Mennen outsprints Huber in Trans Zollernalb stage 1

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Robert Mennen won the Trans Zollernalb opener between Bad Imnau and Balingen on Friday while Urs Huber (Team Bulls) rides in yellow as race leader after winning bonus seconds. Esther Süss, as expected, was the fastest women.

Men

A big leading group stayed together until five kilometers of 59km total to go. Two intermediate sprints at Vöhringen and Bickelsberg did not blow up the group, although Huber tried to gain an advantage of some seconds.

At the first sprint, he missed a corner, so Markus Bauer took the three seconds for the win ahead of Robert Mennen (two seconds) and Jochen Käss (one second). In the second sprint, Huber did better and won in front of Bauer and Leisling.

After an attack by Torsten Marx was neutralized by Tim Böhme, Böhme gave his teammate Huber the chance to escape with two kilometers to go. 2011 race winner Mennen bridged the gap, while Kristian Hynek could not follow and at the same time blocked Bauer.

Mennen then outsprinted Huber for the stage win, but the Swiss rider was awarded with the yellow leader's jersey due to the bonus seconds.

"I was lucky that I knew the corner to the finish straight," said Mennen. "The stage was very calm."

Huber agreed. "Everything stayed together. I took advantage of my teammates Tim and Stefan. We worked well together. There are two more stages to go, it's gonna be exciting."

Bauer finished third, three seconds down. Together with his five bonus seconds, Bauer in the overall is equal with Mennen, one second behind Huber.

Women

Esther Süss was riding in group of men at a pace which no other women could keep. "Normally I don't like fast races like this one, but today I had a lot of fun. Nothing is decided. One flat and everything is gone," said the rider who was third at cross country Worlds a few weeks ago.

She took 2:27 minutes out of Silke Schmidt and 6:52 from Elisabeth Brandau, both of whom were suffering a bit due to infections.

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