Ariane Kleinhans of Team RECM (Switzerland) lined up on the start to battle the best athletes in the sport over a distance of 60km with over 3000m of climbing.
The field included Annika Langvad who raced with Ariane earlier this year to win the Absa Cape Epic in great style and Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesja who has won every major title in MTB.
A quick look at the course profile reveals that this race would be a tough one.
Ariane rode an amazing race and overcome a small tumble to finish in 4th place. A great performance by our Swiss Star.
“I felt really well prepared for this years world champs and can say that I was in my best shape ever. My coach Andrew Smith did an excellent job in planning and supporting me towards this most important goal of mine.
The top 4 positions were settled already on the first climb of the race and didn’t change till the finish. Gunn-Rita Dahle set a pace, that only Annika Langvad dared to hold for almost the entire climb. Gunn-Rita and Annika were gone and behind it was Sabine and me. I only lost a few seconds to the German at the top which I could close in the downhill. But Sabine was stronger on the climbs and pulled away on the second ascent. On top of the third and second last climb Sally Bigham caught up with me, but I managed to get into the downhill in front of her. Trying to get a big as possible gap on her there, I took a bit too much risk and had a little tumble. Luckily my Fate and I only got a bit scratched and I could keep Sally behind me till the finish.
Photo Credit: Michal Cerveny
Even though I only moved up one position in comparison to last year, Saturday’s performance was definitely a lot better. Since I have a Sram Quark power meter on my mtb, I can measure my progress and know that my performance has improved quite a bit since last year and also since this years Epic. I could race a very good race and at the end of the day three of the biggest names in mountainbiking were stronger than me. Therefore I’m content but even more motivated for this following year to take on the work to get onto the podium” – Ariane
