Lorblanchet takes stage 3 at 4 Trails
Thomas Loblanchet climbs on st.3 of the 2012 4 Trails
Thomas Lorblanchet won a second consecutive stage at the Salomon 4 Trails winning stage 3 from overall leader Philipp Reiter. The former trail running world champion also moved to second place overall, but still trails Reiter ahead of tomorrow’s final stage….
Thomas Lorblanchet, Philipp Reiter and Francois d’Haine – all Team SALOMON runners – have distanced themselves appreciably from the rest of the field of 350 racers by now and will likely divvy up podium ranks amongst themselves en route to Samnaun, Switzerland.
Lorblanchet showed his true colors on this third stage, which measured no less than 31,8 km in distance and tallied a total vertical gain of 1,834 m. The Frenchman was able to reach Landeck in 3:08.03 hours, ahead of Philipp Reiter (GER), who stayed on the victor’s heels all morning finishing in 3:08.19 hours.
Lorblanchet and Reiter share a word at the finish of stage 3
d’Haene (FRA) was also back in business today arriving in third place with a time of 3:08.39 hours. This strong perfomance allowed him to advance to 4th place overall again after a most unfortunate bungled day on the trails yesterday. With a cumulative lead of four minutes, Reiter continues to hang on to the leader jersey in the Men category. However, he will have to manage this time buffer wisely as his fellow team members will likely mount a number of attacks tomorrow.
Following today’s win Lorblanchet shared his thoughts and hopes on tomorrow’s ultimate stage.
“I’m glad, it went so well for me today. Sure, it would be great to win this race but Philipp proves to be very strong. I’m uncertain, if I can make up his lead and catch up to him tomorrow“.
Jose Francisco Gutierrez (ESP, 3:14:49 hours) didn’t quite manage to hang on to today’s leading Team SALOMON trio and, as a result, dropped to third place in the overall ranking. However, it would be foolhardy to count this potential podium contender out of giving chase en route to Samnaun tomorrow.
Regine Schlump likewise managed to pull off a hat trick by being the first of the Women to arrive in Landeck. By covering the distance in under four hours (3:59.55 hours), the thrity-two year-old extended her overall lead to 21 minutes, which – at least in theory – should be sufficient leeway for overall victory at this point.
Top 3 Men overall
1 Philipp Reiter, GER, Team Salomon Deutschland, 11:13.07h
2 Thomas Lorblanchet, Frankreich, Team Salomon, 11:17.01h
3 Jose Francisco Gutierrez, ESP, Team Avientu Tierra Tragame, 11:19.47h
Top 3 Women overall
1 Regine Schlump, GER, Team Salomon, 13:59.54h
2 Helen Bonsor, SCO, 14:21.15h
3 Manuela Imboden, SUI, Team Alpinrunner.ch, 15:15.54h
Results and overall standings are now online here
Reactions so far
Alayne Jul 6, 08:44 PM
Shame no real mention being made of Helen Bonsor who is top placed Brit being 2nd lady in the overall leaderboard and also winning todays stage (jointly with Schlump). Fantastic running Helen and keep it up for the final stage!
Don Jul 7, 11:30 AM
I agree with Alayne. You need to check out the facts a bit better Mark before writing a report. I knew you were wrong as I had already seen something about it on Facebook, although was hoping to get a clearer picture from you. Disappointing.
Matt MST Jul 7, 05:16 PM
Thanks for your comments Alayne and Don, appreciate it. I have sent you both personal emails to explain. In short I have relied on the event organisers report as I am traveling and therefore was not aware of Bonsor’s great efforts. This has been noted in today’s race news and will be properly acknowledged in future!
Thanks
Matt