Freudenstadt, Germany, 16 January, For immediate Release:Six teams were at the start of the Team Relay on the men`s competition and three trios at the women`s race this beautiful sunny sunday in the Black Forest. One of the favourites, Team Austria unfortunately had to withdraw from the race due to their athletes` health problems. Both the men and women started at 10.30, and the field immediately separated, firstly to two, later to some more bunches.

Frode Pedersen from Team Norway took the lead at the men`s, with Stefan Frank from Germany in second and Italian Daniel Antonioli in third position. The mixed team Spain / Norway, the Czechs and los Espanoles followed them on the places. At the women`s, Germany took the early lead, but with Jutta Schubert crashing on her skis on the super fast downhill, they lost valuable time, so Camilla Johansen from Norway came 1st at the first change, followed by Grabmullerova from the Czechs and the Germans.

This was the situation when second men and women of the teams got on their way. At the men`s race, the field quickly separated: the Czechs, Spanish and the mixed team early lost the chance to fight their way back to the leading group. The two top teams, Norway and Germany paced head-by head, while Italian Giuseppe La Mastra dropped back a bit and lost about a minute to the top groups. At the women`s competition, Norway`s Maria Kalnos overtook leading Czech Petra Letenska, while Bavarian Gabi Pauli managed to keep the time gap to the lead just under 1 ½ minutes.

So the competition turned into a real thriller when the last athletes started. German local David Roderer managed to break away on the run from Norwegian "oldie" Arne Post, and maintained his lead until the ski leg. Yesterday`s champion Alex De Gasperi seemed to have lost too much energy on the previous day: he couldn`t get closer to the top two. By the time youngster Roderer has started the ski leg, his lead seemed to be big enough to get gold for his team, but "skiing legend" Post thought differently… He fought his way back to the leader and overtook him on the last downhill section: the loan of his tremendous effort was the gold medal for Norway`s relay team. German won silver, Italy bronze, while the Czech Republic came 4th, "Spairway" 5th and Spain 6th. The women's competition was no less exciting with yesterday`s winner Sigrid Lang hammering hard to close the gap. She caught Czech finisher Gabriella Loskotova on the run, and Norway`s Lydia Weydahl at the end of the bike section. She even managed to overtake her at the second transition, so she got on her skis in leading position which she managed to hold until the finish line: German gold! Norway got silver, while the Czechs claimed bronze.

A fun-tastic race has ended, and the massive crowd of local spectators were more than satisfied with the results. Most of them joined the "Jederman" race later on, to make this great weekend complete.

For more information contact:
Gergely Markus, ETU Secretary General
Tel: +36 30 688 2997
E mail: marge@mail.datanet.hu