Source: press release
Prediction respected in the Winter Downhill, spectacular mountain bike-downhill night race held on Saturday 21 February in Cogolo di Peio in the Stelvio National Park: under a heavy snowfall the South Tyrolean biker Johannes von Klebelsberg, standard-bearer of the German team Factory Rrp Ghos, Italian champion of downhill 2014 and the second consecutive success in Val di Peio.
Von Klebelsberg obtained the victory and the prestigious first prize (a Corratec Fat Bike), thanks to an amazing first heat, in which he inflicted a three second gap to the great surprise Daniel Lazzeri; on the third step of the podium the expert athlete from Egna Georg Widmann. The second heat did not see any changes in the top positions, given the large amount of fresh snow that made the track much slower. The only female biker at the start was the constant Umbrian biker Monia Pierini, at the national top of the emerging enduro specialty.
Also noteworthy is the off-the-chart performance, as forerunner, of the young South Tyrolean Greta Seiwald of Team Focus, one of the strongest junior athletes in the world of the specialty cross country and recent winner of the new Hero Ice Cross in Val Gardena. In the new category of special fat bikes, success instead of the athlete from Trentino Michele Degasperi in front of the Solandro from Malè Marco Michelotti. The third edition of the fun event conceived by the Val di Sole Organizing Committee for Great Events took place on the groomed, prepared and specially built “Biancaneve” slope with supports, parabolics and humps; the 90 athlete-bikers at the start, engaged in a mix of gritty sporting competition but also fun light-heartedness, had to juggle their vehicles, without studded tires, respecting the reference points (giant slalom gates) until the finish, after a technical track of 400 meters in length and 90 meters in altitude.
Appreciated starter of the event the new eliminator race held during the afternoon on the nearby cross-country track. The singular elimination competition on snow (flat course), with the simultaneous departure of 4 competitors, was won by Piero Priori (bike category downhill), Peter Dell'eva (enduro-mtb-free ride bike) and Marco Michelotti (fat bike). After this original winter advance, the next appointment with the big one downhill in Val di Sole is now scheduled for 22 and 23 August 2015: the daring international acrobats of fat wheels will in fact compete in Daolasa di Commezzadura, in the final round of the prestigious downhill, which will return to the banks of the Noce together with the most awaited world competitions of cross country and four crosses.
