The initial situation for the athletes on STEVENS Sonora SL: The UCI World Cup in Albstadt was a premiere for Antonia Daubermann and Christian Pfäffle, who both for the first time started in a higher racing category: Antonia Daubermann (18) in the U-23-class, Christian (23) in the Elite category. Accordingly, they had to start further behind in their respective grid.

Other STEVENS Sonora SL riders also had to deal with far-behind starting spots: Jens Dekker, Junior ’Cross World Champion of Team Enertherm-Beobank and Mathieu van der Poel, Dutch National ’ Cross Champion of Team Beobank-Corendon who both started with the goal to qualify for the Rio Olympics as well as Luis Blatter and David Ng both of STEVENS MTB Racing Team. But all of them made the best out of it and were able to advance to further-ahead positions.

Antonia and Leonie Daubermann in Perfect Shape
The first competition of the event was the women’s U23 race with Antonia Daubermann of STEVENS MTB Racing Team. Since just having advanced to the U23 class and due to the fact that she only recently finished school and therefore hadn’t competed in many races this season, she was put in the last row of the starting grid.

Having started from place 58 on her STEVENS Sonora SL she already had advanced to place 32 after the first lap and - by riding lap times close to the top ten riders – was even able to gain an even better position to eventually finish 17th. ”I worked myself forward from lap to lap. Though I was affected by a flesh wound on my shinbone that I had incurred in a training crash before the race this morning and which only had been taped. I just tried to suffer through the pain”, Antonia said after the race in an interview with acrossthecountry.net.

The Female Youth race was won by Sina Frei from Switzerland before Evie Richards (GB) and Anne Tauber (Netherlands). Best German rider was Sofia Wiedenroth in 14th place. In the following race Antonia’s younger sister Leonie gave another proof of her class – after a 6th place in Montichiari, Italy and place 5 in the European Championships – with place 6. Anyway, the race was a great experience for her: ”Awesome atmosphere! Everywhere people cheer for you, so the race was mega fun”, was her quote to German cycling website rad-net.de.

After a somewhat weak start she had worked herself toward the front to eventually finish 2 min 8 sec behind World Champion Martina Berta who finished first in front of Alessia Verrado (both Italy) and Anna Spielmann (Austria).

”First Prize” For Overtaking: Christian Pfäffle
Also a premiere for Christian Pfäffle: The rider from Neuffen – a town very close to Albstadt – as of this year starting in the Elite category, had passed on the first World Cup race in Australia.
Christian started from very far behind (place 128 of 148). He arguably was the one to make the greatest leap ahead on that weekend. In the end he had left 81 riders behind. According to his lap times and had he been in a better starting position, he could have landed in the top 40.

”My first goal was to finish among the top 60 to win some UCI points”, Christian said after the race. ”Since I already had reached place 63, it tried to go all out. So, I am very happy with 47th place. With 21 UCI points to his credit he can hope for a better starting spot in the upcoming World Cup race in La Bresse, France. Nino Schurter (Switzerland) won the race in front of Julien Absalon (France) after a thrilling head-to-head fight over most of the time in a close sprint finish. Third was Maxime Marotte, also France. Best German finisher was Manuel Fumic in 20th.

In the Men’s U23 race, Luis Blatter faced a similar situation. Having to start from place 147, he had almost the complete field in front of him – But he finished 41 places ahead so he was quite pleased with the result.

Jens Dekker of Team Enertherm-Beobank, Junior ’Cross World Champion, had come to Albstadt with the Dutch National Team. His 18th place on his STEVENS Sonora SL was outstanding regarding that this was his first mountain bike race in over two years and he had begun the race from place 92. David Ng unfortunately was out of the race after a good start.