Spitz wins women's German cross country title

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Sabine Spitz won her 10th German cross country national title ahead of Central Haibike Pro teammate Elisabeth Brandau. It was proved to be a tight battle between the two riders and in the end, Spitz's superior technical riding skills paid off.

Spitz led Brandau by 10 seconds at the end of the first of five laps, but on the second lap, Spitz crashed and Brandau and Adelheid Morath passed her.

"My pulse was probably a bit too high on the downhill," said Spitz, who had damaged brake lever and a bloody nose. It cost her 50 seconds to Brandau. Spitz quickly overtook Morath, but it took her awhile to catch her teammate. Spitz made her progress on the climbs.

On the penultimate lap, it started to rain and the track got slippery. The resulting more technical course challenged Brandau to her limit, and Spitz closed the gap by the descent on the fourth lap.

"I wanted to go first in the downhill," said Spitz, who is 14 years older than Brandau. "It was hard work and the older I get, the more valuable the titles."

Spitz went on to win the race, taking her 13th German national title overall. She has won all but one of the last 11 cross country titles.

Brandau was happy with her first medal at nationals. "I lost the race on the downhills," she said. "But I'm proud of the silver medal." She finished 34 seconds after Spitz.

Morath was third at one minute.

Men

BMC's Moritz Milatz, 28, won the men's cross country title despite having a rough previous week that included taking antibiotics. Miltaz won his third national title ahead of Wolfram Kurschat (Topeak Ergon) and Robert Mennen (BMC). Jochen Kaess (Multivan Merida) landed in fourth place ahead of Manuel Fumic(Cannondale Factory Racing Team).

Moritz didn't make the decision to race until Saturday morning.

The race turned out to be battle between Milatz and Kurschat. The former was better on the descents and the latter was better on the climbs. So there was a lot of back and forth during the race.  Milatz, as defending champion, remained calm and took a calculated approach to the race.

"I wanted to control the race as long as possible and only make my attack at the end," said Milatz. He did so in the final lap and won by 11 seconds.

"It was important to be able to defend my title. In particular, I wanted to wear the white jersey heading into the Olympic season. To win this three times, it seems to be my calling indeed."

"I finished 14th three times in Offenburg and I won three Bundesliga titles. Now I'm a three-time German champion. Let's see what else I can do three times!" said Milatz.

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