Telfes / Greiling - The route was relatively flat.
Comparable to the forest road to the Schwaiger Alm at the Oberland Challenge.
This tempted his competitors in the M 60 age group at the senior mountain running world championships in Telfes to sprint away from the start as if there was no tomorrow.
Or as if the route wasn't 7.2 kilometers long and didn't have 760 meters of altitude.
Winfried Huber took it calmly, kept his rhythm and pace steadfast - and after less than a third of the way up to the Schlickeralm and the Kreuzjoch, he picked up one colleague after the other.
With this tactic, the 61-year-old from Greiling won the world championship title in 43:11 minutes.
Karl Kremser from Königsdorf wins the world title with the M 65 team
"They had taken over," says his trainer Hans Thomann about Huber's overzealous competitors.
“We had adjusted to the track.” After a good two kilometers, Huber had overtaken almost everyone, picked up the pace when it got steeper and also put the later second and third place finishers, the Irish Gerard Maloney and the Italian Luigi Bortoluzzi.
"From then on he ran ahead," says Thomann.
Although the Greilinger prefers it when it gets really steep, he took almost two minutes from his closest rival to the finish at 2100 meters above sea level.
Karl Kremser from Königsdorf won the bronze medal in his M 65 age group in 48:31 minutes and was team world champion with Ludwig Lang and Peter Lenz.
Huber won a world title with the team six years ago
“That was my biggest single success ever,” says Huber, who crossed the finish line overjoyed.
With the team - the 61-year-old Greilinger had already won the title at the World Cup in the Czech Republic six years ago - this time, with Jürgen Keller and Hans Bouricha-Hörmann, he clinched the runner-up world title behind Italy.
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World Cup bronze went to Karl Kremser (right) from Königsdorf.
He won the title with the M 65 team.
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The ENT doctor had prepared very specifically for the World Cup.
After becoming a father again a year ago, he rarely competed and had to divide his time very well between family, his ENT practice in Holzkirchen and training.
"But a special training method certainly helped," says trainer Thomann with a smile.
As often as he could, Huber grabbed his one-year-old daughter, put her in the stroller and pushed her up to the Schwaiger Alm at a run.
"An excellent strength and endurance training", praises Thomann, who has accompanied the ENT doctor for years with instructions and training plans.
Finishing touches in the Croatian hills
The pram method and other preparation certainly paid off at Greilinger.
In the two weeks before the World Cup, Huber was still training in Croatia in very hilly terrain.
I reeled off interval runs and driving games on the mountain.
Thomann: “That's where he got the finishing touches.” And on his world championship run, Huber only needed a little more than four minutes per kilometer on average.
Some of them are having a hard time on the plain, and they are not 61 years old.
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At the award ceremony: Mountain running world champion M 60 Winfried Huber (center) with second-placed Irishman Gerard Maloney (left) and Italian Luigi Bortoluzzi.
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