Vogel and Schurter dominate elite men's race

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Florian Vogel of Switzerland and Irina Kalentieva of Russia were crowned victors of the XX Maremma Cup Powered by SRAM. Today’s race was the first leg of the Internazionali d’Italia series and both the Swiss and the Russian got off on the right feet, showing their skills and talent.

The men's race kicked off with Marco Aurelio Fontana pushing the pace in the lead group, including Florian Vogel, his Swiss teammate Nino Schurter, Manuel Fumic of Germany and Sergio Mantecon Gutierrez of Spain.

After the first lap, Vogel’s solo effort lasted until the very end, thanks to a team play with his countryman Schurter, who overtook the Italian Fontana during the penultimate lap and eventually got the silver. Fontana earned third place.

Moritz Milatz of Germany closed fourth, followed by Mantecon Gutierrez and by the cross country World Champion Jose Hermida, who suffered a puncture during the race.

Kalentieva's win in the women's race was anything but easy today, since she had to deal with cross country World Champion Maja Wloszczowska of Poland, Cécile Ravanel of France, Marielle Saner Guinchard of Switzerland and legendary Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway.

For the first two laps, Ravanel kept the lead, while the other three fought hard one with the others right behind. Half way through the race, the Russian started to push harder and quite easily got rid of the others, flying to a much-deserved gold medal. Kalentieva came in with a 25-second advantage on Ravanel. Wloszczowska earned third while while Dahle-Flesjaa was fourth.

In the junior races, Andri Frischknecht (son of Thomas Frischknecht), and Jolanda Neff, both of Switzerland, took top honours.

Full Results