Emilie Siegenthaler and Noel Niederberger left everybody else behind and secured a Swiss doublewin!
Noel Niederberger found some time for styling during the training runs.The bronze medalist of the 4Cross world championships Simon Waldburger knocked out himself while entering this curve with maximum speed.
During the weekend 9-10 of January many of the top mountain bike athletes met in the Ostermundigen, a suburb of Bern. For the first time we not only invited Pros to the race, amateurs also ventured to join in a pre-qualification race on Friday, racing for a spot in the big final on Saturday.
The whole show was streamed live on sportalhd.com with over 8 cameras, race timing input and great rider profile introsFriday was the qualifying day for both women and men. The women races took place for the first time at the Greenhouse event. The inner circle of the race track offered a challenging course. Angie Hohenwarter from Austria won the qualifications with Geraldine Fink, Switzerland in second position. After the late cancellation of participation from the professionals, René Wildhaber, there were 17 start positions for Saturday in the race open. The amateur race was challenging and the quickest rider was Chaney Guennet, France, followed by Lutz Weber and Lukas Jäger, Switzerland.
On Saturday the track has lost some humidity and the races were getting faster and faster. After the training, the women opened up the race night. With spectators crowding the indoor track, Emilie Siegenthaler (third place in the Friday qualifications) won, followed by Angie Hohenwarter and Geraldine Fink. The women's race was appreciated among both spectators and riders, hopefully next time there will be more participants.
The women's race counted a few enduro racers such as the Scottish girl Katy Winton and the Gehrig twins.The swiss bmx olympic athlete and 4Cross world champion, Roger Rinderknecht was also on fire and made it into the quarter-finals.Just in time for the men's race start, the race area - consisting of two greenhouses, flower preparation room and five external tents - was filled with spectators. The spirit of the race was high and the spectators followed the pumptrack race directly and through the many monitors showing all angles of the race. Exiting turns, jumps, a log-section and high class mountainbike racing was enjoyed by both riders and spectators.
Final Run (Noel Niederberger / Adrien Loron)Right before the end of the race, Adrien Loron, France, was leading the final at the split time until an small error in one of the deep berms brought him to the ground, leaving the number one position to Noel Niederberger, Switzerland who already won the qualification race on Friday.
Noel Niederberger showed of his pace already in the qualifying with the first place.The French man, Chaney Guennet surprised already in the pre qualification on Friday where he took the first place with over a second ahead the other ridersThe small final was won by, Chaney Guennet, France with Brendan Fairclough, UK coming in fourth and David Graf, Switzerland in fifth position.
Nicolai BMX rider David Graf. As a personal compensation he won the Goldsprint race against his coach Roger RinderknechtBrendan Fairclough competed already at the last edition of the greenhouse race. This time he showed a great performance and took 4th placeBoth races can be seen in REPLAY on
www.sportalhd.comFinals Men (Top 32)Finals Women (Top 8 )Right after the race, the athletes were honoured on the dance floor. The DJs Kermit and Funky Child thereafter took the lead and kept everyone up and running until early morning. This is probably the most unique Greenhouse in the world and it has once more proven that even with 80 years of activities there is still a lot in there to enjoy.
The whole show was commented from a professional sports studio desk in the middle of the race track.The organizers are happy that once more the event has brought a lot of fun and entertainment for participants and spectators. Once more it was possible to attract professional riders that gives it the excitement for the spectators. The ambiance in the old greenhouses is helping making this recurring event more than just a weekend of mountain bike racing.
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Just can't seem to get the title. Why "urban"? There is nothing urban about this?
It is rather a "farm" pumptrack race.