Landshaag - St. Martin
Motorcycle classic shows its brutal side
Despite the improvement in the weather on Sunday and an Austrian one-two victory, the 43rd edition of the Landshaag - St. Martin motorcycle mountain classic showed its brutal side at the weekend - including a seriously injured favorite and an aborted training session.
National anthem, grid girls and all that in the sunshine! Although it had even snowed in the surrounding area, the April weather in Landshaag and St. Martins and thus the motorcycle mountain classic presented itself in a conciliatory manner on Sunday at noon before the start in the Himmelreich district. After the weather conditions and the 3620 m had been downright devilish. In plain language, that meant Saturday alone:
- with rain and wind
- with an orgy of crashes
- including a seriously injured favorite
- the interruption of training
- and jury meetings
The problem: as the top event is part of the European Mountain Championships, international regulations stipulate that every starter must complete two full training runs. On Saturday, however, not even one full run was possible due to the weather. So how to deal with this? It was decided that the full-throttle artists, who had had to stay in the paddock the day before, would be allowed to race up the nine bends to St. Martin twice yesterday before the race.
Serious injuries!
But Sunday began with an emergency helicopter call-out. A Frenchman, who had even been able to continue last year after a crash, was less fortunate this time: he was taken to hospital with pelvic injuries! However, 270 pilots were able to start. The sick speedway king Franky Zorn and top favorite Maurizio Bottalico were not there - the Italian had suffered a thigh fracture in Saturday training. Arg! "LandsARG!" But two Austrians benefited from this: Thomas Altendorfer won ahead of Markus Mitterbauer. Which meant that "Land of the Mountains" was not only heard before the race.
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