MendelRace

15/4/2023

MendelRace 2023: New winners and new course records

With almost 150 starters, the organisers - the Dynamic Bike Team from Eppan - have continued where they left off before Corona: the high number of participants confirms the popularity of the race up the Mendel Pass.

With a starter package full of regional products (and with the active support of ALPECIN), numerous athletes from home and abroad were once again attracted, including some top-class mountain specialists. And it was these specialists who left their mark on the race.

First and foremost was last year's runner-up Franz Wieser, one of the top favourites for victory, who led the field from the start with a slight advantage. He was only caught up and overtaken by the later DigiSprint winner Lukas Stoiber, who dropped back a little after the sprint victory and was promptly caught by Wieser.

From the beginning of the second half of the race, a duo formed at the front, it was compatriot Alessandro Sogne who caught up with Wieser: the two took turns leading a few times. But Wieser simply had a little bit more tick on this day, and was able to pull away from Sogne again at the beginning of the hairpin bends in the upper part. In the meantime, the German Dennis Biederer was getting closer and closer to the two, and caught Sogne 2km before the finish. He got closer and closer to Weiser, but Weiser didn't let him take the butter off his bread and won for the first time at the Mendel Pass - with a new course record! Biederer reached the finish in second place, just 20 seconds behind, and Sogne completed the podium with third place.
The fastest Dynamic biker was the current club champion Christian Resch: for him the clock stopped at 41.08 minutes - on the excellent 16th place and second place in his age group.

In the women's race, two-time MendelRace winner Christina Rausch and the 2021 Austrian national mountain champion Anna Plattner were two big names at the start. And it was the Tyrolean Plattner who pedalled hard from the start and made life difficult for the German. Rausch did not manage to keep up the high pace and to close the gap to Plattner and lost time continuously. And so the Tyrolean reached the finish on the pass after 42.46 min as the first woman - also in a new record time on this day. For Christina Rausch it was thus second place with a little over a minute behind, while Plattner's teammate Alina Reichert rounded off the great team result of the Graz team with third place.

MENDELRACE 2023 - Results (official time, minutes)
MEN overall
1. WIESER Franz - ITA - Rodes Val Badia Raiffeisen - 38.23,1 min
2. BIEDERER Dennis - GER - Radteam Impuls e.V. - 38.42,8
3. SOGNE Alessandro - ITA - Brao Caffè-Unterthurner - 38.54,9

WOMEN overall
1. PLATTNER Anna - AUT - Team Cookina Graz - 42.46,0 min
2. RAUSCH Christina - GER - Brao Caffè-Unterthurner - 43.57,1
3. REICHERT Alina - AUT - Team Cookina Graz - 46.39,1

DigiSprint powered bei Digi-print.net
1. STOIBER Lukas - GER - Team Plasmatreat-B.O.C.

The full list of results from 2023 can be found below.

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MendelRace 2023 - das männliche Podium