consists, among others, of the Swiss Giant pilot Fabian Giger, who was also at the top of the podium in Bad Salzdetfurth. Giger was unlucky with a defect at the World Championships and still finished eleventh. In front of him, even after a defect, José Antonio Hermida (Multivan-Merida) finished ninth. "My form has improved towards the World Cup", says Hermida and wants to prove it at the final of the KMC MTB Bundesliga.
His Czech team colleague Ondrej Cink, 14th at the World Championships, also put in a strong performance after a bad start in Hafjell, as did Dutchman Rudi van Houts as 23th. Michiel van der Heijden, who became UXNUMX World Champion in Norway, can also get involved. His winning time would have meant eighth place in the men's World Championship race with one lap to go.
It will be interesting to see how the German champion Markus Schulte-Lünzum from Focus will do. 18th from Norway, he's not far from these world-class guys.
Bauer and Stiebjahn: Submit in the eliminator
Next to it - or in the middle - there should be a race within a race. In the fight for overall victory, Simon Stiebjahn (Titisee-Neustadt, 120) from Team Bulls and Markus Bauer (110) from Kirchzarten from Lexware Mountainbike Team are only ten points apart. And because the finale counts twice, it's going to be really exciting. Even Moritz Milatz (50) can intervene in the event of a win. He would then have 170 points.
For Simon Stiebjahn, the German champion in the Eliminator Sprint and for the runner-up in this discipline, Markus Bauer, Saturday is important. "I want to see that I collect as many points as possible in the sprint to also increase the gap to Moritz", says Stiebjahn, tenth at the Sprint World Championships.
Half the points of the cross-country race are awarded for the sprint.
“I know that I have to score points in the sprint, otherwise I don't have a chance on Sunday. But a possible overall victory in the KMC MTB Bundesliga is really motivating again.", says Bauer. The duo also meets Emil Lindgren. The Swede comes as a freshly crowned silver medalist at the World Championships in this discipline and already knows the spectacular course via Lamme.
Ladies: Three out of the top four and Morath hopes for overall victory
The women have a very interesting clash. With Jolanda Neff (1), Maja Wloszczowska (3), both from Liv Pro XC and Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa (4) from Multivan-Merida, there are three riders at the start who are among the top four in the world rankings.
Dahle-Flesjaa would even be able to endanger Adelheid Morath if they won. At her home World Cup, things did not go according to plan for the co-favourite. "I just had a bad day and I'm convinced that things will go better in Bad Salzdetfurth"she said after the race.
Adelheid Morath, who replaced Sabine Spitz as German champion in July, was unable to compete in the World Championships. She became ill and lay flat for six days. "I'm in good spirits that I can start in Bad Salzdetfurth. Being up front is probably an illusion after the illness, but I hope that I can make the overall victory perfect. I had to do without it after my collarbone fracture last year.", according to Morath.
Blaza Klemencic from Feenstra Felt-Kenda is also a possible candidate for the podium in the final. The Vice European Champion from Slovenia was a great fifth at the World Championships. In addition, there are two other athletes with merits, Briton Annie Last (Trek Factory Racing) and ghost bikers Lisi Osl (Austria) and Katrin Leumann (Switzerland). And the Russian Ekaterina Anoshina also made people sit up and take notice with 13th place in Norway.
The performance of Focus driver Helen Grobert will also be interesting from a German point of view. The DM third has landed two World Cup victories in the U23 category this year.
In the women's sprint, Austria's Lisa Mitterbauer (Feenstra-Felt-Kenda) and Katrin Leumann, who won in Bad Salzdetfurth in 2012, are two top-class athletes.