Seven Gold Medals and several other medals were won by STEVENS equipped teams –STEVENS Racing Team, BKCP-Powerplus and Corendon-Kwadro – at the National ‘Cross Championships, which took place on the weekend from January 10th to 11th.

STEVENS Racing Team made a major contribution to the great overall result with two Gold and three Silver Medals. 19-year old Lisa Hambracht won her first Women’s Elite race in front of her team mate Lisa Heckmann, 26. The two riders kept Olympic Gold medalist Sabine Spitz and four-time ‘Cross World Champion Hanka Kupfernagel at a distance, while the latter had a lack in training due to injuries suffered from a recent crash.

In the Juniors’ race Ludwig Cords repeated his last year’s title in a superior manner, while Raphael Schröder and Yannick Gruner rode to Silver in the Juniors’ and U-23 competition, respectively. The Elite race was won by Marcel Meisen of Team Corendon-Kwadro, which STEVENS supplies with Super Prestige bikes. Runner-up Sascha Weber also rides a STEVENS Super Prestige. Philipp Walsleben of BKCP-Powerplus came in third; Ole Quast of STEVENS Racing Team rode to fourth place.

Champions in Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland and Czech Republic all ride STEVENS bikes
Meisen’s Corendon-Kwadro team mate, Julien Taramarcaz, reconquered his Swiss title after having been defeated last year.

Laurens Sweeck, Taramarcaz’s Corendon-Kwadro team mate, will also be wearing a championship jersey. This season’s up and coming talent, who competes his first year in the Elite category, rode to triumph for the seventh time this season, winning the U-23 race in Erpre-Mere.

In the Netherlands, another shooting star made an impression in the men’s Elite Race. Mathieu van der Poel, 19, of team BKCP-Powerplus won the Champion’s title aboard his camouflage painted STEVENS Super Prestige in front of last year’s winner Lars van der Haar, who eventually finished third. Mathieu’s brother David made a perfect day for the van der Poel family by winning second place.

Yet, Mathieu van der Poel is not the youngest 2015 National Champion in the Elite class. Adam Toupalik, only 18 years of age - also riding for BKCP-Powerplus – won the Czech elite race replacing Martin Bina of Corendon-Kwadro, who had won last year. About these results in Europe, STEVENS brand and marketing manager Volker Dohrmann said: ”To win five Gold Medals in Europe with the teams BKCP-Powerplus und Corendon-Kwadro is a certain proof of the riders’ high level of performance. I was especially happy about Adam Toupalik’s win in Czech Republic – at only 18 years he is the youngest National Cyclocross Champion of all time – I was also very happy about Julien Taramarcaz’ success in Switzerland who rode against strong competitors. The van der Poel brothers’ riding abilities in the Dutch National Championships three weeks before the Worlds were spectacular. We are eagerly looking forward to the races in Tabor.”

In Denmark, MTB marathon champion Sören Nissen won the Silver Medal aboard his STEVENS Super Prestige in front of Joachim Parbo (riding a STEVENS Carbon Team). In Luxemburg Rick Theiß and Alec Lang rode to places two and three in the U-23 race. Last but not least, Karen Brems defended her Master’s category title.