Pia Sundstedt was the top women's rider. (Image credit: Peter Musch / Trans Germany)
Organizers revealed the 2012 host towns for the Trans Germany mountain bike stage race starting on June 6 in Sonthofen and finishing on June 9 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The four-day race will also pass through Pfronten, Lermoos and Seefeld, with the later two of those towns being in Austria.
With the inclusion of Seefeld as a host town, the route is changing significantly for stages 3 and 4.
"Right now we are working on refining the route. But just to let you know, I was in Leutasch, in Seefeld and in Garmisch-Partenkirchen with my bike for three days, and I experienced wonderful landscapes and amazing views," said race director Marc Schneider.
"I had a look at courses, which are very promising. Compared to 2011, the new route will be upgraded to a great extent."
The head of Sonthofen's department of culture and sports, Helmut Maier, came along to check out stage 1 from Sonthofen to Pfronten. The first stage will get an extra 160m of climbing relative to last year's edition.
No changes are planned for stage 2 from Pfronten to Lermoos.
Details on the new routes for stages 3 and 4 are still under development. The Trans Germany will no longer visit Achensee, last year's final host town.
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"We were planning to include Achensee. We always had a fantastic collaboration," said Schneider. "Unfortunately the route from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Achensee turned out to be difficult, even more difficult than last year. We had to consider issues of natural conservation as well as issues regarding the police. A construction site at Sylvenstein, which has a great influence on the traffic, also made things very complicated. To neutralize the race because of traffic safety is not something we wanted to consider again."
Pia Sundstedt and Christoph Sauser won the 2011 edition of the Trans Germany, which was held about one week earlier on the calendar.
