MTB cycling: Slowly but surely, the iXS European Downhill Cup 2016 is entering its final phase. Carina Cappellari and David Trummer were able to prevail in the fifth and penultimate race in Les Deux Alpes, while Johannes Fischbach used the race as a discarded result.
Last weekend, the iXS European Downhill Cup made a guest appearance in Les Deux Alpes, France, for the third time. While the European series was part of the Crankworx Festival in the last two years, this time it was an individual event. The reason for this was the relocation of the festival to Les Gets, while the cup remained true to Les Deux Alpes. A downhill run that definitely has it all: On the extremely fast route, a remarkable 2,7 meters of altitude are destroyed over a length of 700 kilometers. As so often in the 2016 season, the weather was again to play a major role: the traditional training session on Friday had to be canceled very early on due to a heavy thunderstorm. On Saturday, the greasy surface posed a huge challenge for the riders. It started raining again during qualifying, with some riders using their protected status to qualify for Sunday's Super Final.
In the Elite Women class, the Swiss Carina Cappellari (Radon Magura Factory) won the race on Sunday with a narrow lead of 0.514 seconds. Second-placed Monika Hrastnik (Blackthorn) from Slovenia was able to gain a lead of almost 10 seconds over Italian Veronika Widmann (Bike Club Egna Neumarkt). However, third place in Les Deux Alpes was enough for the Italian to go into the last race in Leogang as the series leader with a total of 758 points. Czech Jana Bartova (RRP) is second in the overall ranking with 644 points, Carina Cappellari is in third place (608 points). The two German starters Harriet Rücknagel (Bergamont, Rad-Art Ilmenau) and Sandra Rübesam (Rose Factory Racing) are currently in 6th and 7th place in the overall standings (276 / 266 points).
The end of the 2016 season for the men is just as exciting as for the women. Overall leader Johannes Fischbach (Radon Magura Factory) used the race in Les Deux Alpes as a missed result, as did Pole Slawomir Lukasik, who was directly behind him. The Austrian David Trummer (RRP) conjured up the fastest time in the Elite Men class race in Les Deux Alpes, while Loris Revelli (Argentina Bike) was only 0.387 seconds slower in second place. The Czech Stanislav Sehnal secured the best result of his career with third place in Les Deux Alpes. The overall ranking is still led by Johannes Fischbach (1069 points), followed by Slawomir Lukasik (1006 points) and David Trummer (809 points).
The last station of the iXS European Downhill Cup 2016 will be Leogang in Austria from September 16th to 18th. The final promises to be extremely exciting again.