On the third stage of the Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge, three laps of 21 kilometers each are ridden instead of the planned 27 kilometers. In the first round, a larger group forms with all the strong riders in the Challenge. Despite a strong day, Nicola Rohrbach had to leave the lead early on. "A branch demolished my rear derailleur and derailleur hanger. I then had to run to the next tech zone to fix everything there. After that, I continued riding at full throttle," explained Rohrbach, who fought his way up to a respectable eighth place. He is now seventh in the overall standings. "I hope that I have the same good legs tomorrow and more luck with the equipment so that I can still crack the top five overall."

Daniel Eymann, on the other hand, has more luck. He put up a good fight and was able to hold on to the leading group until the middle of the second lap. "After my effort at the front, I lost just under a lap," says the Bernese rider. However, Eymann didn't lose much and finished in a good seventh place.

On the previous day, Fabian Giger finished third with a brake disk defect, but on the third, the marathon stage, he made it through without incident. Giger completed the first two laps together with Platt, Lami and the Italian Andrea Righettini at the front, but then went on the offensive. "On the third lap, I rode away on the climb and was able to carry my pace through to the finish," said a delighted Giger.

The leader's jersey remains with Karl Platt. In the meantime, the German loses the "bag" virtually to Michal Lami (SVK). With a strong finish, Platt is able to close the gap to the Slovakian again, but can no longer do anything in the sprint for second place.

Lechner in the lead - Schneitter in fourth place
The women have one lap less to complete on this day. As expected, Blaza Klemencic (SLO) and Eva Lechner (ITA) already pulled away on the first climb. Behind them, the pursuers no longer seem to be able to do anything. The gap is too big, assuming a normal course of the race. However, normal rarely exists in racing and so Klemencic drops back to sixth place with a derailleur defect.

Lechner continues to set the pace and wins with a large lead over Tanja Zakelj from Slovenia and Jovana Crnogorac from Serbia. With her victory, she also displaces Blaza Klemencic from her leading position.
Nathalie Schneitter seems to be locked into fourth place - at least for the time being. She struggled mightily at the start, as she described the initial phase: "My calves exploded in the steep running section at the beginning of the climb." Schneitter recovers, then gets better into her stride and improves strongly towards the end. She achieves fourth place on the stage for the third time in a row. The former Swiss champion is particularly motivated for the fourth stage of the Langkawi International Mountain Bike Challenge. This will be held in cross-country mode, on a 4.5-kilometer loop, in the Langkawi Geopark and will last around 90 minutes.

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