Two KTM Youngsters are among the best German up-and-coming mountain bikers.
The German junior mountain bike series is over. This year’s series came to an end with the competitions this weekend in Wetter/Ruhr, where the best were crowned German champions.
With Timo Brandl, Niclas Look, Simon Potstada and Paulina Weigelt four KTM Youngsters traveled to the Ruhr area. There, as usual, the national youngsters’ competition consisted of two competitions: a skill course and an XC race. Timo and Simon coped best with the course, finishing seventh and eighth in the field of more than 100 participants. There were in fact many riders from neighboring countries at the start as part of the 3-Nation Cup. Niclas was well on course for a long time, but then he got stuck on a tree. In the end, he was 15th. Paulina remained completely without a result, but this was due to the fact that she arrived after a skiing course only after the end of the discipline.
On Sunday the XC races followed. Since Paulina did not bring a result from the skill course, she had to start from the very back. However, this was no problem for the KTM Amazon. Already in the start loop, she pushed into the leading group, from which she took the lead after the first descent. Continuously she extended the lead and sovereignly secured the victory. With this, Paulina also won the overall ranking of the national junior classification and was crowned German Champion. In the U17, Timo and Simon started from the second row of the grid. Timo was not able to deliver his usual performance this time and finished twelfth. For Simon it went a little better. In a strong field he drove in a chasing group and was seventh in the end. In the overall standings Timo finished in a strong second place and was happy about the vice championship. Simon finished fifth, not quite reaching his top-three goal. Nico Wollenberg, who competed in a track sighting this weekend (see below), finished 29th with only four sightings scored.
Finally, Niclas was challenged in the U15 category. The youngest KTM Youngster was able to position himself in a fast race in the chasing group behind the leader. Niclas rode tactically smart and blew up the group on a steep climb to pull away a few seconds. This maneuver gave him second place. In the overall standings, Niclas took seventh place.
While his teammates were on the road in western Germany, Nico Wollenberg had traveled to the opposite end of the country. In Frankfurt/Oder, there was a federal junior talent sighting for track/road. This will already be evaluated for the year 2023. In the first competition, the 200-meter sprint, Nico made it into the midfield, although this is not his specialty. The next morning, the competition continued with the 2,000-meter time trial. However, Nico started too fast and then had to pay tribute to his high initial speed. He was very annoyed about that. Things went better in the afternoon in the elimination race, Nico’s special discipline. The KTM Youngster made it to third place in a tactical race. The final race on the last day was the Madison. Due to weak 2,000-meter times by Nico and his partner, it was only enough for the B heat. Nevertheless, he and his partner were able to win this race clearly.
