Sally Bigham (Topeak Ergon) and Mirko Celestino took victories at at Ischgl Ironbike Marathon, a race well known for being a challenging event with 79km, 3820m of climbing and a maximum altitude of 2853m.
Bigham's race went according to plan from the beginning. After just a couple of kilometres she had formed a gap over the other riders, and it was a lead that she didn't ever give up. She won in 5:14:45, 25 minutes ahead of second place Katrin Schwing and 26 minutes ahead of Birgit Söllner.
"I felt so strong. The win was great, and the course was difficult, but breath-taking," said Bigham.
In the men's race, Celestino won by over five minutes ahead of Karl Platt and by 16:44 over newly crowned World Champion Alban Lakata.
It was Lakata's first appearance in rainbow stripes. After a week of media obligations following his new title, he said, "Third position today was good. I crashed, and didn't have a great pre-race, but I am very pleased all things considered."
Results
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mirko Celestino (Ita) | 3:58:52 |
| 2 | Karl Platt (Ger) | 0:05:16 |
| 3 | Alban Lakata (Aut) | 0:16:44 |
| 4 | Alexey Medvedev (Rus) | 0:20:27 |
| 5 | David George (RSA) | 0:21:47 |
| 6 | Tim Bohme (Ger) | 0:23:19 |
| 7 | Mannie Heymans (Nam) | 0:24:11 |
| 8 | Jakob Nimpf (Aut) | 0:26:30 |
| 9 | Mauro Bettin (Ita) | 0:30:06 |
| 10 | Daniel Gathof (Ger) | 0:32:01 |
| 11 | Stefan Schaufuss (Ger) | 0:32:23 |
| 12 | Niels Boon (Ned) | 0:33:37 |
| 13 | Georg Piazza (Ita) | 0:33:38 |
| 14 | Guido Thaler (Aut) | 0:34:22 |
| 15 | Michael Schuchardt (Ger) | 0:36:01 |
| 16 | Gunter Egger (Ita) | 0:39:45 |
| 17 | Onno Reijnhout (Ned) | 0:52:29 |
| 18 | Gerhard Kaufmann (Aut) | 1:04:33 |
| 19 | Klemens Bont (Swi) | 1:05:03 |
| 20 | Wolfgang Fink (Ger) | 1:06:58 |
| 21 | Robin Weber (Ger) | 1:12:18 |
| 22 | Christoph Seeber (Ita) | 1:16:15 |
| 23 | Christian Süss (Ger) | 1:16:45 |
| 24 | Michael Bonnekessel (Ger) | 1:16:48 |
| 25 | Klaus Hannawald (Ger) | 1:18:37 |
| 26 | Hartmann Stifter (Ita) | 1:25:37 |
| 27 | Gotthard Nossig (Aut) | 1:29:42 |
| 28 | Leander Hamelink (Ned) | 1:32:21 |
| 29 | Martin Hankele (Ger) | 1:32:46 |
| 30 | Martin Jochem (Ger) | 1:32:56 |
| 31 | Thomas Berger (Aut) | 1:33:21 |
| 32 | Matthias Waldhart (Aut) | 1:36:18 |
| 33 | Erkan Sakallioglu (Ger) | 1:43:31 |
| 34 | Jörg Schrod (Ger) | 1:46:08 |
| 35 | Andrea Berlusconi (Ita) | 1:47:18 |
| 36 | Nenad Miric (Srb) | 1:49:25 |
| 37 | Marcus Werf (Ger) | 1:53:32 |
| 38 | Christian Kux (Ger) | 1:57:37 |
| 39 | Christian Eckert (Ger) | 2:00:42 |
| 40 | Clemens Sietas (Ger) | 2:05:10 |
| 41 | Fabrizio Marchi (Ita) | 2:20:12 |
| 42 | Peter Huntjens (Ned) | 2:23:24 |
| 43 | Steffen Reger (Ger) | 2:25:04 |
| 44 | Thomas Jäger (Ger) | 2:42:47 |
| 45 | Frederik Vandendriessche (Bel) | 3:06:14 |
| 46 | David Delsemme (Bel) | 3:17:00 |
| 47 | Tonny Muller (Ger) | 3:24:50 |
| 48 | Eltjo Biemold (Ned) | 3:32:19 |
| 49 | Uwe Koch (Ger) | 3:49:39 |
| DSQ | Richard Wagenaar (Ned) | Row 49 - Cell 2 |
| DNF | Armin Neurauter (Aut) | Row 50 - Cell 2 |
| DNF | Tommy Galle (Ger) | Row 51 - Cell 2 |
| DNF | Bruno Lechner (Ita) | Row 52 - Cell 2 |
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sally Bigham (GBr) | 5:14:45 |
| 2 | Katrin Schwing (Ger) | 0:25:06 |
| 3 | Birgit Söllner (Ger) | 0:26:07 |
| 4 | Verena Krenslehner (Aut) | 0:28:42 |
| 5 | Silke Keinath (Ger) | 1:11:42 |
| 6 | Daniela Bargholt (Ger) | 1:27:34 |
| 7 | Hedvig Nagy (Hun) | 1:39:27 |
| 8 | Gisela Makowski (Ger) | 1:42:49 |
