Another win notched up for Topeak-Ergon — Sally Bigham wins the Leadville Trail 100 and boasts her 2nd victory at the Colorado super event. In the men’s race, a fantastic 3rd place for Kristian Hynek and a fourth of Alban Lakata rounds off the success for the Koblenz/Germany based Racing Team. Sally Bigham (36) won the famous Leadville Trial 100 for the Topeak-Ergon Racing Team in the USA with an impressive ride from the start to the line. After a distance of 100 miles (160 km) she crossed the line having ascended a total of 4,000m with a lead over the nearest rival of 42.29 minutes. The Cult race in the Rockies is one of the most difficult Marathon Races in the USA, and is touted as ”the race of all races” — and not without reason. After a total of 7:23:58 hours in the saddle, Sally had completed the 160km. It looked easier than it was, as Sally was keen to point out. ”Crossing the finish line was a relief because I had no idea how close the second placed rider was behind me. Also because its such a long race you can never be certain that things wont go wrong in the last miles.” For Kristian Hynek it was an impressive Leadville premiere. The 34 year old Czech member of the German based team finished 3rd, behind Todd Wells (USA) and Christoph Sauser (CH) with a time of 6:22:47 hours. Riding for a lot of the race in the lead he had built 4 minutes on Wells and an excellent 8 minutes on Sauser, but was unable to maintain it. ”I was about 30km from the line, and had the feeling that I wasn’t going to be able to do it”, the Cape Epic winner explained, ”with that in mind, the 3rd place really pleases me. It also means to have to come back next year and get a better result!” For Alban Lakata, winner of the race twice in a row, and the holder of the course record, his race had a different story. He rode at the front with Kristian, and looked to have a great chance of completing the triple win, but a puncture put pay to that. ”Of course it’s a shame. I came here to win the race! I planned to beat my own record too, giving myself under 6 hours to finish”, the Albanator explained, ”but never mind — there’s always next year”, the Austrian said, with a twinkle in his eye. Yuki Ikeda (34) from the Topeak-Ergon US-Team finished on 28th place after a hard crash going down at the Power Line — respect. It wasn’t only a weekend of racing in the US, both Robert Mennen (29) and Wolfram Kurschat (39) were lined up on Sunday on Wolfman’s home trials at the 12th Sigma Sport Bike Marathon — in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. Robert completed the longer 103km with 2700m of ascent race, taking 5th place, while Wolfram completed the middle distance 57km race with 1450m of ascent also finishing 5th. More information and results at leadvilleraceseries
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 14:12:52 +0000