Text & Photography: Hagen
This years qualification modus split the guys up into five heats with 20 riders each. After a ten lap race, the first five moved straight to the final. Everyone else had the chance to qualify in one out of three „last chance“ races, where the top five got qualified as well.
The women field was rather small this year. With about 13 women racing, the organisers decided to determine the starting grid by an individual time trial over one lap. Tini Dreher from One Way Fixed team set the fastest lap on the wet course. As it just had started to rain, when the girls lined up for their qualification. Marion Dziwnik from Maloja Pushbikers started on 2nd position, right in front of the youngster Paulina Klimsa, who already won the 2016 edition of the race. Right from the beginning the women field got separated and split into three groups. Janine Döring, riding for Maloja Pushbikes, joined the three fastest qualifiers, but had to let them go half way trough the race, riding the rest of the race solo to a fourth place. The trio in the front seemed to work together quite well until Mario Dziwnik attacked with a few laps to go, but didn’t got away. It was again the 17-year old Klimsa, who normally rides road races with a club in Munich, who had the strongest legs in the final sprint and separated Dziwnik and Dreher on position two and three.
Podium Men’s:
1. Jan Stechmann – Suicycle track team
2. Johannes Killisperger – mess pack berlin
3. Simon Mateju – Defekt Crew
Podium Women’s:
1. Paulina Klimsa – RC Schwalben München
2. Marion Dziwnik – Maloja Pushbikers
3. Tini Dreher – One Way Fixed