June 12, 2007 – Canada’s Alison Sydor and Germany’s Carsten Bressner of mixed team Rocky Mountain-Haywood are undefeated after winning three of three stages so far in the Craft Trans Germany. They are leading their category by over 2.5 hours.

Stage 2

Sandro Spaeth and Thomas Zahnd have celebrated an impressive comeback today. Yesterday, both had to accept a painful defeat falling behind leading Team Bulls by 13 minutes. Today, on the leg from Neustadt a. d. Weinstrasse to Erbach im Odenwald, both secured the victory.

The two Swiss bikers needed 2:11:19 hours for the almost 130 kilometres — of which the first 60 were held neutralised and thus without any timing. With an outstanding finish, Spaeth and Zahnd took home the victory with a lead of only one second on Team Rothaus-Cube, consisting of Frank Lehmann and Thomas Nicke (2:11:20.3). Some other six hundredths of a second, Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm came in (2:11:20.9) and therefore defended their lead in the ranking in a confident way.

After yesterday’s exhausting first stage, today was more relaxing due to the 60 kilometres long neutralised first part which Stefan Sahm called “a cheap coach trip which was a lot of fun.” But right after the peloton had passed Heidelberg, the Bulls-riders were pushing the pedal. “This definitely tore a hole in the starter field”, so Sahm further on.

But there were two teams which were able to follow the speed. In the end, Switzerland’s duo was all smiles. “We rose from the dead”, said Sandro Spaeth. “Yesterday, Thomas had some problems but today, everything worked out fine. The last 15 kilometres are the best proof for that because we were pushing it really hard.”

In the mixed category, it seems that we will see a start-finish-victory of Carsten Bresser and Alison Sydor. Team Rocky Mountain / Haywood crossed the finish line in a time of 2:27:42 and thus enlarged their comfortable lead again. More than 35 minutes later, A-Team / www.kiga-gmbh.de reached the finish in Erbach (3:03:08) followed by Bobteam.info (3:05:00).

On the women’s side, team Fiat-Rotwild was able to celebrate a back-to-back triumph, too. After 2:39:02 hours, the German-French duo of Kerstin Brachtendorf and Danièle Troesch rolled over the finish line. Danish Anna-Sofie and Kristine Norgaard came in 1 minute and 50 seconds later (2:40:52). Sandra and Peggy Klose from team Zwillingscraft secured the third rank and still sit in the second spot of the women classification.

In the master category Sachsenteam von Welt is enlarging its lead due to the second victory on the second day of the CRAFT BIKE TRANS GERMANY. Robert Novotny and Milan Spolc made it to the finish in the time of 2:20:28. Almost four minutes later, Scott Racing Team Heilenmann repeated its yesterday’s second rank (2:24:06). Team Belli rounded out the master’s podium with 2:27:22.

Stephan Erich and Eugen Roehrle (number 169) were the fastest bikers in the grand master category (2:45:11) but the Taunusgazellen 106 are still leading the pack of the teams which are older than 100 years due to their second rank today (2:45:30). Vo Dr Alb Ra-team came in third (2:53:24).

Stage 3

First but not the winner — Stefan Sahm of “Team Bulls” was the first today to cross the finish line on the third leg of the CRAFT BIKE TRANS GERMANY, which run from Erbach im Odenwald to Frammersbach. But another team took home the victory: It was team “Rothaus-Cube” which secured the top spot of the podium after 103 kilometres and an elevation gain of more than 2250 metres (3:44:49) due to the fact that both came in ahead of the other Bulls rider Karl Platt who was beaten by only one tenth of a second. The German-Austrian “Team Fiat-Rotwild” was another three seconds behind.

Frank Lehmann and Thomas Nicke are the third duo which was able to celebrate a day victory at the first mountain bike stage race across Germany. Therefore, both bikers from Saxony were all smiles. “It’s a very nice feeling to win a leg” said Lehmann after the sprint into the finish. Especially after such an exhausting stage: “It was a very tough day due to the weather. The stage profile didn’t seem to be so hard but there where so many little hills which demanded everything. In addition, we really pushed the pedal.”

A special award for all participants, who were all over covered with mud, was the impressive support and atmosphere made by the loud habitants of Frammersbach when every rider finished the race.

On the women’s side, the top team of the last days is on a winning streak. Team “Fiat-Rotwild” was able to grab the third first rank. Kerstin Brachtendorf and Danièle Troesch secured the victory with a time of 4:32:16 hours ahead of Danish “Cube Wls” (4:35:27) and team “Zwillingscraft” (4:49:40).

In the mixed category Carsten Bresser and Alison Sydor of “Rocky Mountain/Haywood” underlined their dominance with the third triumph in the row (4:07:31). Both now have a lead of more than two and a half hours in the mixed classification. A much closer decision is the fight for the second spot in the ranking. Today’s second placed team “Magura on board” (5:08:31) was able to shorten their lag to “Bobteam.info” (5:10:10) down to five seconds.

In the master category, “Sachsenteam von Welt” seems to be the team to beat after the third triumph within three days. The Czech riders needed 3:59:23 hours for the third leg of the CRAFT BIKE TRANS GERMANY. Norbert Novotny and Milan Spolc sit on a comfortable lead of 25 minutes in the battle for the Champions ring. A situation which should last until the end if it would be up to Novotny: “It was a good race although it was tough because of the weather. If we don’t have any problems I hope we can make it to Oberwiesenthal as first.” “Scott Racing Team Heilenmann” was again the second fastest duo with 4:14:21 hours ahead of Dutch “van Otten Marathon Team” (4:22:16).

The fight for the Green Jersey in the grand master category is getting more interesting again due to the victory of “Team Sherpa” today (4:39:45). Rainer Augstein and Ferdl Thiel were able to diminish the lead of “Taunusgazellen 106″ from about 16 minutes down to less than two minutes. “Vo Dr Alb Ra” came in second today with a time of 4:44:29 followed by yesterday’s winners “Die Finisher” (4:49:34).