Schneider and Weber are the overall winners of the VAUDE Engadin Bike Giro
The third and final day of racing at the VAUDE Engadin Bike Giro was another highlight for the remaining bikers, who started at 9.00 am in Silvaplana. Once again, the conditions were perfect with pure sunshine. Magnificent sections of the route and a picturesque backdrop meant that the exertions of the past three days were at least partially forgotten.
The two Swiss riders Thomas Litscher and Nicola Rohrbach attacked early on in the last stage of the elite men's race and were able to pull away from their rivals. However, Rohrbach had a terrible day in terms of equipment, fell back with three defects and Litscher subsequently led the race solo. Overall leader Sascha Weber rode at his own pace, didn't let himself get rattled and was able to catch up with Litscher on the penultimate climb. On the final tough climb, he finally went one better and pulled away from his companion. In an exciting finale, Weber won in 3:17:54 hours, seven seconds ahead of Litscher. In the overall standings, Weber finished 2:20 minutes ahead of the overall runner-up Litscher. Marc Stutzmann had another strong day, securing the last podium place on the final stage with a 5:49-minute gap. Third place overall, 6:44 minutes behind Weber, was therefore out of his reach.The bikers in the "Elite Women" category experienced a spectacular final stage. The previous overall leader Adelheid Morath had to give way to her rivals today due to bad luck. However, it would have been difficult to defend the leader's jersey against Janine Schneider, who rode like she was unleashed. Schneider pulled away from the rest of the field early on and continuously increased her lead over the course of the stage. In the end, she finished a clear 8:10 minutes ahead of the day's runner-up Sabine Spitz, which was enough for overall victory in a riding time of 9:34:20 hours with a gap of 2:18 minutes to Cherie Redecker. Redecker also underlined her very good form this weekend on the final climb and took third place on the day. Spitz defended her third place in the overall standings with her second place on the last stage and a gap of 4:26 minutes in the final classification.This means that the responsible organizers and the 300 bikers who took part in the race have three inspiring days of mountain biking with fantastic weather behind them, giving them fantastic impressions and views of the Swiss Upper Engadine to take home with them.
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