FOCUS 24h MTB race: With 800 participants, the first FOCUS 24h MTB race in Stuttgart epowered by Bosch had a successful premiere last weekend at the Stuttgart Exhibition Centre. The imaginative route and the great atmosphere in the exhibition hall were very well received, and planning for 2016 has already begun. Premiere winner: The MHW Cube Racing Team.
"Thank you for the great event. Super organized.” The comment by Axel Traub from Nürtingen from the CSV MTB Team sums up the feedback that the organizers of the first FOCUS 24 Hours in Stuttgart had to offer epowered by Bosch accumulated on Sunday afternoon.
24 hours on the mountain bike. Umpteen times the 7,5 kilometers through the exhibition hall, crossing the A8 in the Bosch car park, the taking off and landing jumbo jets in view, cutting through the night with their lamps, the 800 mountain bike enthusiasts experienced, suffered and enjoyed the "race around the clock".
"We can be more than just satisfied with the first edition," summed up Albrecht Röder from the Friends Event Agency. The host, Landesmesse Stuttgart, also immediately gave extremely positive feedback. "The atmosphere was great and we received consistently positive information," says Stefan Lohnert, who, as division manager, is responsible for guest events at the state fair.
A highlight was the emotional finish. When the happy hormones shoot through the bikers in torrents and the observer gets goosebumps, that immediately motivates for the next time. Even if you are happy at this moment that the efforts are now over.
The track: A roller coaster
The 7,5-kilometre route – initially viewed with skepticism due to the location – received a great deal of applause. With a lot of imagination and know-how, the experienced people from the SKYDER SPORTPROMOTION designed an imaginative course that contained a number of typical mountain bike elements that you would not have expected there.
"The track is really cool, it's like a rollercoaster," posted the 24-hour team Voreifel Euskirchen on Facebook, for example.
Planning for 2016 will begin shortly. Next, as Stefan Lohnert announced, instead of one, they would send three teams from their own ranks into the race. The magic of the 24-hour event also captured him and his team.
"There were a lot of people who wanted to take a look and then said: next year we'll be there too," registered Albrecht Röder.
The exhibition hall offers the event an unbeatable base, as was shown on this premiere weekend. Even when it rained for a while.
That 2016 will be the second edition of the FOCUS 24h from Stuttgart epowered by Bosch, so that's already certain. Registration for the event will start in mid-January at the CMT trade fair.
“We are very satisfied with the premiere. The support from Landesmesse Stuttgart was great and everything went very well in terms of organization. The positive feedback from all sides motivates us to expand the event next year. The potential for this is there, there is no doubt about that,” noted Stephan Salscheider, Managing Director of SKYDER SPORTPROMOTION, in his conclusion.
Winning team with 667 kilometers
With 89 completed laps and thus 667 kilometers driven, the MHW-Cube Racing Team has become the first winner of the FOCUS 24h in Stuttgart epowered by Bosch. The team of eight from Untermünkheim near Schwäbisch Hall ended up having three more laps than the crew from Best Bike Parts/Burtec and that was no surprise.
With Louis Wolf, Sven Straehle and Sam Weber, the team had three riders in its ranks who otherwise cavort in the U23 World Cup and their only lady in the formation, Chiara Eberle, was a cross-country rider for a long time. She didn't fall far behind her male colleagues with her lap times.
Amazing that with Alexander Rebs/Klaus Reinisch (Focus-Rapiro) a team of two also completed 86 laps and was only six and a half minutes behind the second-placed team around Lukas Kubis from Nelling.
In the soloists, the category for the toughest of the tough, Kai Saaler (Team Back For(r)est) collected the most laps. In the camp of the lone fighters he fights a duel with Torsten Weber (24h Team Voreifel Euskirchen). He then crossed the finish line together with Saaler, but had completed one lap less over the 24 hours.
The third, Jörg Herrmann (Hasi and Digger), was able to enjoy the emotional atmosphere at the finish line alongside the two first-placed riders. However, Herrmann had “only” accumulated 63 laps.
ebike Hero: Sven Straehle takes home the FOCUS Bike with Bosch drive
Sven Straehle from the MHW Cube Racing Team won the parallel competition for the Bosch eBike Hero. Not entirely surprising, see above. The 20-year-old set a time of 14:24 minutes on the lap and was thus a full six seconds faster than Tobias Rotermund from Focus-Rapiro.
Mike Kluge (53), former World Cup winner and German MTB legend, took the opportunity to do a quick lap on an eBike from Fahrrad Walcher with the proven Bosch drive. Kluge is familiar with the additional drive. He swears by eBikes as a training device.
A FOCUS bike with a Bosch drive is now also available to Sven Straehle. Or his trainer to accompany him during training sessions. The young man from Böbingen near Aalen was able to take this good piece home as a prize for his best time.
More information is available on the page www.24hrace-stuttgart.de
Images: ©Sportograf