Kirchberg, July 24: After four stages the mountain bike Transalp Challenge 2003 is led by Carsten Bresser and Bart Brentjens of Team T-Mobile. Germany's Bresser and the Netherlands Bart Bretjens, the Olympic cross-country winner from 1996, lead their nearest competitors by over 20 minutes after four stages of the eight day mountain bike race across the Alps. 456 teams started the sixth annual race, which is over a course of 652 kilometres with climbs of 21,000 altitude metres. The racing has been dominated by Bresser and Bretjens who have won all four stages. In second place is the Xenofit/Rocky Mountain/Focus team of Mannie Heymanns and Karl Platt. The women's race is led by Gretchen Reeves and Lesley Tomlinson of the Rocky Mountain Crystal Decision team, who are over 30 minutes ahead of Kirsten Rosel and Sabine Schutz-Hadamik of Team-HAI-Bike II.


The race ends in Riva del Garda on July 26th, after eight tough days through Germany, Austria and Italy.


Standings after four stages: Men 1. TEAM T-MOBILE TEAM T-MOBILE Bart Brentjens and Carsten Bresser 15:24.08,5 2. Xenofit/Rocky Mountain/Focus Xenofit/Rocky Mountain/Focus Mannie Heymanns and Karl Platt 15:46.30,6 3. Scott/Fiat Rotwild Scott/Fiat Rotwild Tobias Heimkreitner and Andreas Strobel 16:09.39,6 4. Corratec World Team Corratec World Team Thomas Frauenschuh and Peter Hasenfratz 16:14.50,2 5. adidas-Rotwild-SC-Hermagor-B'hofen adidas-Rotwild-SC-Hermagor-B'hofen Markus Stock and Silvio Wieltschnig 16:27.06,0


Women 1. Rocky Mountain Crystal Decision Rocky Mountain Crystal Decision Gretchen Reeves and Lesley Tomlinson 20:13.21,4 2. Team-HAI-Bike II Team-HAI-Bike II Kirsten Rsel and Sabine Schtz-Hadamik 20:44.19,9 3. ALBGOLD/FELT-racing ALBGOLD/FELT-racing Rebecca Burbach and Susanne Juranek 20:53.49,3 4. Stevens-Jeantex-Team Stevens-Jeantex-Team Sandra Gockert and Carolin Rahner 21:09.12,9 5. Team Rohloff Team Rohloff Daniela Bargholt and Tanja Ruppert 21:34.16,8


Bureau Report