WindStorm breaks Enercon and Nordex wind turbine blades in Germany and FranceEXCLUSIVE | Operator of wind farm with Enercon machines in southern Germany halts all nine turbines as root cause investigated
while blade of same model also damaged in France
Mathias Leisling(Image credit: Armin Küstenbrück)Aaron Beck finishes(Image credit: Armin Küstenbrück)Esther Süss wins the stage(Image credit: Armin Küstenbrück)Race leader Esther Süss(Image credit: Armin Küstenbrück)German marathon champion Markus Kaufmann grabbed the win on the second stage of Trans Zollernalb from Balingen to Albstadt and took over the yellow leader's jersey on Saturday. After a crash
abandoned while Esther Süss won her second stage in the women's category
Leader Huber crashed after 20 kilometers while sitting in the four-man leading group at the time
Torsten Marx and Matthias Pfrommer got punctures
They were riding as part of a seven-rider leading group when the flats occurred
When it came to the second intermediate sprint
Kristian Hynek and Hannes Genze couldn't follow the duo
So the way was open for Kaufmann to take his first Trans Zollernalb stage win
His advantage ended up being 1:15 to Genze and 1:17 to Leisling
Kaufmann was also able to take over the race lead
when he had chain suck with two kilometers to go
"Bad luck for Robert and also for Urs," Kaufmann said regarding his competitors
Kaufmann will start with 55 seconds of advantage to Leisling into the last stage from Albstadt to Hechingen
Mennen lost 1:53 and is now fifth (1:21) behind Hynek (1:21)
Esther Süss also had to survive some difficult moments
She was riding together with Silke Schmidt in the lead
"It was difficult in the corners and in the downhills
So I decided to change the wheel at last tech zone in Meßstetten," said Süss
that Esther would come back up to me again," said the 26-year-old
who is battling a cold and therefore not in perfect form
leaving Schmidt with only a few kilometers to go
Jana Zieschank got the third spot on the podium
Esther Suess Elisabeth Brandau(Image credit: Armin Küstenbrück)Elite men's podium: Urs Huber
Robert Mennen and Markus Bauer(Image credit: Armin Küstenbrück)Robert Mennen after his stage win(Image credit: Armin Küstenbrück)Robert Mennen won the Trans Zollernalb opener between Bad Imnau and Balingen on Friday while Urs Huber (Team Bulls) rides in yellow as race leader after winning bonus seconds
A big leading group stayed together until five kilometers of 59km total to go
Two intermediate sprints at Vöhringen and Bickelsberg did not blow up the group
although Huber tried to gain an advantage of some seconds
so Markus Bauer took the three seconds for the win ahead of Robert Mennen (two seconds) and Jochen Käss (one second)
Huber did better and won in front of Bauer and Leisling
After an attack by Torsten Marx was neutralized by Tim Böhme
Böhme gave his teammate Huber the chance to escape with two kilometers to go
while Kristian Hynek could not follow and at the same time blocked Bauer
Mennen then outsprinted Huber for the stage win
but the Swiss rider was awarded with the yellow leader's jersey due to the bonus seconds
"I was lucky that I knew the corner to the finish straight," said Mennen
I took advantage of my teammates Tim and Stefan
Esther Süss was riding in group of men at a pace which no other women could keep
"Normally I don't like fast races like this one
One flat and everything is gone," said the rider who was third at cross country Worlds a few weeks ago
She took 2:27 minutes out of Silke Schmidt and 6:52 from Elisabeth Brandau
both of whom were suffering a bit due to infections