Cycling: Florian Vogel from Switzerland and Annika Langvad from Denmark won the second round of the KMC MTB Bundesliga in Heubach. Vogel won the 15th edition of BiketheRock in Heubach on a rainy day against his Swiss compatriot Mathias Flückiger and Moritz Milatz. In the women's race, Langvad won ahead of Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa and Lisi Osl.
Mathias Flückiger (Stöckli Pro Team) was able to pull away first on the muddy, but muddy but easy to drive 4,3-kilometer route under the Rosenstein ruins, before Florian Vogel (Focus XC) closed the gap to his compatriot, so that at the top a Swiss duo determined the events.
They increased the lead over World Champion Julien Absalon (BMC Racing) to 25 seconds and when the Frenchman suffered a defect at the end of the fourth of six laps it was clear that he too could no longer intervene.
In the same phase, Florian Vogel began to put pressure on Mathias Flückiger. distant. "In the steepest part, Florian was a bit stronger than me, but I was able to make up some time on the downhill," said Flückiger, describing how the gap came about. "I've had health problems for months and it's only recently that I've been able to train properly again. So I'm surprised it went so well.", Flückiger said happily.
Florian Vogel pulled away completely on the penultimate lap and drove to his sixth win of the season in 1:26:28 hours, 1:04 minutes ahead of Mathias Flückiger.
“This is my weather, always has been. When I read the weather report, I had to smile", known Florian Vogel. “Mathias was a tough opponent. It was a cool race and I also put my faith in the right tires. It was like driving on rails. Everything just went perfectly again.”
After Absalon's defect, Moritz Milatz (Koch Engineerin-Müsing Bikes) was able to equalize his gap of 20 seconds to Absalon. He was able to easily distance himself from the Frenchman in the following, the fifth of six laps, and thus conquered third place (+1:39). Milatz thus made his plan come true and continued his series. Since 2008, the man from Freiburg has always been among the top five in Heubach.
“I felt good, even in training. I always saw Julien in front of me and I would have at least tried if it wasn't for his defect.", explained Milatz. "I'm really happy that I can stand on the podium again in Heubach."
Julien Absalon had chosen tires that allowed him to climb well but gave him some trouble on the descents. “I had no grip at a race in France two weeks ago, this time it was the opposite. But it was good to try that in case it gets muddy at the World Cup in Albstadt.", last year's winner took it easy after crossing the finish line 1:44 minutes behind.
Surprisingly, Brit Grant Ferguson (Betch.nl Superior Brentjens, +2:03) finished fifth ahead of Vice World Champion Nino Schurter (Scott-Odlo). "I love such routes with long climbs"said Ferguson.
Annika Langvad (Specialized) has also demonstrated her current excellent form in Heubach. The marathon world champion didn't linger long with her competitors. “I wanted to run my own race. I have also succeeded. That way I wasn't involved in overtaking maneuvers and was able to drive my lines and my rhythm.", explained the Dane after finishing the race 1:34 minutes ahead of Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa (Multivan-Merida).
"BiketheRock, that's just my thing, no matter what the weather", said the three-time Heubach winner.
Behind her, an interesting duel developed between the Austrian Lisi Osl (Ghost Factory Racing) and Dahle-Flesjaa. Osl was a bit faster on the climb, but the Norwegian was able to catch up three times on the downhill. "In the fourth lap I managed to get ahead of Lisi on the downhill and she couldn't close the lead I had built up," said Dahle-Flesjaa.
"Annika was in a class of her own, I wasn't doing so well today either, but I needed a race like this to prepare for the European Marathon Championships in Singen next week", said the 42-year-old.
Lisi Osl started the race a bit skeptical. "I didn't recover very well from Haiming, so I had mixed feelings. All the more amazing that I was able to put up such a great fight with Gunn-Rita.", explained Osl, who finished third, 2:11 minutes behind.
Another 3:11 minutes later, German champion Adelheid Morath (BH-Sr Suntour-KMC) finished fourth. "It didn't feel like it should have. After the last few weeks, I started the race without any self-confidence and now I'm glad that at least it went that well. I had flat feet on the last descent, but it was great fun in the mud.", commented Morath, who saved 34 seconds on Anne Terpstra (Habitat MTB Team) from the Netherlands.
Sofia Wiedenroth (AMG Rotwild) was ninth (+10:21) and was the second best U6 driver in the field behind Malene Degn from Denmark (6th, +40:23).
"It was great fun today. I like it when it's so long uphill and the long downhill anyway", explained the Sigmarszellerin.