Cycling: Ex-world champion Hanka Kupfernagel is still a year after her serious injury at the end of last year - the 40-year-old old champion will stay with the Thuringian women's Bundesliga team Maxx-Solar Women Cycling for another year.
Last November, the five-time cross world champion broke several ribs in a training accident and was completely out of action - not only in relation to cycling: "After the fall, I couldn't do anything for weeks. Even in early December, it took me half a day to recover from a little walk! That's why I'm very happy that things improved relatively quickly from January and that I'm enjoying cycling again. I could not have done it without the motivation and help of my closest friends, family and physiotherapists. Because there were many days when I felt that a comeback would take too long for me.”
Luckily, her fears turned out to be unfounded and she is now back in the saddle - again in 2015 for Maxx-Solar Women Cycling, which again has big goals for the coming season: In addition to the day-to-day business of the Bundesliga, of course, above all the Thuringia Tour in July, too in view of the World Cup in the USA in September. In order to achieve these goals, Hanka Kupfernagel is primarily in favor of young riders such as the newly crowned 19-year-old German Cross Country Champion Jessica Lambracht or Corinna Lechner. “She was a tremendous help, especially to the young drivers, even if she herself was often ill or injured and not entirely satisfied. But I'm happy that Hanka wants to attack again. Everyone will benefit from that." said team boss Vera Hohlfeld.
Hanka Kupfernagel is currently competing in the mixed category of the Cape Epic mountain bike stage race in South Africa. She replaces ex-professional Udo Bölts, who broke his hand during training in February and offered Kupfernagel his starting place. It also came as a surprise to her: "If someone had told me a few weeks ago that I was going to compete at the Cape Epic, I probably would have thought they were crazy."