Tour Transalp: Glorieux and Michels defend the title

Michael Spögler (ITA) and Michael Markolf from the corratec 2.10 team (1:2) as well as Frederic Glorieux (BEL) and Bob Michels (BEL) from Tauris followed at the same time, 46.07,4 minutes behind in the early timing outside the city gates of Riva del Garda - Grinta!, who did not have their own stage success this year, but were able to successfully defend their title.

Only once in the 16-year history of the traditional Alpine classic had a pairing succeeded. In 2009, the two South Tyroleans Werner Weiss and Andreas Laner crossed the finish line as winners for the second time in a row after seven difficult stages.

Nine years later, Glorieux and Michels were also able to celebrate a similarly strong performance. The most consistent team in 2018 covered the total distance of this year's tour of 827,70 km and 17.797 meters in altitude, during which 18 passes were crossed, in 25:03.42,1 hours. This meant that the winning pairing was 8.17 minutes faster than the corratec 1 team, which, thanks to its once again impressive performance, was able to push Florian Vrecko (GER) and Nils Kessler (GER) from Team Strassacker / Garmin, who were in fifth place today, into third place in the overall ranking.

Overall winner Glorieux: “Insanity” “This is just crazy. At the beginning of the week we never thought we could do it again. Bob had health problems on the first few days, so we tried to somehow get through the first three stages. Then things went better and better until I fell yesterday. “To be the overall winner in the end is just crazy,” said Glorieux, happy about his second title in a row.

A victory, with a view to 2015, when the duo narrowly missed out on winning the title with a gap of 7,1 seconds, with a very special note: “We have been asked again and again how you can lose by just seven seconds behind. And that it was our chance for the title, a chance that would never come again. But we've done it twice now. This is just wonderful,” said Michels, who also explained that the title was something special even without a stage win: “For us, they are all friends. You also take a step back when you're the overall leader." And Glorieux added: "That's not a bad thing. We came here to get yellow. We wanted to go for a win today, but Seledkov and Wielinga were too strong today. It's all ok."

After the Belgians, together with Team corratec 1 and Serpantin-Panavto, had pulled away on the climb to Fai della Paganella, the Russian-Dutch pairing bravely attacked again the last two kilometers up to the summit and opened a gap that lasted until the finish . Stuurman/Mellema undefeated for the women's title While Tauris – Grinta! Linda Stuurman and Carla Mellema from Dutch Express did much better. The two Dutch women, who had already impressively dominated the previous six stages, also dominated the action on the final stretch of Lake Garda and were once again the fastest women's team to cross the finish line (3:25.26,3). The two fastest women. © Uwe Geissler

To win the title in their first Tour Transalp, the athletes, who otherwise work in different cycling teams, needed 31:39.28,4 hours. “It's awesome. “We were on our way to victory,” said Mellema shortly after crossing the finish line at La Rocca, “but you never know who else is out there.” Especially since Mellema’s teammate, 14 years his junior, wasn’t in good health on the first day was. “We were happy that we were able to win the first stage. And once you get a taste for it, you always want more,” says the 49-year-old.

Just as impressive as the presentation of the women's title holders was that of the two Austrians Günter Baringer and Axel Strauss from Roadbiker.at & Bike city, who also kept their clean slate, crossing the finish line in Riva del Garda as the fastest Masters team (2:57.02,4 ,27) and were able to win a spectacular title (17.58,8:XNUMX).

Their compatriots Anna Kiesenhofer and Günther Flatscher from Bikeexpress secured their title in the mixed class (2:57.03,6) with their sixth success of the day (27:32.49,9) in a similarly outstanding manner as the Canadians Jamie Armstrong and Geoff Duyker from TNA-Method (27:32.30,4), who had to admit defeat in third place for the first time to Gert Osselaer and Wouter Schouppe from the Belgian team Xtreme #grandfondoteam.be 2:57.02,1.

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Tour Transalp: Glorieux and Michels defend the title

Ivan Seledkov (RUS) and Remmert Wielinga (NED) once again caused a sensation on the final day of the Tour Transalp 2018 and won the last stage of the seven-day tour from Brixen to Lake Garda.

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