Whether it was enduro racer André Kleindienst from Team Bergamont, marathon pro Jochen Käß from Team Centurion Vaude or the numerous amateur riders, nobody really knew what to expect from the first German E-Bike Championships before the race. Even the organisers said: "We are excited to see what awaits us!" Last weekend was the day. The venue was Wipperfürth in the Bergisches Land region.
The format
E-mountain biking is a completely new discipline and the possibilities for a race format are huge. The premiere of the German Championship was held in the style of an enduro race: Eight special stages had to be completed for time, the connecting stages between the stages were not counted. Training before the race was only possible on three stages of the parallel Enduro One series, which were also part of the e-bike championship in a modified form. The rest of the special stages had to be ridden on sight during the race. The race time was just under 16 minutes, the stages were between just under one minute and a good four minutes long (winning time in each case). Even though the entire race had to be driven with one battery, battery management did not play a role: we drove the transfers in Eco mode and the timed stages in Boost mode throughout. The classic 500 Wh battery from Shimano still had three out of five bars of capacity left at the finish. No wonder, given the manageable race distance of 24 kilometres and a good 600 metres in altitude.
The stages were largely based on the special stages of the Enduro One race held at the same time, but were usually extended by one climb or an extra lap. There was also a pure uphill stage. Two routes were taken over from the (non-electrified) Enduro race without any changes. The result: On these flat, pedalling-intensive descents, the e-MTBs had to be pedalled continuously beyond the 27 km/h threshold towards the finish, and the qualities of an e-MTB were somewhat lost on these stages. The last section, where a long trail climb followed a descent, turned out to be the highlight. Overall, the trails were only moderately technically demanding, meaning that even the numerous amateur riders who took part coped well with the course. The more ambitious riders lacked more difficult sections. There was a lack of real challenges for the powerful e-mountainbikes, especially on the climbs.
The winners
Nobody could really predict who would be the big favourite at the championship premiere. Will the downhill character of some of the stages be enough to help an enduro racer to victory? Or will the fitness level of a marathon pro win the title? Or are the requirements so specific that a rather unknown e-bike specialist can ride to the top of the podium? In the end, enduro specialist André Kleindienst won the race and took the victory with an impressive 21-second lead. Till Jungmann, another enduro racer, came second. Third place went to marathon pro Jochen Käß, who won both the uphill-only stage and Stage 8, which ended with a longer climb.
Gentlemen:
- 1st André Kleindienst, Bergamont, 15:52 min
- 2nd Till Jungmann, Dsfy, 16:13 min
- 3rd Jochen Käß, Centurion Vaude, 16:18 min
- 4th Marc Oppermann, Bulls, 16:20 min
- 5th Heiko Redecker, Haibike, 16:22 min
Ladies:
- 1st Kim Schwemmer, Herobikes, 18:09 min
- 2nd Martina Wunderle, Haibike, 18:51 min
- 3rd Stefanie Rickfelder, Bikemeister Racing, 18:59 min
Engine doping
To prevent engine tuning, unannounced checks were carried out during the race. At the end of stage three, a team of several riders waited for the riders. They received the participants entering the race directly and made sure that no more changes had been made to the bike. They tested the speed at which the bike brakes, which had to stop at 27 km/h at the latest. Every single participant was checked in this way. Two riders were taken out of the race because their assisted speed was too high. "I would have liked additional intensive checks on the top three finishers," said Jochen Käß, third in the men's category, after the race.
Florentin Vesenbeckh
Editor CvD
