Georg Egger defends his Overall Ranking
Finishing 9th in the third U23 race of the season in Andorra, Lexware-Rider
Georg Eggers remains third in the Overall Ranking of the U23 Worldcup. Max
Brandl comes back with a 15th place, Luca Schwarzbauer comes in 35th.

For Georg Egger, the race in the Bikepark of Vallnord was not as good as in
Albstadt (GER). He wasn’t able to even fight fort he podium after a
suboptimal start. This wasn’t due to the rather high altitude of 1900 meters
above sea level, „it was just like that“ Egger shrugged his shoulders when
reporting about his race. After the first lap he ranked only 16th and had to
fight for every position in the following laps. Getting to position eight after
round 3 of 6, he was already more than 50 seconds behind 7th place. Egger
finally lost the duel with Erik Haegstadt fort he eight position and finished 9th,
1:59 minutes behind the Danish winner Simon Andressen (1:17:14).
Nevertheless Egger’s result was good enough to remain third in the overall
Worldcup ranking, 19 points behind Albstadt-winner Nadir Celledani (143
points) from Italy. New Worldcup leader Martin Blums (Latvia) is 46 points
ahead of Egger before the fourth stage of the Worldcup next weekend in
Lenzerheide (Switzerland).

Brandl needs to convince his body
Eight weeks after suffering from a fracture oft he radius, Max Brandl finished
15th (+2:55) in his first Worldcup. Despite a strange feeling, the student from
Freiburg had a quite acceptable start and finished the first lap in the top ten.
In the following laps however, Brandl lost ground and got increasingly weak. „I
somehow lacked the motivation to keep up with the pace of the
competition. What usually makes me strong, was completely missing. It was
not that the body wasn’t able to, but that it didn’t want to,“ Brandl tried to
explain after the race; an explanation that might be hard to understand for
someone not into racing. But in the last two laps the body showed that it
actually wanted. Coming back from a 20th place, Brandl was able to finish
15th.

Schwarzbauer with uptrending form
Luca Schwarzbauer wasn’t able to gain Worldcup points with his 35th rank in
the U23 race. But he therefore demonstrated an upward trend of his
condition. However, in the finish area he moaned about back issues after
having used the Scott-Hardtail for the first time. „I wasn’t able to find a
position which feels comfortable“, Schwarzbauer explained. „But I have put
priorities on the Worldcup in Lenzerheide from the very beginning and started
PRESS RELEASE
here after a week of rest, which was not optimal for sure.“ Let’s hope the rest
week will pay-off in Lenzerheide, so stay tuned.