Pivk-Holzknecht triumph at the Sellaronda Ski Marathon

At the start of the 21st edition of the Sellaronda Ski Marathon, the conditions couldn't have been better: -3 degrees, bright blue skies and the sun, which had disappeared behind the Sella Group minutes before the start. Under these circumstances, the 1.200 participants ran in 600 teams of two towards the Campolongo Pass. For the men, Lorenzo Holzknecht led the group, which covered the first climb from Corvara to the Campolongo Pass quite compactly. The favorites, the Friulian Tadei Pivk, winner of the 19th edition, and his teammate Lorenzo Holzknecht from Valtellina, winner of last year's edition with Michele Boscacci, ex aequo with the team Anton Palzer (GER)-Damiano Lenzi, are the first to reach the first highest Reached the point at Bec de Roces above the Campolongo Pass. The main goal of the two, in addition to the day's victory, was to try to reduce the record time to under three hours. The tourism association of Corvara in Alta Badia had offered an extra prize of 1.000 euros for this. From Arabba we head towards Pordoijoch and here Pivk-Holzknecht lead with about 1'10'' ahead of Philip Götsch from Dorf Tirol and Christian Hoffmann from Austria. In third and fourth place were the teams of Cappelletti-Bazzana and Filippo Beccari in the team with Sarner Martin Stofner. The teams also cross the second pass of the evening in this order and in Canazei the athletes are welcomed by the enthusiastic audience in the same order. Pivk-Holzknecht pass Canazei first, followed by Philip Götsch-Christian Hofmann, third Martin Stofner-Filippo Beccari and Bazzana-Cappelletti. On the climb towards Sellajoch, Götsch-Hoffmann really turned up the heat and took around 50 seconds off the leading Pivk-Holzknecht. They can then catch themselves again from the “Lupo Bianco” mountain inn and go “on a leash”. Tadei Pivk is in top form and is literally pulling his comrade up. Just below the Sellajoch, Pivk-Holzknecht are again 1'30'' ahead and when they fall off the skin at the highest point they are again more than two minutes ahead of Philip Götsch and Christian Hoffmann. The latter shows some weakness shortly before the top of the pass and the competitors sense their chance. On the descent to Selva di Val Gardena, the order at the top remains unchanged, while Beccari-Stofner catches up with and overtakes Bazzana-Cappelletti, who had previously been in third place, with a breakneck ride shortly before the town center. On the way to the last crossing at Grödnerjoch, Götsch-Hoffmann are losing more and more ground to the leading duo Pivk-Holzknecht and their pursuers are also getting closer and closer. “We’ll get them,” says pursuer Bazzana into the microphone of live streaming commentator Carlo Ceola and moves away. Shortly before the highest point on Dantercepies, Philipp Götsch bites and pulls Hoffmann on the leash, behind him are the headlamps of Bazzana-Cappelletti, who are about 50 m away from Beccari-Stofner and are hunting Götsch-Hoffmann. Pivk-Holzknecht is now uncatchable. After 3h14'36, Tadei Pivk and Lorenzo Holzknecht reach the finish in Corvara unchallenged. They are welcomed into the ice rink by the cheering crowd and visibly enjoy this start-to-finish victory. The 2014 winner and the 2015 winner will win the Sellaronda Ski Marathon 2016 together - last year's record time and the 3-hour sound barrier remain untouched this time. The 4.000 euros in prize money may have been a pleasant consolation for this. Pure excitement, however, in the fight for second place. Götsch-Hoffmann are the second to reach the Grödnerjoch and when they start the descent, Bazzana-Cappelletti also reach the highest point. The duel on the descent is therefore inevitable. The laughing third, however, are Filippo Beccari-Martin Stofner, who risk everything on the last descent and catch and overtake the Bazzana-Cappelletti team. At the finish line they also catch up with Götsch-Hoffmann and the fight for the place of honor is decided in the last centimeter. The judges analyze the situation and their verdict is: second place for the village Tyrolean Philip Götsch-Christian Hoffmann, third place for Martin Stofner and Filippo Beccari from Sarnen.

Announced victory by Raffaella Rossi-Bianca Balzarini In the women's category, half a dozen teams with podium ambitions had registered, including the teams Raffaella Rossi-Bianca Balzarini, Dimitra Teocharis-Cecilia De Filippo, the eternal Monica Sartogo con Chiara Giovando, as well as local couples such as Beatrice Deflorian-Carla Iellici (Fleimsta-Fassatal ), Anna Pedevilla (Enneberg)-Nada De Francesch, Linda Menardi-Anne Moretti (Cortina d'Ampezzo). For them, the record time of 3h52:05'' was set last year by the athletes from Valtellina Francesca Martinelli/Corinna Ghirardi. The Rossi-Balzarini duo soon lived up to their role as favorites and took the lead. The two Italian athletes put their stamp on the race and completed the 42 km distance single-handedly and finished the race in Corvara with a time of 4h08'56''. They collect the prize money of 2.000 euros. In second place were the Tyroleans Katharina Zipser and Verena Krenslehner-Schmid, a good 3 minutes behind. Third place for the Italians Dimitra Theocharis and Cecilia De Filippo, almost 8 minutes behind. In the mixed category, the Austrians René Fischer-Johanna Erhart won ahead of the South Tyroleans Gerhard Unterhuber (Skialprace Ahrntal)-Birgit Stuffer (ASV Gossensass), third place for the Austrians Niklas and Marita Kröhn.

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Pivk-Holzknecht triumph at the Sellaronda Ski Marathon

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