Athletes from 11 countries from Europe, Asia and America found the hidden village of Triesenberg-Steg in the heart of Liechtenstein to take part on the 4th stage of the ITU Winter Triathlon World Cup.
The winter was really present since the day before the race, with a continuous snowfall, which transformed the speedy circuit designed by Marc Ruhe into a challenging one. During the night 20cm of new snow covered the tracks. The machines finished the work early in the morning, but the storm didn’t stop.
Under these conditions the athletes (among them the ITU World Cup leaders Jutta Schubert from Germany and Daniel Antonioli from Italy) started the race with the 7,5km running segment. The high level of the athletes and the soft snow didn’t permit big differences during the running. Pavel Brydl (CZE) took the lead in the second lap, and increased the difference to the first transition. Only Heinz Planitzer Austria followed him during one more lap, while the group of favourites run together, watching each other. The Austrian, Carina Wasle broke-up from the beginning, in order to add second by second to built enough difference before the ski – her worse segment. The two Germans, Sigrid Lang and Jutta Schubert did their best working together.
The bike segment gave advantage for the more technical athletes, but as well to the lightest ones, who could flew over the tracks. The strongest males catch the faster runners after 3km biking and escaped ahead clearly only looking for the final battle for the victory. Carina Wasle took advantage of her lack of weight and increased on 1,5 minutes her advantage over Sigrid Lang. Jutta Schubert suffered on the bike, but she maintained the 3rd place.
The final segment had two battles. The duo Antonioli - Schrenk skied together till the end of the second lap, when Daniel changed dramatically the speed ahead of a surprised Thomas, who could not understand this acceleration. Daniel was wrong, and he thought this is the final lap and entered the finish chute. After this spent of energy, Thomas took the lead, but one kilometre later Daniele took the lead again to demonstrate who is the strongest winter-triathlete of these days. Carina Wasle, had 3 laps in front of her to administrate the 2 minutes of difference over Sigrid Lang. Both of them knew that Sigrid is the better skier. Carina did it perfect, controlling the difference in the zones they saw each other and winning by more than one minute.
H.H. The Heir Prince Alois of Liechtenstein honoured with his presence the race and the athletes, and gave the medals to the winners.
ITU Winter Triathlon World Cup moves now to Schilpari, Italy for the European Championships next Saturday March 4th.
Women results:
1. Wasle Carina (AUT) 01:55:01
2. Lang Sigrid (GER) 01:56:05
3. Schubert Jutta (GER) 02:02:25
4. Pauli Gabi (GER) 02:05:05
5. Vlasveld Marianne (NED) 02:06:43
World Cup Standings:
1. Schubert, Jutta (GER) 1445
2. Grabmullerova, Sarka (CZE) 1194
3. Lang, Sigrid (GER) 1100
3. Wasle, Carina (AUT) 1100
5. Pauli, Gabi (GER) 781
Men results:
1. Antonioli Daniel (ITA) 01:37:11
2. Schrenk Thomas (GER) 01:37:37
3. Brydl Pavel (CZE) 01:39:58
4. Bauer Sigi (AUT) 01:39:59
5. Planitzer Heinz (AUT) 01:40:58
World Cup Standings:
1. Antonioli, Daniel (ITA) 1600
2. Frank, Stefan (GER) 984
3. Lobo, Victor (ESP) 965
4. Bauer, Sigi (AUT) 730
5. Frommelt, Christian (LIE) 671
Complete results, rankings and pictures on www.triathlon.org