FICC riders in good form

Over the past two weekends riders of the Frankfurt International Cycling Club have shown good form in events in and out of Germany. A brief overview:

Gideon Fourie continued his UCI Golden Bike Tour with the Gruyere Cycling Tour - previously known as la Pascal Richard - last weekend and was impressed by the scenery on the tour. The 120km ride contained some very steep climbs, as can also be see on this webpage. Fabian Cancellara gave acte de presence as well!

The Gruyere Cycling Tour.

Morten Hansen did it again: in shape at the right time for his main objective, the Vatenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg. Albeit ten minutes slower than last year, Morten completed the 155km race in less than 4 hours: 3h56'50" or an average speed of 38.98 km/h. That was good enough for rank 564 out of 2768 finishers. Morten was sitting in the first group for a long time until two spokes suddenly loosened and he had to get off the bike to tighten them again. The race was won by Berliner Michael Zippan in 3h43'50".

Two years after finishing third, Elin Amundsen returned to La Vosgienne in Thann, Eastern France, last Sunday to grab a solid victory. Amazingly, she needed almost exactly the same time for the 100km route across le Markstein and Vieil-Armand  as in 2006: 3h20'31", merely four seconds faster. It was enough for her second win in 15 days, though. The second woman was seven minutes behind her. 

After her victory on the 7okm at Rad am Ring, Elin travelled to Austria for the Deutschland Tour Mountain Challenge in the Zillertal. That race didn't work out at all for Elin, as she cracked totally on the final climb to finish 8th after missing out on food and water, and being overtaken by competitors she normally beats easily. Elin described the event as ' her worst race ever' . Good she bounced back at la Vosgienne, though!

Guus Van Domburg also returned to that French race, and he did manage a 36-minute improvement over the 100km distance. Guus crossed the finish line in 4:10:33. A worthy season's closer for him!

La Vosgienne

No longer second: Michel Snel wins La Vosgienne

THANN - Vosges-based Dutchman Michel Snel at last managed to score a big cyclo victory this season after second places in Les 3 Ballons and La Velomediane. Snel outsprinted Thomas Dietsch in the 160km (3200Hm) race La Vosgienne, held in sunny conditions around the village of Thann. The winning time: 4:54:14. Snel is a cyclo rider pur sang and runs a B&B in the Vosges region. As such, la Vosgienne was a bit of a home race for him as well. More info on this great end-of-season, held every 2 years in alternation with Les Ballons Vosgiens in Gerardmer, can be found on the orga's website and Snel's blog:

La Vosgienne
Michel Snel

Oetztaler - Corradini and Dekker re-do la Marmotte as Negrini allegedly retired!

SOELDEN - The Oetztaler Radmarathon produced exactly the same result as its French counterpart la Marmotte in July: Antonio Corradini wins ahead of Bert Dekker. The Italian of the Salieri Team only didn't wait till the sprint to defeat the Dutchman and finished with a leading margin of 1'42" . Corradini succeeds Emanuele Negrini, winner of the past two Oetztalers, who has reportedly ended his competitive cycling career following his fifth victory in the Maratona Dles Dolomites two months ago.

Negrini is a former professional rider (a.o. Cantina Tollo alongside Danilo Di Luca) who dominated the international mountain cyclosportives for several years. He also won la Marmotte and the GF Marco Pantani twice, as well as many other granfondos on the Italian circuit. Although still only 34, Negrini allegedly finds it harder and harder to combine his job with cycling at this level.

If there is a ranking order within Team Salieri, Corradini has nicely taken over from Negrini in the course of the summer. At 37, he has become the benchmark for the big mountain events. His Oetztaler win came in a fantastic time of 7:00:49, the second fastest ever, helped of course by the brilliant atmospheric conditions on the day. 

Andreas Laner completed the podium in third place. The women's event turned into a major dual between MG K. Vis teammates Monica Bandini and Monia Gallucci, decided in favour of the former in a time of 8:18:40.

Other well-known names of the German cyclo circuit are Nino Ackermann (Team Lexxi), who finished 22nd in 7:28:26, proving that his 4th place in Zernez in July was no coincidence and that he just had a bad day at Rad am Ring last week. His teammate at Lexxi, Alex Bauer - winner of last year's T-Mobile Cycling Tour - arrived 120th in 8:08:11. Last week's winner on the Nurburgring, Jan Wallauer, came in 48th (7:50:33).