Lively races at the Frankfort Skating Marathon

Lively races at the Frankfort Skating Marathon

Cock fight

Fights at the top are taking shape in Germany!  If the EO Skates team easily dominated the Three Track Race, Powerslide doesn’t seem to want to be taken in on its lands. The black and white army did its best to climb on the highest steps of the podium for the Frankfort Marathon…

The 6th edition of the Rhein-Main Skate Challenge, the Frankfort Marathon, counts for the general ranking of the German Inline Cup, which is the equivalent of our French Cup but with the World Top Skaters taking part. More than twenty different nations were there, including Columbia and South Korea.

There were numerous spectators on the side of the road, to the great delight of the skaters. In fact, there was a race of professional cycling on the same course, which highlighted the skating race.

Bad luck for EO Skates and opportunistic Swiss team

Before the start, the organization mentions that there is a dangerous bend 3 km later. The race starts on a rather technical and dangerous course, with numerous blind bends and downhill false flats. In the Men’s Category, around 30 skaters quickly make a hole. The Swiss Skate Team launches numerous attacks but Powerslide doesn’t retaliate despite 15 competitors in the race.

Yann Guyader and Elio Cunci make a break just before the mentioned downhill bend. They pass the opening motorbike on the outside. The latter is surprised and stands up, sending Yann hurtling to the sidewalk. The two team mates fall.

That’s the moment chosen by Nicolas Iten (Swiss Skate Team) to make a break. Ewen Fernandez and Bart Swings have a look at each other: Ewen gets on the heel of Iten to counter-attack while Bart stands up to wait for the pack. At that time of the race, it’s a big mess. Yann Guader gets back up with damaged hindquarters but he resumes the race. He will need more than 5 km to get back to the pack.

The attack won’t go very far, Ewen doesn’t relay and the two skaters are catched up. The aim seems to have been to neutralize any slightest sign of break. Severin Widmer (Swiss Skate Team) makes a break, followed by Félix Rijhnen, Giacomo Cuncu and Yves Reist (Switzeland), but Widmer is the strong man of the moment. He beats each skater one by one before flying to the victory.

Behind, the skaters group together. Ewen Fernandez, Bart Swings and even Félix Rijhnen launch several breaks one after another without success: the EO Skates Team sticks like glue.

Around 5 km before the arrival, Maarten Swings tries his luck. Everybody let him go. The skaters have him as a focal point during his last 5 km, but the pursuers watch over one another so much that he manages to make it to the finish line. Only Nicolas Iten, counter-attacks and passes him just before the arrival.

Yann Guyader launches the sprint 700 m before the finish, passing Bart Swings. He doesn’t manage to catch up with Maarten Swings and Nicolas Iten who take the 3rd and 2nd places. Severin Widmer arrived one minute before, after a 1:04:16 race, one minute ahead of the pack, breaking a new record of the race. The sprint would have been timed at almost 70 km in the downhill false flat.

Ewen Fernandez’s account (Powerslide Matter)

« I tried to break 1 km before the arrival, thinking I could catch up with Iten and Maarten Swings and get the 2nd place. But I was too tired after the previous attacks and it didn’t work. I got passed by the head of the pack before the line, while Bart and Félix took care of the sprint.

But they got passed by two EO-Skates members in the final sprint. A bad race for us and the Team Powerslide World. We are glad for the Europe Team which took the 3rd place: at least there’s one Powerslide skater on the podium! And congratulations to the Swiss Skaters who played well because both teams Powerslide and EO Skates were neutralized. They were opportunistic and it paid!

We’re disappointed, but next time will be better, that’s for sure… »

The Women’s Race

In the Women’s Category, you have to wait until the final sprint to see Sabine Berg (Powerslide Matter World) taking the lead in front of her compatriot and team member Katharina Rumpus. Jana Gegner completes the podium for EO Skates.

Katharina Rumpus would have zigzagged on the line to clear the coast for her team mate, preventing Jana Gegner from sprinting. The latter had to skate the race alone, deprived from her team mate Roberta Casu, hospitalized for suspicion of appendicitis crisis.

Main Results

Men’s General Ranking

1) Widmer Severin – Swiss Skate Team – 1:04.16,8
2) Iten Nicolas – Swiss Skate Team – 1:05.07
3) Swings Maarten – Vi-G13 – 1:05.07,6
4) Guyader Yann – EOSkates 1:05.07,8
5) Francolini Fabio – EOSkates – 1:05.08,4
6) Swings Bart – Powerslide Matter World – 1:05.08,5
7) Rijhnen Felix – Powerslide Matter World – 1:05.08,6
8) Reist Yves – GB Racingteam – 1:05.09,0
9) Fernandez Ewen – Powerslide Matter World – 1:05.09,2
10) Kwak Dong – Powerslide Korea – 1:05.09,3 

Women’s General Ranking

1) Berg Sabine – Powerslide Matter World – 1:15.56,7
2) Rumpus Katharina – Powerslide Matter World – 1:15.56,8
3) Gegner Jana – EOSkates – 1:15.56,9
4) Zielke Carolin – GB Racingteam – 1:15.57,0
5) Suh Sohee – Powerslide Korea – 1:15.57,1
6) Strüver Tina – GOLZE-Girls – 1:15.57,5
7) Agudelo Luisa – Powerslide Matter World – 1:15.57,6
8) Henneken Claudia Maria – GOLZE-Girls – 1:15.57,7
9) Ulbrich Katja – GB Racingteam – 1:15.57,8
10) Shin Young – Powerslide Korea – 1:15.57,9

Useful Links

See the men’s results
See the women’s results

Text: Alfathor
Translation: Close Yr E’s
Based on accounts by Daniel Busser, Yann Guyader and Ewen Fernandez
Photo: Frank Räcker, Daniel Busser