Kulhavy wins opening time trial

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At the Cyprus Sunshine Cup Afxentia stage race opener in Macheras Forest, Czech Jaroslav Kulhavy and German Elisabeth Brandau won the 7.4km time trial. Kulhavy finished the men's race ahead of Swede Emil Lindgren and Czech Jan Skarnitzl while Brandau beat Russian Ekaterina Anoshina and Slovakian Janka Stevkova in the women's contest.

Despite the race being called the Sunshine Cup, racers battled cold and rainy conditions in the Macheras Mountains. Eight degree (Celsius) temperatures and muddy conditions slowed racers.

"I felt very good today, and I'm really happy to start like this," said Kulhavy. "The course was difficult with the mud."  Kulhavy added that he feels like he still has to correct his position on my new bike.  "It's not perfect yet," he said.

Runner-up Lindgren said, "I felt much better than last week. I had good legs and a good feeling, but not good enough for the win. I made a couple mistakes, but I think everyone did so."

Skarnitzl was undeterred by the weather and the mud. "I always do some cyclo-cross races, so I'm used to such conditions. I think it was good. I had good legs and also good tires."

Favorites such as Roel Paulissen (Cannondale), Thomas Litscher (MiG) and Fabian Giger (Rabobank-Giant) did not race as well as expected. Litscher broke his derailleur, and Paulissen didn't have the winning form.

"I was without power. I couldn't perform. I couldn't feel anything in the legs," said Paulissen. 

The winner Kulhavy, on the other hand, had no problems. The Czech was in his first race of the season and time trialed to his win with a 21.4-second margin ahead of Lindgren. Sunshine Cup leader Jan Skarnitzl (Dimp-Giant) was third at 32.4 seconds.

Russian Maxim Gogolev finished fourth ahead of Czech Jiri Friedl (Merida).

Brandau has fun on way to a win

Before the start, nobody would have bet on Elisabeth Brandau (Haibike) as the winner. The German had competed in the the cyclo-cross World Championships, then had a break of two weeks before resuming her training just one week ago.

However, having previously finished fifth at the marathon worlds, Brandau is no stranger to racing her mountain bike well. She won by 21.4 seconds over the Russian Anoshina (Primorsky District) and by 58.59 seconds over Janka Stevkova (CKEpic-Dohnany).

"Technically, it was no problem, except for a crash," said Brandau. "The legs were hurting but the lungs hurt more. I had a lot of fun being on a mountain bike again."

Title defender Alexandra Engen (Rothaus-Cube) was five seconds further back in fourth place, and Voroklini winner Annika Langvad (HMTBK) was fifth.

"At the beginning, I just wanted to go home, enjoy a cup of hot chocolate and watch a movie. But after the first downhill I started to have fun," said Engen. "Then I gave full gas."

On Saturday, racers will compete in a point to point event through the Macheras Mountains.

Full Results