Vogel and Spitz win in Albstadt

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Sabine Spitz and Florian Vogel won the fourth round of the German Bundesliga series, a category HC race in Albstadt, this weekend. Germany's Spitz, the Olympic champion, celebrated her first win of the season ahead of her Central Ghost teammate Elisabeth Osl of Austria and Petra Henzi (Fischer-BMC) of Switzerland. In the men's race Florian Vogel (Scott Swisspower) defeated his Swiss compatriot Fabian Giger (SKS-MiG) and Belgian Roel Paulissen (Cannondale) in front of large crowds.

The results make the women's race look closer than it really was. Spitz started to celebrate her win in front of cheering fans with 100m to go while Osl came sprinting along from behind, nearly catching Spitz.

Osl had the lead initially, but then Spitz bridged up to her and left her behind. With one lap to go, Spitz had a 30-second gap and could relax as she approached the finish.

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"It was a hard race, and it was the first time this year that I felt like I could put my foot on the gas pedal," said Spitz.

Osl, who won the opening round of the World Cup in South African this spring, was satisfied with her performance, too. "After a period of hard training, my result was okay. At the moment I'm not used to high-end efforts."

Third placed Henzi lost the lead duo on the third of six laps. "I'm still not at my top level but I'm getting better," said Henzi. "I enjoyed riding the downhills and the crowd was really great."

In the men's race, favorite Wolfram Kurschat (Topeak-Ergon) was suffering a sore throat and did not show the strength he'd displayed at the earlier spring races.

"Today, he was not as strong as he was at the World Cup races," said winner Vogel after the race. The current European Champion called himself one of the strongest on the climbing portions of the course. That's where he got away from a four-man lead group, going into the final lap of eight with 15 seconds.

The 21-year-old Giger used the long climb to attack. Paulissen and Kurschat were unable to follow. At the top, Giger caught Vogel, but was dropped by the leader on the following downhill.

"I felt really good today. I knew I would be faster than Fabian on the downhill. So I was calm," said Vogel.

Giger was happy with his second place. "I'm still young, and it was great to compete with these top riders. I'm really, really satisfied and I had a lot of fun," he said.

Paulissen described the climb as "extremely hard" and said his strategy was to take it at his own pace. "The crowd is so crazy here, and I knew that from 2007. It's a little bit like Tour de France - you have to take care not to go over the limit when they are cheering you so loud."

Albstadt was Vogel's first Bundesliga race. He fondly recalled something Spitz had told him jokingly two years ago. "I would like to take this crowd with me on a bus to every race," she had said. Vogel said that now he knows what she meant, and he'd like to do exactly the same thing.

In the Under 23 men's race, Switzerland also excelled with Martin Fanger (Giant Swiss) winning ahead of Lukas Kaufmann (Rothaus-Cube) and Sepp Freiburghaus (Thömus). Fanger won the race after a long solo while Kaufmann and Freiburghaus battled it out for second until the final lap.