June 2022

Two Medals at the German National Champs

With two podium places for the RAAW // LEVELNINE GRAVITY TEAM, a fourth place for RAAW Ambassador Fabian Heim and another Ambassador in the Top20 we can look back on a successful weekend at the German Enduro Championship.

When the first "real" race of the season is the championship, a lot is still uncertain: Where do you stand compared to the others? Has the hard winter training paid off? Will the pack be reshuffled or will the same riders dominate as last year? Whereas in previous years you were usually able to use the whole season to test each other and get to know your own speed, this year in Willingen you had to attack directly and give everything.

The entire RAAW // LEVELNINE GRAVITY TEAM traveled to the most important German race of the year and also some of our Ambassadors did not miss this opportunity. In total we were represented by 6 riders in the elite categories, all of them competing on our Madonna.

As always, the six stages were trained on Saturday. The trails were very short and especially Stage 5 quite crowded. Nevertheless, the riders had a lot of fun looking for the best lines on the loamy, partly wet ground. Everyone was highly motivated for the race!

On Sunday, the weather cleared up. The trails slightly dried up, but were still slippery in parts and much more rutted out compared to the day before.

As already in the training Helen felt very comfortable on the tracks and was even able to set the best time on two stages. Only a small defect threw her back a little on Stage 3. But Helen was able to fix the problem directly afterwards, which is why only little time was lost.

On the short stages, the right pacing strategy was one of the biggest challenges.

Torben managed to find a good balance between safety and risk and differed from most of his competitors in this aspect.

In the packed field of starters, he was thus able to finish in third place.

The very short and fast race made it difficult for Chris to find the right pace. As his first race of the season he could not yet use his full potential. Chris still stood out with his great line choice and an impressive riding style.

His teammates were able to benefit from this and picked up one or two good lines from him.

With his racing experience, David was able to give everyone valuable advice both during practice and in the race. This also kept the motivation and fun level permanently high.

The work of the entire RAAW // LEVELNINE GRAVITY TEAM paid off and in the end the riders were able to take home two medals. RAAW Ambassador Fabian Heim just missed the podium and finished in fourth place. Ambassador Jens Steinsberger also rode a good race and was able to finish in 17th place.