Werner Weiss cannot be stopped

“Werner is a fighting animal,” says Bernd Hornetz, the 43-year-old physicist from Karlsruhe. “Everything was 100% perfect.” The fastest of the day completed the fourth stage over 118,34 km and 3.572 meters in altitude from Naturns over the Stelvio Pass - at 2.753 meters the highest pass of the tour - to Livigno in 4:23.58 hours. This meant they were 30 seconds faster than Johannes Berndl and Willi Herbert (D), the young men's winners and wearers of the yellow leader's jersey.

“We increased the pace on the way to the Stelvio Pass. No other teams wanted to follow suit and so we arrived at the pass with a three-minute lead,” sums up Werner Weiss, who has already won the Tour-Transalp three times in various categories. Weiss and Hornetz didn't risk anything on the descent. “In the end we lost a little bit because we managed most of the route alone,” said Weiss, “but we wanted to make it difficult for ourselves because the harder the climbs, the more our chances increase.”

In second place in the master class came the Dutch-Belgian Veltec Granfondo with Oege Hiddema and Geer Plancke, who lost 5.36 minutes to the winners and are 13 minutes behind in the overall ranking before the fifth stage.

Tomorrow the fifth stage is on the program over 111,57 km and 2.748 meters in altitude from Livigno to Ponte di Legno. The Schwalbe Tour Transalp follows in the footsteps of the Giro d'Italia. First you go back over the Passo d'Eira and the Passo Foscagno towards Bormio. After Valdidentro, the participants drive on small side roads into Valtellina.

From here we continue over an infamous pass that has already caused a stir in the Giro d'Italia - the super-steep Mortirolo with gradients of up to 18 percent. The Schwalbe-TOUR-Transalp powered by Sigma leads past the Pantani monument on the original route of the Giro. With fantastic views of the Bernina and the Bergamasco Alps, we then head towards Monno in the Val Camonica. After a rushing descent on the lonely, low-traffic road to Monno, there is a flat final climb to the finish in the center of Ponte di Lengo.

The stages of the Tour Transalp: Stage 1: Sonthofen (D) - Imst (A) | 121,00 km | 2.447 meters in altitude Stage 2: Imst (A) - Ischgl (A) | 148,66km | 2.793 meters altitude Stage 3: Ischgl (A) - Naturns (BZ) | 159,54km | 2.662 meters altitude Stage 4: Naturns (BZ) - Livigno (SO) | 118,34km | 3.572 meters altitude Stage 5: Livigno (SO) - Ponte di Legno (BS) | 111,57 km | 2.748 meters altitude Stage 6: Ponte di Legno (BS) - Kaltern (BZ) | 140,77km | 3.092 meters altitude Stage 7: Kaltern (BZ) - Arco (TN) | 117,40km | 2.239 meters altitude

(Total distance: 917,32 km, total altitude: 19.553 meters)

football

Italy

International leagues

International

hockey

tennis

Winter sports

Learn More

Motorsport

Cycling

Watersports

Favorites

Werner Weiss cannot be stopped

“Today's stage was hard, but we wanted it that way,” says Werner Weiss from Eppan after he and his team partner Bernd Hornetz crossed the finish line first in Livigno and thus won the fourth stage of the Schwalbe-TOUR-Transalp.

Comments (0)