Irina Kalentieva and Lukas Flückiger celebrate their victory in Pietermaritzburg
Under apocalyptic weather conditions, Lukas Flückiger and Irina Kalentieva won the national competition in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Andy Eyring won in the U23 category ahead of Stiebjahn Simon.
Riders expected to compete the World Cup round next week in Pietermaritsburg came to ride the national contest. Due to the heavy rain falling the previous day, the track was in terrible condition and the riders had to walk some parts of the race.
Mountain bike stars Christoph Sauser, Burry Stander, Wolfram Kurschat and Mortiz Milatz weren’t at the start. Kurschat explained that he was saving himself and his bike for the more important upcoming World Cup race, while Milatz had some health problems.
The victory went to Lukas Flückiger, the oldest of the two brothers, he is known for his good performance and tactics in bad weather conditions. He won ahead of Jaroslav Kulhavy and Mathias Flückiger. Lukas said: "Good race for me today, and I enjoyed the conditions. I learned a lot and I'm happy to be on the top step. Bike worked great, shoes were perfect for the conditions, overall I am really happy."
Under the pouring rain, Irina Kalentieva won the elite women’s race ahead of Willow Koerber and Esther Süss. "That was probably the muddiest race I have ever done! It was 98% ride-able but towards the end it was really hard to see. Eyewear was fogging up and it was almost a guessing game choosing lines. But I'm so happy to have done that. I learned so much riding my Top Fuel, and I can go into next week with an important box checked," said Kalentieva.
The U23 Andy Eyring was the best rider in his category, finishing ahead of Simon Stiebjahn.
Video
Please enable Java Script in your browser or use a different browser to view this video. You might also need to update your flash player.
Photo Gallery
Socialize
About us (2)
RockyRoads.net is official title sponsor of the UCI World Cups Mountain Bike 2012-2014. If you wish to learn more about the RockyRoads Network, please click here.
Partners
© RockyRoads Network 2012 | All rights reserved.
cim
10.6 "Waarschuwing : Telkens U een site bezoekt met dit logo
verzamelt het CIM, het Centrum voor Informatie over de Media, met behulp van een cookie, informatie via de pagina's die U raadpleegt (aantal page requests, visits, ...). Deze informatie wordt verzameld voor puur statistische doelstellingen en laat in geen geval toe U te identificeren. Voor meer informatie en om up-to-date resultaten van deze studie te consulteren, klik op het CIM-logo of ga naar http://www.cim.be/".