July 8/07 1:33 am - Marathon World Cup #2

Posted by Editoress on 07/8/07
 

Marathon World Cup #2 - Südtirol Dolomiti Superbike Villabassa/Niederdorf (Italy)

Men

With a wonderful weather, Massimo Debertolis from Italy won the marathon World Cup Südtirol Dolomiti Superbike preceding Julio Caro from Colombia and Thomas Dietsch from France and achieving the leadership of the Nissan UCI World Cup ranking after two races. Among the women the winner was Esther Süss from Switzerland before the World Cup leader Pia Sundstedt from Finland and Dolores Rupp from Switzerland. The course led over 120 km and almost 4000 m of difference in height.

The running time of the winner was of four hours 49 minutes and 18 seconds. Julio Caro Silva finished the race second with a delay of two minutes and 50 seconds, while Thomas Dietsch was behind by three minutes and 41 seconds. Marzio Deho from Italy finished fourth, Lukas Büchli from Switzerland fifth, and the local Hannes Pallhuber sixth.

“I dedicate this victory to my mother and my father who no longer are among us“, Debertolis said in the finish. “At the moment I am in a top shape, and I prepared the Südtirol Dolomiti Superbike very conscientiously. This is a very important victory for me.”

One kilometre before the ascent to Prato Piazza/Plätzwiese (about km 96) Debertolis broke away from a group of five consisting of Thomas Dietsch, Marzio Deho, Julio Caro,and Hannes Pallhuber and started the climb alone. “I had a precise strategy in mind, and it worked out“, states the winner. “I and Hannes Pallhuber attacked already on the climb to the Croda Rossa/Rotwand at km 53. However the group caught up in the flat parts. The average speed of the winner was of 24.8 km/h.

“The winner of last year, Leonardo Paez, who is injured, sent me an sms this morning, telling me it would be my day“, says Julio Caro. “During the race I had a problem with the gear of the back wheel and lost one and a half minutes. The effort was really big”, Caro Silva states.

And Thomas Dietsch tells: “Today it was a really really tough fight. I am really happy with my third place at the Südtirol Dolomiti Superbike. If I consider I was completely out of shape only one month ago, this really is an excellent result. I challenged with Julio for the second place on the climb to Prato Piazza, but I could not keep up with him”.

Women

The winning time of the women was of five hours 43 minutes and one second. The 33 year old Esther Süss from Switzerland repeated her success of last year with an advantage of one minute and 34 seconds over the 32 year old Pia Sundstedt from Finland. Dolores Rupp from Switzerland finished third with a delay of five minutes and 15 seconds. The fourth place went to Annabella Stropparo from Italy, the fifth to Blaza Klemncic from Slovenia.

“During the first two hours it was Annabella Stropparo to make the rhythm“, the winner states. “On the last climb Pia and I were still together. Then I tried to increase my speed, and it worked out”.

“Indeed: I could no longer keep up”, states Pia Sundstedt. “Congratulations to Esther for her great victory“.

Both ladies knew the race would be decided on the last climb. „Who has more power at that point wins“, the first and second ranking athletes say unisono.

Dolores Rupp, the 34 year old mother from Valens in the canton St.Gallen, who has even been in the lead at times, explains: „The result is more than I expected. I am not that strong technically, so I was surprised to be in the lead in some downhills and on some single trails”.