For many athletes, bicycles are an integral part of summer training, regardless of whether they are racing bikes or mountain bikes. The Summer Challenge 2020 is about finding out what kind of vehicle the athletes can use to reach the finish line faster: on a luge in winter or on a mountain bike in summer?

Pigneter/Clara are ready to start

In mid-August, we sent the reigning World Champions and overall World Cup winners in doubles, Patrick Pigneter/Florian Clara (ITA), on a mountain bike to the 2019 World Championship venue Latzfons (ITA). First, however, it was necessary to climb the 908 meters of the Lahnwiesen-track uphill. The World Champions were accompanied by young luge atheltes. “The kids were extremely interested, we studied the different lines and talked about training programs,” says Patrick Pigneter.

Then it got exciting: The fastest run of Pigneter/Clara at the 2019 World Championship was 1.06.56 minutes, so they had to beat this time. Pigneter set a time of 1.47.66 minutes, Clara reached the finish line after 1.43.79 minutes. "That is really unbelievable, I was at the limit and still 40 seconds slower than with the luge", said Florian Clara after the Summer Challenge 2020, "this really shows how fast luge on natural track is". “It's definitely not enough for a career as a professional cyclist,” joked a cheerful Patrick Pigneter, who is preparing for the 2020/2021 World Cup season with his teammates several times a week at the Lana sports field.

Cleaning the bikes after the Summer Challenge 2020

To see the video please visit the social media channels of FIL.