On the morning of the fifth day in Aprica, relief was written all over the faces of the participants. After yesterday's rainy stage, everyone was visibly happy to be back on the course in sunshine and warm temperatures.
The fifth stage of the TOUR Transalp 2022 was peppered with exciting route novelties in Val Seriana north of the provincial capital of Bergamo. Once they reached the finish, the participants were able to tick off three more Alpine passes on their list: the Passo di S. Cristina, the Passo Vivione and the Passo della Presolana. In addition, there were 96 kilometres and 2720 metres in altitude.
The start was on the pass road in the direction of Valtellina and Tirano, where the first 600 metres in altitude were soon covered on a small road up to the Passo di S. Cristina. After the descent down to the high moor at Pian Gembro, which was already part of the fourth stage yesterday, the route continued down to Edolo. The route continued southwards via the Val Camonica to Malonno. Here the participants finally reached completely new territory on the way to Val Seriana. A narrow ribbon of steep slopes led up to the Passo Vivione. From here, they headed for the Val di Scalve and then cycled back up to the Passo della Presolana. From up there, it wasn't far to Castione della Presolana: a stage location that marks the premiere of the TOUR Transalp this year.
The results of stage 5
The fastest riders didn't have much time to admire these new features. The fastest team (Stipbike Racing Team) of Erik Franssen and Stefan Verhaaf crossed the finish line today after 3:14.24.9 hours, followed by Benjamin Witt and Philip Peitzmeier from Team Strassacker 2/radsport-news.com with a time of 3:15.40.8 hours. The two overall leaders were happy to be able to capitalise on their lead. "The winning team was very strong. That's why we were relieved not to have to push ourselves to the limit thanks to our lead," they both reported at the finish. 3rd place went to Kris Beullens and Tom Janssens from Team Deportivo with a time of 3:40.55.6 hours.
The first women's team of Kerstin Kaiser and Luisa Zimmermann (Team Kartoffelclub) crossed the finish line after 4:52.11.9 hours. Carmen Krebs and Karina Steffan from TSV Karlstadt Mädels secured 2nd place with a time of 5:43.31.8 hours. Gitta Fernau and Petra Marton from Team Genussschnecken finished in 3rd place with a time of 6:02.49.7 hours.
Francesco Visconti and Chiara Doni from Team Hypertech pb Castelli won the mixed category today with a time of 3:33.40.5 hours. Jael Heinrich and Jonas Kahler from Team Strassacker 3/radsport-news.com crossed the finish line in second place after 3:41.09.4 hours. Third place went to the drahtesel-lützelbach.de team of Tina Büttner and Johannes Wagner with a time of 3:42.39.3 hours.
Benjamin Witt and Philip Peitzmeier from Team Strassacker2/radsportnews.com continue to lead the overall standings for the men's teams, while Kerstin Kaiser and Luisa Zimmermann from Team Kartoffelclub and Francesco Visconti and Chiara Doni from Team Hypertech pb Castelli lead the mixed category for the women.
The royal stage into the Valle del Chiese
The sixth stage of the TOUR Transalp 2022 is the queen's stage, taking the athletes 119 kilometres and over 3240 metres of altitude difference from Castione della Presolana to Valle del Chiese.
Further information and all results can be found at: https://tour-transalp.de
