Thousands of fans excited: Marion Fromberger and Simon Gegenheimer from the Mountainbike Racingteam took fourth place at the Germany World Cup. Teammate Titouan Perrin-Ganier is second.
Tears flowed at the finish for Marion Fromberger. Not because of the numerous abrasions on the left side of her body, the German champion had to admit that she lost the victory herself due to a riding mistake. And that after she passed the world champion Gaia Tormann with an excellent overtaking manoeuvre. “I launched the attack on the very obstacle I fell on last year. I wanted to show courage and upset Gaia with it. That worked, but afterwards I had a moment of inattention - not good," said the fourth-placed after her fall in Aalen again. Fromberger slipped on the approach to Bierschneider ID. - Jump away. Tormena, who was riding behind her, as well as the later winner Lia Schrievers, passed the German champion who was lying on the ground and decided the race among themselves.
In the men's race, local hero Simon Gegenheimer was also unable to repeat last year's victory. Despite more than 15,000 spectators at the race track, the Germans lacked strength at the end. He himself saw the reasons for this in the tough heats and the onset of rain: “In the quarter-finals the rain started, so I had to invest a lot of energy to get back up front. Then the semifinals against the three strong Frenchmen, I could never save the necessary energy, so at the end of the day I simply didn't have the power to win," said Simon Gegenheimer. The world champion and teammate Titouan Perrin-Ganier then tried everything again, but the gap to the strong Felix Klausmann was already too big. In the end, Perrin-Ganier took second place, ahead of Demangeon and Gegenheimer.
"That's sport, you can't always win everything. And that's a good thing, otherwise it would be boring. I hope our professionals see this as an incentive so that we can see a Racingteam rider at the top at next year's award ceremony," says team captain Steffen Thum.
Lord Mayor Frederick Brütting was also very pleased about the event and the city spoke of a central major event, which would like to become an annually recurring monument in the event calendar. The enthusiastic spectators can already look forward to the new edition: On July 13, 2024, the best mountain bikers in the world will return to the city on the Ostalb.
