Preview of the cross-country championship
By Kevin Kemp
13.01.2023 | (rsn) – The German Cyclocross Championship is coming up in Munich this weekend. In the last five editions, the winners of the two main races were Marcel Meisen (Stevens) and Elisabeth Brandau (EBE Racing). While the reigning German men’s champion is once again the favourite, there will be a new women’s title holder because Brandau is pregnant and will not defend her championship jersey.
The Olympic Park in Munich is increasingly becoming a cycling Valhalla. The Munich Super Cross has taken place there since 2018 – with the exception of the Corona year 2020. Last summer the park hosted the European Mountain Championships won by Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers). The Super Cross falls victim to the championship this year, instead of a day of racing with international cross stars, the national elite now competes against each other in a total of 14 categories on Saturday and Sunday.
tits for the eighth time?
In the men’s race, Meisen is attempting his seventh consecutive title and eighth overall. Even if the German champions didn’t have the legs of the past few years, nobody can hold a candle to him nationally. “The form is visibly not as good as usual. Also because of a long illness after Val di Sole. I hope that things will improve a little now,” he told radsport-news.com.
The Stolberger’s best-known adversary is Sascha Weber. The 34-year-old has already finished second five times behind Meisen and Philip Walsleben; twice he went home with bronze. In the meantime, however, Weber has dedicated himself more to mountain biking and therefore only rides a shorter winter. Nevertheless, Meisen has the World Cup tenth from 2017 on the bill. “Of course, the competition isn’t like it was in Germany ten years ago. But Sascha Weber is always in form and good for a surprise,” he judged.
Jannick Geisler and Yannick Gruner, who stood next to Meisen on the podium last winter, are no longer there. Michael Gassner and Florian Hamm could secure their first precious metal for this.
Who will replace Brandau?
The top favorite for women is a U23 rider: Judith Krahl (Heizomat – Kloster Kitchen). The 21-year-old just missed the first top 10 result by a German since 2014 when she came twelfth in the elite race of the World Championships in Fayetteville. Due to a long illness, she had to take a break a little later, from which she just returned. “I was knocked out with some virus. It was during a training camp in Mallorca. I was only able to train for one day, then I had to go home After that I had to cancel all Christmas races,” Krahl told radsport-news.com.
Krahl’s perhaps missing form could be the glimmer of hope for Stefanie Paul. Last year’s third, who collected three more DM medals in her career, could receive the gold medal for the first time. But on the first assignment after recovering from illness, she had to admit defeat to the reigning U23 champion Krahl again. “I went to Vechta without any expectations and it actually went quite well. Nevertheless, I can’t say 100 percent where my form is,” said Krahl, who went home with the win right away on her comeback. In total, only 16 participants will start in the women’s race.
What can the offspring do?
Since Tom Lindner (Heizomat – Kloster Kitchen), the former hope of the German cross-scene, will not start, there are two gold favorites in the U23s. Lindner’s teammate Lukas Herrmann performed well at the beginning of the winter and was the undisputed number 1. Since the end of November, however, he has only taken part in two international races, both of which he has given up. Most recently he was fifth at the National Cross in Vechta.
So Silas Kuschla (Stevens) slips into the role of favourite. The Hanoverian is the reigning Junior Champion and has been getting better and better lately. In his last international appearances, he was usually the best German, both in the U23 and in the elite. Nevertheless, he expressed caution in an interview with radsport-news.com: “The competition in the U23 class is very big this year. I think that drivers from my team like Fynn Termin, Luca Harter and Louis Krauss have a chance of winning the title. However, the big competitors will be Fabian Eder and Hannes Degenkolb from Team Heizomat.”
Degenkolb won – in the absence of the Hanoverian – the race in Vechta. But Kuschla has two other drivers on the bill. “Besides, my insider tips are Benjamin Krüger and Daniel Schrag,” he revealed. With Krüger, who is actually a mountain bike specialist, he has already fought a few duels in the juniors. Schrag is particularly well-known on the street. The 19-year-old drove for the Bora training team Auto Eder and was part of the BDR junior selection at the World Championships in Flanders in 2021.
Two minutes after the 16 women, eight U23 riders start their race. Here Sina van Thiel and Clea Seidel (Ceratizit – WNT) have the best prospects.
In the juniors, Max Heiner Oertzen is the first contender for the championship jersey. The man from Harburg was among the top ten at UCI races in Germany, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Belgium and the Netherlands and was also a few minutes faster than his main competitors Louis Leidert and Piet Loos at the last World Cup in Zonhoven.
Messane Brautigam is the hottest title favorite in the U19s. Above all, she will have to defend herself against Jule Märkl and can perhaps open up the hunt for the women and U23 drivers who started four or two minutes earlier.
The program:
Saturday January 14, 2023
13:25 – U23 men
14:40 – Elite women
14:42 – U23 women
14:44 – Juniors women
Sunday January 15, 2023
11:25 – Junior Men
14:30 – Elite Men
Of course:
The course at the Olympiasee was tested at international competitions and found to be good. Meisen, who won the Munich Super Cross 2018, has been praising him for years – and has done so again: “The course should suit me. Especially when it gets slippery. So I’m hoping for rain on Sunday. Then it should be a pretty good cross event,” he predicted.
The rain that Meisen was hoping for would soften the flanks of the grass-covered hills of the Olympic Park and make the course technically much more difficult. “It’s very tiring in terms of fitness. You don’t have any rhythm when driving. It has now rained again. Maybe tomorrow it will be very muddy,” Krahl reported on Friday afternoon directly after sighting the track.
