Sauser and Süss win Trans Zollernalb stage 2

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Switzerland ruled the second stage of Trans Zollernalb. Christoph Sauser took the victory in Albstadt and claimed the yellow leader's jersey. In the women's race, Esther Süss outsprinted Sabine Spitz for the stage win, but Spitz kept her overall classification lead by one second.

The weather influenced stage 2's racing in south west Germany. It was about 10 degrees Celsius and drizzling, making conditions miserable for riders.

After a first attack by Karl Platt, Matthias Leisling and Steffen Thum, a nine-man leading group was created, although it did not include that trio, which was paying for its effort.

The lead group stayed away together until the second intermediate sprint in Nusplingen.

Then, last year's race leader Robert Mennen took the initiative and accelerated to reduce the size of the lead group. The result was a five-man lead group with Mennen, Sauser and race leader Alban Lakata, stage 1 winner Moritz Milatz and German national marathon champ Markus Kaufmann.

In an uphill section, Sauser went into the front position and got a gap of several meters. He extended his lead on the next downhill.

Lakata, who was not able to follow Sauser because at this moment he was sitting on fourth position, started to chase. On the next climb, he went into full gas mode, not at least because he wanted to earn the two bonus seconds in front of Milatz.

At the top, Lakata was nine second behind Sauser and 15 seconds ahead of Milatz. One minute later, an accident happened. Lakata crashed into a person who was a bit too far onto the course. It cost him 10 seconds.

Lakata fought back and closed the gap to Sauser before entering the outskirts of Albstadt-Ebingen.

When it came to the last 500 meters, Sauser was fighting for the stage win but Lakata preferred to remain calm. "I didn't want to take any risk,s" he said. So, he crossed the finish line six seconds behind Sauser. The Swiss rider took over the yellow jersey by three seconds.

"Tomorrow, probably the intermediate sprints will be decisive, and I am not known as a good sprinter," Sauser said, looking to third and final stage on Sunday.

Milatz was able to take the third spot on the podium, but lost 1:19 to Sauser. So his chance to get the overall win now is very small.

"It was okay, but the last part of the day, I was totally empty. Probably because of the weather," said Milatz.

Tight duel between Süss and Spitz

In the women's competition, Esther Süss took revenge for being defeated in Friday's stage. Both, Sabine Spitz and Süss rode together during the entire distance of 79 kilometres. They were accompanied by Norwegian Borghild Loevset.

With 10 kilometres to go, Esther Süss accelerated, but Spitz was able to follow as well as Loevset. Three kilometres later, Loevset started to suffer. "I was totally empty because I didn't take in enough food. But I am happy to be with them for such a long time."

Süss and Spitz went into the last 500m together. Süss was in the better position when they came around the last curve.

"To have a stage win, that's not bad," said Süss

Spitz confessed having cancelled her plan of doing some intervals during the race. "It was too cold to start things like that," she said.

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