Cycling: At the ZIENER Bike Festival in Willingen, the third stop of the Specialized-SRAM Enduro Series took place this weekend with 400 starters. In the end, Michal Prokop and Anneke Beerten were able to leave the field as winners.
International greats of enduro sports, such as the EWS winner Greg Callaghan (IRL - Cube Action Team) and Michal Prokop (CZE - Specialized Racing) and also the newly crowned German Champion Fabian Scholz (GER - Focus Trail Team) competed in the Elite Men class with winning ambitions at the start. There was also a top-class starting field for the women with series leader Anneke Beerten (NED – Specialized Racing) and young German hope Raphaela Richter (GER – Radon Factory Racing), so that the fight for the day’s win promised to be exciting.
On Sunday morning, the drivers started the race in the best sunshine, with a light wind on the transfer stages cooling down – perfect conditions. This was also noticeable on the meanwhile dust-dry routes, which became noticeably more extended and demanding over the course of the day. The excitement was therefore great as to which of the numerous favorites would be able to cope best with the dusty conditions.
In the end, Michal Prokop won the Elite Men class with the best time of the day of 10:09.29 ahead of Greg Callaghan and Premek Tejchmann (CZE – Commencal). Andy Eyring (GER - RWV Haselbach) and Philip Shucksmith (GBR - Pro Ride Guides) followed. As so often, Anneke Beerten dominated the Elite Women class ahead of Natalie Schneitter (SUI – ROSE Vaujany) and Raphaela Richter.
Remo Heutschi (SUI) was the fastest starter in the Pro Masters. André Kleindienst (GER - Endura Bergamont Factory) and Tommy Umbreit (GER - Redheads Team) completed the podium. In the amateur men, Clemens Bachmann (GER - BSG Flughafen Stuttgart) was able to assert himself and relegated Maximilian Dorfer (GER - Epic Cycles Hamburg) and Henrik Grobert (GER - Freiburger Pilsner) to places two and three. Barbara Stettler (SUI – Thömus Veloshop) won the amateur women class ahead of Jana Goetze (GER – Santa Claus Syndicate) and Ulrike Moelders (GER – Aroma Ahoi).
This allowed Michal Prokop to extend his lead in the overall standings, while Anneke Beerten has now come dangerously close to Raphaela Richter. It will be exciting to see if they will also be able to maintain their positions at the next stop of this year's Specialized-SRAM Enduro Series, which is on 18/19. July at the Samerberg takes place, can defend.