At the 2017 German Cross-Country Championships and in the Eliminator sprint starters of STEVENS Racing Team won three medals and scored good results on STEVENS Sonora SL. Franziska Koch is the new German U19 Mountain Bike Champion.

Antonia Daubermann is vice champion of the U23 category. David Horvath only narrowly missed out on the win in Eliminator sprint finals and wins a silver medal, too. Benjamin Krüger of STEVENS Schubert Racing Team wins the gold medal in the U15 category.

They only had good memories of the course in Bad Salzdetfurth said Antonia Daubermann, Franziska Koch and David Horvarth of STEVENS MTB Racing Team before their races.

Antonia Daubermann won her first German Championship in the U17 category there in 2014 as well as a race of the German national league (Bundesliga). She started into the race on Sunday morning in her second year in the U23 category and with a podium finish as her goal as well. In international races, the 2016 vice champion had been the best German rider of the current season most of the time so far.

Sunday showed, however, that a German Championship always may turn out to be a completely different race that does not reflect the complete season. It had been pouring the days before the race so that the course was very slippery, especially on the forest passages. Due to the ground conditions the race organizers had adjusted the course on Saturday evening.

Conditions, that were not particularly appealing to Antonia on Sunday. After a good start and already with a large lead from the first uphill passages she “virtually flipped over in the second lap, on downhill passages I partly slided more than I rode“, said Antonia after the race. Due to this, she had to pass the lead to Felicitas Geiger.

The other competitors suddenly caught up with her, but Antonia extended her lead from place three above all in uphill passages slowly but surely again: “I’d really been looking forward to the climbs.“ When she got closer and closer to Lia Schrievers on the finish stretch, she confidently secured her second place in a sprint.

In the women’s elite race, Lisa Heckmann of STEVENS Racing Team showed that she is not only good at cyclo-cross. In a very competitive field, she finished on sixth place on STEVENS Sonora SL.

Gold for Franziska Koch, Leonie Daubermann injured after crash
Shortly after the women’s U23 race, the junior riders went onto the course. Leonie Daubermann, who won the race the year before, and Franziska Koch, U17 champion of the previous year, raced for STEVENS MTB Racing Team. After a good start, Leonie had to quit the race due to an injury. She fell on her hand in a stone field. STEVENS Vertriebs GmbH wishes her a speedy recovery!

Her teammate Franziska Koch was lurking some places behind her on the first lap, but could soon overtake the leader Ronja Eibl. From the top of the field, the 17 year old from Mettmann could “ride at her own pace, be careful on downhill passages in order not to crash and go all out in climbs.“ The muddy grounds were rather of advantage to her. “I had been training under similar conditions in the past few days.“ Franziska extended her lead in the following rounds and “only went full speed on the last lap again.“ She could enjoy the last meters to the finish line as runner-up Ronja Eibl was approximately one minute behind her. Leoni Fend finished third.

She liked the course changing to city circuit with partly artificial bridges over Innerste and Bösenberg: “It was a nice change of scene, the bridges added some right-left turns.“ She had good memories of Bad Salzdetfurth due to winning her first medal in mountain biking there in 2014 – silver in the U15 category.

Silver for David Horvath in sprint
Already on Friday, their teammate David Horvath had won the silver medal at the sprint German Championship in Bad Salzdetfurth. New German Sprint Champion is Simon Stiebjahn, the bronze medal goes to Julian Schelb. On a shortened city course that suited David well, the 2015 German Champion and 2016 vice champion in this discipline rode the second fastest time on STEVENS Sonora SL behind Niklas Schehl.

In the knock-outs in which the best ones qualified for the next run respectively, David had successfully tried to save some energy for the final. In the quarterfinals he could go onto the finish stretch with a wheelie, behind him, his competitors were involved in a crash. In the final, David raced against fast rider Julian Schelb while Niklas Schehl and Simon Stiebjahn were rather „able to go strong on the last part of the course“, David said. After a fast race with some changes in the lead, David reached the finish stretch in first position, but was overtaken by Simon Stiebjahn on the last few meters.

“I needed some time to cope with the fact that I’d been overtaken on the finish stretch“, said David and congratulated the winner: “... but Stiebi was just better.“

On Sunday, David proved in the U23 race that he is also a good climber. He fought for a place in the top ten for large parts of the race. In the final lap, it showed, however, that he had already done the sprint race on Friday and he fell behind a few positions.

After a long injury pause due to a stress fracture and with regard to the athletic strain on Friday in the sprint race, this was a good result, however. His team mate David Ng finished 35th of all in all 48 starters in his first year of riding in the U23 category. It was on the last two rounds only that last year’s 10th placed of the U19 category had to pay his toll to the next highest category.

Benjamin Krüger wins U15 race
In the U15 category, Benjamin Krüger of STEVENS Schubert Racing Team crowned himself new U15 student champion. At first, it did not look like he would finish on the podium, as he had skidded in a slippery bend. But as the leaders got held up as well, he managed to catch up with them again.

On the last lap of the shortened course, he managed to escape from the field together with Robin Bischler from whom he managed to break away, too, on the final climb. Benjamin wins the race with a lead of 45 seconds on Robin Bischler and Stephan Mayer.

In the U19 juniors category Tim Wollenberg of STEVENS Schubert Racing Team finishes on a decent seventh place. Maximilian Krüger finishes the U17 race on a decent 13th place.