Photo courtesy of TransAlps

Bustin' over one of the many passes.

July 24, 2004 -- And again he did it: after winning the Transalp 1998 Mannie Heymans celebrated today his victory in the overall rankings together with his team partner Karl Platt. He was very happy: "Despite of a flat today we could win the stage and the title!" His partner Platt smiled: "That's just great! Now the party will start..." On the first days of the adidas BIKE Transalp Challenge the Dutch riders Bart Brentjens and Gerben de Knegt dominated the race, but later Platt and Heymans got the chance to win because of an injury that forced de Knegt to give up. Carsten Bresser and Martin Kraler (Ralph Denk Racing Team) tried to challenge them but had no chance – they finished second in 29:44.51 overall time. T-Mobile pros Stefan Sahm and Jochen Käb were ranked third.

Team Siemens mobile Cannondale with mountain bike legend Tinker Juarez and Werner Wagner realized their dreams by winning the masters category with over 25 minutes lead overall. A tough fight could be expected on remaining placements. German/austrian duo Walter Platzgummer and Hansi Grasegger attacked on the last stage to improve their ranking but stayed at the third place overall. Hans Lienhart and Heinz Zörweg defended their second position with 5 minutes lead. Marathon world champion Thomas Frischknecht and Tom Ritchey made a very good 8th place.

 Anna Baylis and Jörg Scheiderbauer dominated for 8 days the Mixed category and celebrated their victory with a lead of nearly 50 minutes. XC world champion Sabine Spitz and her husband Ralf Schaeuble were happy about their second place with an overall time of 34:15.24. Third placed were Markus Stock and Martina Deubler.

The women of the American Rocky Mountain Bicycles Team Gretchen Reeves and Lesley Tomlinson seemed to be the clear favourites for the title in the women's category. But after two Transalp successes in 2002 and 2003 it was not enough for the first place. They were beated by the shootingstars of the TransAlp, german national team riders Kathrin Schwing and Regina Marunde which had in the end an unbelievable lead of over 46 minutes. South African riders Hanlie Booyens and Hannelen Stezn-Kotze enjoyed their third place.

Each of the 917 finishers really deserves to be feted as winner of the world’s hardest mountain biking race and to be regarded with respect for having passed 662.29 kilometres, 22,455 altitude metres and 17 passes.

The this year’s, 7th adidas BIKE Transalp Challenge led the riders from 29 nations within 8 stages from Mittenwald (Germany) to Riva del Garda (Italy) via Imst (Austria), Ischgl (Austria), Scuol (Switzerland), Naturns (Italy), Meran (Italy), Kaltern am See (Italy) and Folgaria (Italy).