MTB-News: This year's BIKE Transalp came to an end at the weekend. The last stage to Riva del Garda was won by Jochen Käß and Markus Kaufmann from the Centurion-Vaude 2 team, while the overall victory went to teammates Daniel Geismayr and Hermann Pernsteiner (Centurion-Vaude 1), who were able to defend their title from last year. The Velomotion team with Lennard Heidenreich and Mathias Frohn ended up in a great 14th place overall, and Lennard also won the U23 classification.
The BIKE Transalp took place for the 20th time this year, leading the participants over a total of 544 km and almost 18.000 meters in altitude from Mayrhofen to Lake Garda over seven days. As in the previous year, the overall title went to the Austrian duo of Geismayr/Pernsteiner (Centurion-Vaude 1), who were able to achieve their second success in their third joint participation. The day's victory on the final stage to Riva del Garda went to the two German teammates Jochen Käß and Markus Kaufmann, who ended up taking second place in the overall classification.
Of course, the 26-year-old from Pernstein was overjoyed at the finish: “Of course, the first win is always something special. It's difficult to defend a title, but that was our goal. We knew we had what it took after the season had gone well.” His teammate Daniel Geismayr added: “It's good to confirm with the second title that the first win last year was no coincidence. That's a satisfaction."
Team Velomotion in 14th place
Lennard Heidenreich started together with Mathias Frohn as Team Velomotion and made it straight into the top 15 in their first BIKE Transalp together. At the end there was an impressive 14th place. All in all, Lennard is very satisfied with the result, even if they had set a different goal on the eve of the final day:
“We are incredibly happy to have reached the finish line. Today it went really well again. Unfortunately, we failed in our attempt to make up the three-minute deficit in the overall standings in 13th place. All week I was happy to be on the Centurion Numinis Carbon Fully. Despite that, the other teams put me under real pressure every day on the descent. Mathias was the perfect Bike Transalp team partner. We worked great together and had a lot of fun. From stage to stage, Mathias has become more and more clearly the stronger of the two of us.”
When he last took part, Lennard was still on the road with a hardtail - so now on the XC Fully from Centurion, which saved him strength especially on the descents and was able to gain a second or two. He rode the Numinis Carbon XC RCF D 29 almost entirely with standard equipment, except for the Rotor InPower power measurement crank with matching 34 mm Q-ring, the saddle from Astute Italia and the Maxxis Ikon tires.
As great as the team success in one of the toughest MTB stage races may be, Lennard can also be happy about the victory in the U23 classification, in which he ended up having a lead of more than two hours over second-placed Kelvin Bakx.