Philipp Hofbauer on Track for the Title – Spectacular Everesting Debut
Philipp Hofbauer on Track for the Title – Spectacular Everesting Debut
The Team Vorarlberg was spread across three races over the weekend. Gaisberg, Zurich, and Furx were the stops—and the results were positive.
Austrian Championship Bronze for Hofbauer
The Austrian Mountain Bike Championships took place today at the Gaisberg Vertical in Salzburg. The elite race was part of the Road Cycling League Austria and led from the Salzburgring up to the summit of the Gaisberg, covering a climb of just over 700 meters in elevation. The Gaisberg thus once again became the stage for cycling—a classic returned in a new format.
Team Vorarlberg showed up with nearly its full roster and proved that this season’s outstanding results are no fluke. As expected, the race developed into a very fast one right from the start. Gaps opened up quickly, and in the end, a group of three remained to battle for the title. Hermann Pernsteiner was able to make the biggest gain on the steep finish and built up a lead of a good half a minute over Riccardo Zoidl and Team Vorarlberg’s top pro, Philipp Hofbauer.
Hofbauer thus defended his lead in the Road Cycling League Austria and will battle it out with Zoidl for the overall victory in the final race in Königswiesen. Colin Stüssi rounded out the strong showing by the Vorarlberg riders with a fourth-place finish and played a key role in helping his team retain the overall team lead in the Road Cycling League Austria.
Austrian Mountain Bike Championships
www.computerauswertung.at/veranstaltungen/2026/260816/20260816_Gaisberg_Bergrennen_ME_MU.pdf
Road Cycling League Austria
www.computerauswertung.at/veranstaltungen/2026/260816/RBL-Auswertung_ME_nach_Gaisbergrennen.pdf
Criterion in Zurich
The Zuricrit 2026 was a real experience for Kilian Feurstein and Dominik Amann. A formidable field was cheered on by thousands of fans in Zurich’s Old Town. The victory went to Swiss rider Mauro Schmid, who won a stage at this year’s Tour de France. Given the competition, Kilian Feurstein put in a respectable performance, finishing 24th, while Dominik Amann withdrew from the race early.
Everesting Debut Leaves You Wanting More
Team Vorarlberg head Thomas Kofler was one of the organizers of the Everesting event in Furx yesterday. Everesting refers to the world’s highest mountain. The challenge for the 90 participants was to climb no fewer than 8,848 meters of elevation gain, either individually or in a team to handle. The route (4.87 kilometers, 475 meters of elevation gain, 9.7% gradient) ran from the Batschuns Elementary School to the Peterhof Furx.
The individual winner was Daniel Zugg from Montafon, who is well-known in the ski mountaineering community. He conquered the ascent 19 times, completing it in exactly eight hours. Dominik Bertel and Christian Raich took second and third place, respectively.
Thomas Kofler wasn’t just active on the organizing team. He also got on his bike himself and clocked a very respectable 7,125 meters of elevation gain. That wasn’t the only reason for his more-than-satisfied conclusion: “A cool debut, a great atmosphere—it definitely has us looking forward to the second edition next year.”
The team title went to Team TGS, consisting of Florian and Thomas Schmidle, Simon Vötter, and Joshua Olowu; in the doubles competition, Anna-Maria and Thomas Hämmerle came out on top.
The focus, however, was on the good cause, for which World Cup skier Magdalena Egger and former mountain bike world champion Daniel Federspiel—competing outside the official competition—also gave it their all. The net proceeds went to the seriously injured BMX rider Bjarne Schedler from Bludenz and will also be donated toward the renovation of the church in Altenstadt.
Our cover photo shows the winners’ photo featuring third-place finisher Philipp Hofbauer (right) from Team Vorarlberg. Also included are additional highlights from the Austrian Mountain Championships (© Reinhard Eisenbauer) as well as photos from Zurich and Furx.
Roster: Giacomo Ballabio, Pirmin Benz, Ignazio Cireddu, Philipp Hofbauer, Mathias Larch, Laurin Nenning, Dominik Röber, Tobias Nolde, Colin Stüssi, Emanuel Zangerle
