Lakata and Mennen take fourth consecutive TransAlp stage win

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Facing a bluebird sky for the first time this week, Alban Lakata and Robert Mennen have built up the pressure on the overall leaders by bringing home their fourth consecutive stage win. Team Topeak Ergon Racing clinched the fifth stage of the TransAlp, which led over 70km and 2,531 meters in elevation from Scuol, Switzerland to Livigno in Italy, in 3:11:15.

With another successful day of racing, the Austrian-German pro team reduced the gap to the race leaders Markus Kaufmann and Thomas Stoll by two minutes.

However, the Centurion-Vaude/BiXS iXS Pro Team, which came in third today (3:13:14) right behind of runners-up Urs Huber and Konny Looser of Team Stöckli (3:12:42), has still some 1:16 advantage on their main pursuers.

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With the queen's stage coming up tomorrow, the two leaders are willing to defend their top position. "We have been doing well in the downhills and the technical trail sections, but we had to go to our limit in the climbs," said 2009 Transalp champion Thomas Stoll.

But it's mainly the climbs like today's Pass da Costainas (2,251m), Passo del Gallo (2,280m) and Passo Alpisella (2,270) separating the wheat from the chaff at a TransAlp stage race - and Topeak Ergon tried to push it there again.

"Right in the first ascent, we upped the tempo. We wanted to keep the pressure high on the leaders," said Mennen.

But although the tactic worked out pretty fine, Mennen is keeping it real. "It will be a hard and tight battle until the end. We will give everything every day to finally get those yellow jerseys."

Indeed, their main competitors are willing to defend their lead although Stoll knows that his rivals are currently having the momentum. "From now on, the lead doesn't count anymore. Now, it's all about racing. We just have to make sure to make it."

Landtwing and Bigham keep on dominating women's race

In the women's category, Milena Landtwing and Sally Bigham of Centurion-Vaude/Topeak Ergon still have no real competitors. The two ladies tied up stage win number 5 in the time of 3:52:15.

The second spot went to Catherine Williamson and Louise Stopforth of Bizhub-fcf (4:28:36), rank three to Andrea Kuster and Angelika Niklaus of Metz-Kraftwerk (4:32:59).

Mixed category gets re-shuffled due to crashes

"Just making it" is a maxim every team tries to meet, but not everyone achieves this goal. Today, two top mixed duos experienced it the hard way.

The first team on the ground was team Mountain Heroes with Katrin Neumann and Daniel Jung. The Bavarian racer didn't see a stone in her way and went down hard. Although the 2011 women's category TransAlp winner tried to keep going, the 30-year-old had to give up.

Former mixed team leaders Katharina Alberti and Matthias Gärtner of Black Tusk Racing by toMotion were the second mountain bikers who crashed and thus lost contact with the other teams.

In the end, both had to settle with the ninth rank (4:27:40) coming in 34 minutes later than the winning mix thus also losing the runner-up position in the ranking.

"We did quite well and had a good rhythm," said Matthias Gärtner. "But then someone pushed me to the side, and I snagged to Katharina's bike." Both crashed, got hurt and had to handle a badly bent front wheel.

However, one man's trash is another man's treasure. Riding the first time in the orange leaders' jerseys, Antonia Wipfli and Patrick Jauch of Team Gisler claimed their second consecutive stage win in 3:53:27.

Lorenza Menapace and Claudio Segata of Press Riva del Garda finished third (3:59:25) and thus took over the second position in the mixed classifier.

Team Adamelloski logs a five-peat in masters' category

Also on day five, the two master category leaders Massimo De Bertolis and Marzio Deho didn't seem to be tired at all. Like a clockwork, the two men in the blue jerseys reeled the kilometers off, thus also mixing it in the elite class. Team Adamelloski's winning time of 3:13:03 was the third fastest overall.

Asked if they think that they could be able to bring home an elite stage win, former marathon world champion De Bertolis said, "Topeak Ergon is a class of its own. But you never know. At the moment, everybody is talking about tomorrow's queen's stage but no one thinks of the stage thereafter. We might have a chance if everybody has sore legs then."

Andreas Laner and Johann Grasegger of Team Scott (3:30:22) finished in second position while Heinz Sommer and Peter Brommler of Schwarzwälder Bayerische Versuchung celebrated their first podium result as third (3:43:59).

BiXS Suisse takes second win in senior master category

Bearing the green senior masters' leaders' jerseys for the first time, Renato Burch and Bärti Bucher claimed a back-to-back win in 3:49:10.

Georg Niggl and Walter Perkmann of CRAFT & Friends 7 (4:06:39) as well as Thomas Herrmann and Hartmann Stifter of Team Sigma (4:10:40) rounded out the podium as second and third.

Tomorrow brings the sixth and thus the queen's stage, which leads over 106km and 3,451 meters in elevation from Livigno, Italy, to Ponte di Legno, Italy.

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