Erki Pütsep wins the Estonian marathon national championships, at the Tartu Rattamaraton (Image credit: Tarmo Haud)
Elite men's podium at the Estonian marathon championships(Image credit: Tarmo Haud)
Erki Pütsep on his way to a win(Image credit: Tarmo Haud)
First place in the biggest mountain bike marathon in the Baltic States, the Tartu Rattamaraton went to Erki Pütsep, who dictated the race from the beginning. His winning time was 2:38:54, and with that result Pütsep was also crowned as Estonian mountain bike marathon champion. Second place went to Allan Oras with 2:40:09 while Marzio Deho from Italy was third in 2:40:11.
Lelde Ardava from Latvia was the first woman to cross the finish line in 3:04:16. Second was Dana Rozlapa in 3:10:13, and third was Estonian Janelle Uibokand in 3:13:05.
"The strategy for the race was to attack right away. The first 19km are the toughest on the course, and I planned to make the race hard for myself by going straight forward from the beginning and I am really happy! Winning the race after leading the whole time feels totally different from the feeling of group finish," said race winner Pütsep.
Oras was also positive about his result. "Without a doubt, I came here to win. Coming second in the most important mountain bike contest in the Baltic states is really great."
It was Deho's first time competing in Estonia. He said, "The organisation is at really high level and I also enjoyed the course. I knew that the race will be fast and has mud and due to that the course has many places that demand technical thinking."
The third placed women's finisher Uibokand was also crowned as Estonian marathon mountain bike champion. "I wanted to be successful today, but third place and the title of the champion was a big surprise," said Uibokand.
Indrek Kelk, the race director said that the race went well. "I am really happy for Erki. He has had bad luck lately, and it is great that he was so successful today. I am happy for the second and third place also - they all did great! It was not a surprise that Deho was on the podium, we knew that the Italians are strong," said Kelk.
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There were in total of 5365 mountain bikers competing in the SEB 15th Tartu mountain bike marathon.
Results for the Estonian Marathon National Championships
