25th Ischgl Ironbike Marathon

Last updated on 05.08.2019

The winners of the 25th Ischgl Ironbike Marathon have been established: Urs Huber won the men’s race and Blaza Pintaric took to the podium after the women’s race. The race covers a distance of 76.64 km and 3,700m of altitude and is renowned for being one of the hardest mountain biking marathon races in Europe. The total prize money came to 45,000 euros. New to the race this year was the UCI S2 Stage Race featuring four race formats. Save the Date: the 26th Ischgl Ironbike will take place from 5 to 8 August 2020.

In 2019, 1,175 mountain bikers participated: during the 25th Ischgl Ironbike Marathon taking place from 31 July until 3 August, they would be putting themselves to the test in various individual and stage races along with the Ironbike routes, choosing between ‘Hard’ (76.64 km), ‘Medium’ (49.42 km) and ‘Light’ (29.38 km).  Exceptional contests such as the UCI S2 Stage Race, the ‘Ischgl Alpenhaus Trophy’, a night-time Hill Climb run as a fox hunt for e-bikers and the ‘Ironbike Kids and Juniors Trophy’ were well received by both the riders and audience alike.

Gold for Urs Huber and Blaza Pintaric at the 25th Ischgl Ironbike Marathon
Some 800 professionals and amateurs put their best performance to the test during the 25th Ischgl Ironbike Marathon on 3 August 2019 over three different and challenging routes. There were three routes for bikers to choose from depending on their fitness level – Hard (76.64 km and 3,700m altitude), Medium (49.42 km and 2,098 km) and Light (29.38 km and 849m altitude). The ultimate adrenaline rush and burning thighs all-inclusive. The supreme discipline was won by Urs Huber from Switzerland with a time of 4:08.06,0 in the men’s race and Blaza Pintaric from Slovenia in 5:01.17,9 in the women’s race. The winners over the Medium distance were Daniel Ganahl from Austria with a time of 2:24.34,2 and Letizia Strimer from Switzerland with a time of 3:01.53,5. And over the Light distance, Christian Schmitt from Austria with a time of 1:08.22,1 and Eva-Maria Dorer from Germany with a time of 1:27.43,9 battled it out to secure a place on the podium.

UCI S2 Stage Race
Those aiming for overall victory in the new Ischgl Ironbike Stage Race and wishing to collect UCI points first had to complete four race formats in Ischgl. Overall, 63 participants took to the starting line in the ‘Individual Time Trial’, ‘Alpenhaus Trophy’, ‘Short Track’ and ‘Ironbike Hard’ categories. At the end, all four of the individual times are added together and the winners announced. The men and women are assessed in both professional and amateur categories. Well-deserved victory in the professionals category went to Urs Huber from Switzerland in the men’s and Blaza Pintaric from Slovenia in the women’s. In the amateurs category, Daniel Rubisoier from Austria raced to victory in the men’s and Irina Krenn from Austria in the women’s.

Silvretta MTB King and Queen 2019
Mountain biking crowns for the Silvretta MTB King and Queen were again presented this year in Ischgl. Challenging and energy-sapping trials both in the M3 Montafon MTB Marathon on 27 July and during the Ischgl Ironbike Marathon on 3 August 2019 had to be completed in order to achieve the fastest overall time. The fastest riders were crowned for the ‘M³ Extreme and Ironbike Hard’ and the ‘M² Demanding and Ironbike Medium’ routes. To give the amateurs a chance, this year there was also a separate evaluation for amateurs and professionals in the ‘M³ Extreme and Ironbike Hard’ category for the first time. This year’s crowned winners in the ‘M³ Extreme and Ironbike Hard’ professional category were Frans Claes from Belgium in the men’s race and Blaza Pintaric from Slovenia in the women’s. In the ‘M³ Extreme and Ironbike Hard’ amateurs category, Daniel Rubisoier from Austria was the men’s winner. In the ‘M² Demanding and Ironbike Medium’ category, Daniel Ganahl from Austria was the men’s winner and Melanie Geiger from Austria the women’s, securing them the associated titles of Silvretta MTB Prince and Princess.

Celebrity fox hunt
The e-biking fox hunt powered by BH BIKES was again a highlight for e-bikers on 1 August. From 21:30, the e-bikers chased down the ‘fox’ Andreas Goldberger, a former ski jumping star from Upper Austria. He was given a 15-minute head start and a racing bike and the race took place by floodlight along a 7.65 km route from the centre of Ischgl (1,377m altitude) to the Alpenhaus on the Idalp (2,300m altitude).
The relentless pursuit over 1,000m altitude was an exciting race for the e-bikers and the hunted down ‘fox’ alike. The ‘fox’ finally had to leave the terrain to the e-mountain bikers.

Night-time pursuit for the Alpenhaus Trophy
Before the e-mountain bikers were chasing down the ‘fox’, classic mountain bikers were taking to the starting line for the Hill Climb event. Participants in the Alpenhaus Trophy could choose between taking part in the individual race or as part of the UCI S2 stage race. The 7.65 km route covering almost 1,000m of altitude was successfully won by Toni Tähti (Team Augment Sports/Jyps) from Finland in the men’s and Blaza Pintaric (Team Pintatim) from Slovenia in the women’s.

A taste of racing life for up-and-coming mountain bikers
Up-and-coming mountain biking talent again showed off what they can do this year, just like their older counterparts: on 2 August, kids and juniors aged 5 to 16 years old set off at 14:00 for the ‘Ironbike Kids and Juniors Trophy’ with 73 participants – a force to be reckoned with in the future.