Ski-Trail 2009

Fantastic event in one of the most beautiful valley of Austria.

On Sunday morning the presenter welcomed all competitors and spectators with the words ‘God seems to be from Tannheim’. And that was true. After a hurricane had destroyed the build ups at start and finish the sun with temperatures just below the freezing point changed the Tannheimer Tal into a picturesque winter scenery.

The Tannheimertal offered very good snow conditions and well prepared tracks. A lot of people decided to come to the Tyrol.
The tracks were fast, very fast. The 55km distance was run by the fastest skaters in just a little bit more than 2 hours in spite of the 5km steep incline from Unterjoch to Oberjoch (150 m height difference), that drew on the skaters’reserves.

The Czech Jiri Rocarek, the winner of the classic race on Saturday was also the fastest of the skating race. He finished in 2.11.45 hours and Kristian Mehringer (Fischer Subaru – Team) finished second place, 16 seconds after Jiri Rocarek. Florian Schönbrunner (Fischer Racing Team) came third, just one second after Kristian Mehringer.

Best women achieved excellent running times. It took Tanja Erler (Rossignol) 2.34.54 hours to win the race. About three and a half minutes later Sabrina Schairer, the winner of yesterday’s classic race finished second today. Barbara Häsch (Rossignol) crossed the finishing line about one minute later.

At 10.15 there was the starting signal for the 35km distance race. An almost endless line of skaters was dragging on. It seemed that most runners preferred the shorter easier course. Markus Enders from Garmisch – Partenkirchen finished in 1.26.27 and was the lucky winner of the short distance. Andreas Möse (Sport Team Buhler), the winner of the Sprint ranking in Zöblen, which was fought out after 4km, came in second. Markus Meister (Salomon Team) finished third. Carmen Schindler (Skadi Loppel Team) crossed the finishing line first. It took her 1.43.36 hours. She was more than two and a half minutes faster than Regina Danner (Salomon Nordic Team), second place and Antje Weidling (VSC Klingenthal), third place. About 500 competitors (incl. Mini – Skitrails) took part on Saturday and about 800 competitors took part on Sunday.

The reasons for a great response were on the one hand the excellent organisation by Michael Keller and his team and on the other hand the nice atmosphere in the beautiful Tyrolian holiday area of the Tannheimer Tal.

For more information please visit: www.ski-trail.info.