TransAlp will visit two new host towns in 2012

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The 15th edition of the Craft Bike TransAlp mountain bike stage race will begin on July 14, 2012 and will wrap up eight stages later on July 21.

The organizers, Delius Klasing publishing house, have come up with a completely new start to the race, which will begin in Oberammergau, Germany. The municipality, which belongs to the Upper Bavarian county of Garmisch-Partenkirchen has previously served as a stage start host town and thus has experience staging an event of the TransAlp's magnitude.

"We are really happy to have brought one of the world's most popular mountain bike stage races to Oberammergau and to co-organize it. We would like to show all of the participants and guests how varied biking can be in the Ammergauer Alps," said Thorsten Unseld, who handles Culture and Event Marketing at the Ammergauer Alpen GmbH.

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"The region is unbelievably diverse. Due to our exceptional sub-alpine setting within Bavaria's biggest conservation area, the cyclists will find the terrain exceptionally challenging at every level."

From Oberammergau, the 2012 TransAlp route will head as usual via Imst to Ischgl before the participants arrive at the next new stage town. It is the municipality of Nauders in Tyrol which lies above the Inntal, between Finstermünzpass in the north and Reschenpass in the south, and geographically belongs to the Vinschgau region.

Next, the TransAlp racers will leave Austria and continue to Scuol, in the Engadin in Switzerland before they reach Italian ground. There the route will lead them via Livigno and Ponte die Legno to Madonna di Campiglio.

As it has every year, the race will finish in Riva del Garda, Italy.

Urs Huber and Konny Looser (Team Stöckli) and Martina Miessgang and Katrin Neumann (Mountain Heros 2) won the 2011 TransAlp.