Lopez and Caballero prove strongest to win 7th Transalpine-Run
Lopez and Cabellero - Trans Alps champs 2011
Although the pairing of Jethro Lennox and Joe Symonds appeared to be the strongest runners in the final two stages, the Spainish duo did enough in the early stages to win the 2011 GORE-TEX® Transalpine-Run.
Event release
David Lopez and Miguel Caballero have won the 2011 GORE-TEX® Transalpine-Run. The two 29-year-old trail experts of Spanish Team Trangoworld Gore-Tex covered the monstrous distance of 273.73 kilometers and a cumulative ascent of 15,436 meters in astonishing 26:37:51.0 hours.
Trailing the overall victors by merely 17 minutes after eight intense days of trail running are Jethro Lennox and Joe Symonds of Scottish Team Inov-8 Gore-Tex Footwear (26:54:18.5). The finishing touch of their race performance, however, was not just a well-deserved second place position in the overall ranking but today’s stage victory well ahead of any other team (2:50:26.9).
Julien Chorier and Philipp Reiter
Julien Chorier (FRA) and Philipp Reiter (GER) of Team Salomon International ended the globally recognized trail running event in third place overall after a total of 27:54:37.2 hours on the trail. After logging a distance of 30.2 kilometers today that packed 1,807 meters into a single sustained climb, the two racers even managed to come in second (3:02:33.1) ahead of the Spanish overall race champions.
For the first time in its seven-year history, a Spanish team made up of members of the National Trail Running team, won the Transalpine Run.
“It’s simply an incredible feeling right now. We are overjoyed that we ended up winning the race as first-time participants”… shared Miguel Caballero who was clearly the stronger of the two team members on the last two stages.
Apparently, his teammate
“David started experiencing an increasingly upset stomach. That ended up costing valuable time. In view of that, our overall victory ended up being a real piece of work.”
Scottish sprint finish ultimately without appropriate reward
Closest competitors of the Spanish overall victors, Jethro Lennox and Joe Symonds, had experienced similar health issues early on in the race. Having fully recovered, they went full bore today winning the hearts of spectators with a riveting sprint to the finish line in sun-drenched Latsch.
Lennox and Symonds stride out to win the final stage
In the end, though, that extra effort didn’t pay off in real terms. Joe Symonds, junior brother of last year’s champion Andrew, put it in plain language
“Naturally, it is nice to know that we ended up being the strongest runners in the field today. However, in the end that doesn’t count. The prize goes to those who went all the way in the least amount of time.”
Still, the audacious attack the two Scotsmen launched on the overall leaders was laudable if only as a daring expression of not accepting defeat without at least trying.
After setting a punishing pace up to the Göflaner Scharte (2,396m) and beating it back down to valley elevation (640m) at break-neck speed, Symonds and Lennox had managed to reduce the Spaniards’ extensive lead by one half. That, in turn, prompted Symonds’ tongue-in-cheek request to “extend the Transalpine Run by yet another two stages.”
Team Shettletrot crowned as Women champs
Claire Gordon and Fiona Maxwell have claimed the trophy among the Women teams at the 2011 GORE-TEX® Transalpine-Run. The two Scottish racers definitely dominated not just yesterday’s stage but also the final day of racing ending up in Latsch in less than four hours (3:57.32.8) and with a sizeable overall lead of nearly five hours ahead of the closest competition (34:40:28.5).
Claire Gordon and Fiona Maxwell - women's champions at Trans Alpine-run 2011
Gerti Ott and Sabina Kraus of Orthomol Sport Team Lautrach finished as runner-ups in the overall ranking (38:07:46.7) while Switzerland’s Brigitte Eggerling and Daniela Nusseck of Team Alpinrunner rounded out the overall podium as third (39:57:25.5) after eight exhausting days on the trails across the High Divide.
Final overall standings here, with some nice closing shots from the Gripmaster here...
