Milatz wins Bike the Rock

Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa (Multivan Merida) and German national champion Moritz Milatz (BMC) won the second round of the German MTB-Bundesliga, the Bike the Rock Festival in Heubach on Sunday.

For Dahle-Flesjaa, it was her fourth victory at this event. This year, she defeated runner-up Sabine Spitz (Sabine Spitz Haibike) and third placed Katrin Leumann (Ghost). It was Milatz's first win here, and he crossed the line ahead of Fabian Giger (Rabobank Giant) and Jose Hermida (Multivan Merida).

The U23 race went to former junior world champ Michiel van der Heijden (Rabobank Giant).

Men's race

Fabian Giger took the lead on the first of the seven laps. Together, with two time Heubach-winner Wolfram Kurschat (Topeak Ergon), Giger entered the downhill section after the long climb in the lead. Then Kurschat punctured and Giger rode away solo.

For five laps, Giger fought off the chasers with a maximum advantage of 30 seconds. Eventually, Moritz Milatz left his fellow chasers behind and closed the gap more and more heading into one lap to go. He caught Giger just in time for a final battle.

On the last, 2.5-kilometer climb up to the top, Milatz more power and left Giger behind alone.

"Finally I got a win in Heubach," said Milatz. "In the very beginning, I felt that I could win today and when I realized that the gap to Fabian was not growing any more, I knew I could make it."

Giger looked not very disappointed after being caught at the end of such a long solo effort. "It's another experience. At the end, I got tired but I'm okay with the second place. It was fun to ride in front of this big crowd."

Hermida missed the front group on the very first lap and had to work his way back up from eighth position to third. "When you come to Heubach you know, you have to suffer in this long climb. But the downhill is super fun, I like it very much," said Hermida.

World champion Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized) spent some time riding in seventh position before he abandoned the race. At no point could he hold the pace of the front group.

Women's race

The women's race was reminiscent of the 2002-2006 editions, when Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa dominated cross country racing. On Sunday, the Norwegian took the lead on the very first lap and extended it until the last lap. She finished with a gap of 1:47.

Just like in years past, it was Sabine Spitz who chased Dahle Flesjaa. When Lisi Osl (Ghost) flatted on the third lap, Spitz was more or less safe in second place.

"The memories are coming back. We had a lot of training this week and so it is unbelievable what happened," said Dahle-Flesjaa after crossing the finish line.

Spitz was happy with her race. "The Heubach course never will be my favourite, but you can see, if my form is good and I am mentally okay, then I can do well even so," said Spitz.

U23 men's race

In U23 men's race, Michiel van der Heijden took the win with an attack in the last lap. He dropped his companions Matthias Stirnemann (Thoemus Racing) and Olof Jonsson (Swedish National Team) to ride for the win.

Full Results