The second race of the "Internationali d'Italia MTB Series" is a classic among Italian cross-country races. As the race is located between the BMC Racing Cups Buchs and Tesserete, and not too far from Switzerland, some Swiss riders always take advantage of this opportunity to start. The Swiss often seem to enjoy the circuit in the town park and around the old castle.

In the men's race, however, it is the Italian Marco Fontana who dominates right from the start. He laid the foundation in the first lap, from which he came back with a lead of over 20 seconds. Fontana steadily extended this lead and eventually won by over a minute ahead of Florian Vogel. The latter rode a lonely race to second place. Ralph Näf is successfully back in the race. After injuring his thigh in a fall on the Tankwa Trek in South Africa, he was only able to put reduced strain on it for several weeks. Näf has only been symptom-free for a week. In Montichiari, things went better than expected for the man from Thurgau. After a chase that lasted the entire race, he reached the finishing straight with the Italian Gerhard Kerschbaumer. There Näf proved to have the faster legs and sprinted to third place, giving him further confidence for the World Cup start in South Africa.

Neff continues to win
After her successful start to the season in Cyprus and her victorious continuation at the BMC Racing Cup in Buchs, Jolanda Neff is not to be outdone in Montichiari either. As in the men's race, she also seeks the decision on the first lap, as can be seen on the race series information page. By the time she crosses the finish line, Neff has increased her lead to over one and a half minutes over the second-placed, overall World Cup winner Tanja Zakelj from Slovenia. Kathrin Stirnemann rides with Neff in the lead until the second lap, but then has to let her go, only to be overtaken by Zakelj at the end. With her third place, Stirnemann is in good shape for the start of the World Cup in just under two weeks' time.

Two-time world champion from Russia, Irina Kalentieva, finished fourth. The good Swiss record continues with Linda Indergand in fifth place, Corina Gantenbein in eighth, Nathalie Schneitter in eleventh and Michelle Hediger in fifteenth. For Schneitter, it is also a small comeback after her knee injury at the Afxentia Stage Race in Cyprus.

Internationali d'Italia MTB Series, Montichiari
Men
1.	Marco Aurelio Fontana (ITA)	Cannondale Factory Racing	1:33.46
2.	Florian Vogel (SUI)	Scott-Odlo MTB Racing Team	+0:01.08
3.	Ralph Näf (SUI)	BMC-Mountainbike-Racing-Team	+0:01.35
4.	Gerhard Kerschbaumer (ITA)	I.Idro Drain-Bianchi	+0:01.36
5.	Miguel Martinez (FRA)	FRM-Factory-Racing-Team	+0:01.49
6.	Andrea Tiberi (ITA)	FRM-Factory-Racing-Team	+0:02.03
7.	Kohei Yamamoto (JPN)	Specialized Racing	+0:02.07
8.	Daniele Braidot (ITA)	G.S. Forestale	+0:02.35
9.	Alexander Gehbauer (AUT)	I.Idro Drain-Bianchi	+0:02.43
10.	Fabian Rabensteiner (ITA)	Focus-XC-Italy-Team	+0:02.56
Women
1.	Jolanda Neff (SUI)	Giant Pro XC Team	1:33.07
2.	Tanja Zakelj (SLO)	Unior Tools Team	+0:01.38
3.	Kathrin Stirnemann (SUI)	Sabine Spitz Haibike Pro Team	+0:02.48
4.	Irina Kalentieva (RUS)	Team Rusvelo	+0:03.46
5.	Linda Indergand (SUI)	Team Strüby-BiXS	+0:04.10
8.	Corina Gantenbein (SUI)	Fischer-BMC	+0:05.03
11.	Nathalie Schneitter (SUI)	Team Colnago-South Tyrol	+0:08.00
14.	Ramona Forchini (SUI)	Team Strüby-BiXS	+0:09.17
15.	Michelle Hediger (SUI)	Fischer-BMC	+0:09.23
21.	Sofia Pezzatti (SUI)	Team Wittwer - VC 3 Valli Biasca	+0:13.43
DNF	Andrea Waldis (SUI)	Team Colnago-South Tyrol

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