Cycling: Next weekend it will be exciting at the KMC MTB Bundesliga. On Saturday there will be a duel between European champion Daniel Federspiel and world champion Fabrice Mels in the Eliminator Sprint. In the cross-country race, Swiss Florian Vogel will challenge the German bikers led by Moritz Milatz. And then an ex-world champion returns to the competition.
The organizational committee of the KMC Bundesliga event in the Upper Black Forest is delighted with the number of international top drivers who have put themselves on the starting list for the first race in Titisee-Neustadt.
Top-class athletes from a total of 11 different nations have announced themselves for the highlights, the elite races for women at 15 a.m. and men at 15 p.m.
Florian Vogel of the Focus XC team will be the man to beat in the men's. He made headlines in spring when he won six races in a row. Then he was fourth in the first two World Cup competitions of the season despite a health handicap. The Swiss climbed up to fourth place in the world rankings.
Vogel has to be treated as a top favorite, provided he is not shaken by a fall and defect, as was the case at the World Cup in Lenzerheide. However, Moritz Milatz certainly has the potential to challenge him for the title as the first winner of the Singer Forest Cup. Milatz experienced an unfortunate World Cup appearance in Lenzerheide and retired after a defect in the second round.
"I didn't feel bad", says Milatz. Actually, the man from Freiburg didn't want to decide whether to start at the Hochfirst ski jump until he had recovered from the World Cup. "Two laps, there's nothing to recover from", he says somewhat sarcastically. “So it was immediately clear that I would drive. It's not a big effort for me either." From his home in Freiburg he drives only half an hour to Titisee-Neustadt, where he now wants to catch up: “I could really use 60 world ranking points. Otherwise, I keep slipping further and further down in the world rankings.", explains Milatz.
The German Vice Champion Markus Schulte-Lünzum from Haltern wants to build on his performance from the DM. "I'm looking forward to the weekend, also because it's just a race in Germany and I always enjoy it more than usual on home soil.", says Florian Vogel's teammate. Of course I hope to be able to compete at the front there again.
Helen Grobert takes on the role of the local hero among the women. The shooting star of the season was denied the really big coup in Lenzerheide. On course for the podium, the Remetschwielerin suffered a tire defect and on the final lap a second one, resulting in only 20th place.
The German champion is still ninth in the overall World Cup rankings and will be the favorite in the Schmiedsbachtal race.
"I've recovered well from Lenzerheide and I'm looking forward to the Bundesliga race", says Grobert. "It will definitely be a great weekend."