Hynek and Bigham double up on AlpenTour Trophy stage wins

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The Czech festival continues at the 14th Alpentour Trophy in Schladming. Yesterday's stage winner Kristian Hynek (Specialized) also claimed the second stage, a 16-kilometre time trial with 1,000 meters of elevation up to the Schafalm.

It seems this year that no rider is able to compete with Hynek, who finished as fourth in his first Alpentour Trophy last year. After 30-second intervals, the top five riders in each elite category were sent out on track with one-minute gaps. In today's time trial Hynek, who lives near Prague, not only caught up to Urs Huber (Stöckli Pro Team), who had started ahead of him, but also to the Austrian World Champion Alban Lakata (Topeak Ergon), who finished in seventh place today.

The Swiss rider Lukas Buchli (BiXS-iXS Pro Team) finished in second place with a gap of about a minute to the winner Hynek.

"Just like yesterday, I had a really good second stage. I mainly focused on Huber and Lakata and managed to expand my lead on them," said Hynek in drizzling rain and cool temperatures on top of the Planai. "I'm familiar with tomorrow's stage from last year and feel very confident. I will concentrate on the general classification from now on rather than stage wins. I want to defend my leader's jersey until Sunday."

Lakata said, "That was a tough ride."

The rider from Lienz came across the finish line of today's second stage shaking his head. "I was quite happy with my performance. However, I am a bit upset about my gap of two minutes to Kristian," said Lakata. "The time trial was extremely difficult. The track was soaked from all the rain and really tough to ride."

With his seventh place from today Lakata was still able to keep his third place in the general classification behind Hynek and Huber.

In the elite women's field, the British rider Sally Bigham (Topeak Ergon) rode in a class on her own once again today with a time of 1:04:30. She dominated the category and was able to extend her lead in the general classification.

In the masters' category the Dutch Olympic Champion and silver medal winner from Athens Bart Brentjens (Milka-Superior) lost his leader's jersey to the German rider Max Friedrich (Ergon 24h), who claimed the top podium spot with a finishing time of 58:47, ahead of the Czech racer Robert Novotny. Brentjens came in third in 59:46. The Austrian Max Koch slipped down one spot in the general classification to third place.

Tomorrow the third Dachstein-stage will have racers cover 73 kilometres and 2800 metres of elevation via the Türlwand Hut and the Brandalm back to the WM-Stadium Planai.

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