Hanka Kupfernagel (born 19 March 1974 in Gera, Bezirk Gera) is a retired German professional cycle racer. During most of her career her primary focus was cyclo-cross racing, however, she has also won major road, track and mountain bike races. She has won seven consecutive medals at the UCI Women's Cyclo-cross World Championships, including three gold medals for 2000, 2001 and 2005; two silver medals in 2002 and 2003; and the bronze medal in 2004. Her major career victories also include a gold medal in the individual time trial compe*ion at the 2007 UCI Road World Championships in Stuttgart and a silver medal in the road race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

She finished 1st in the year-end UCI world cl* rankings in 1997 and 1999 winning the 1999 La Flèche Wallonne Féminine in the process. Kupfernagel captured the Ema*een Bira cyclo-cross race three consecutive years from 1997 to 1999.

In 2007, the three-times world cyclo-cross champion added world time trial champion to her palmares when she won gold at the 2007 UCI Road World Championships Women's Time Trial. She also won the Spark*en Giro Bochum.

In 2008, she had a very strong cyclo-cross season, winning two World Cup races and even though she finished at second place for six times, she had enough point to claim the overall World Cup *le. She seemed to be the favourite for the women's race at the 2009 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Hoogerheide, she was not able to defend her *le as Marianne Vos beat her during a sprint finish and left her with the silver medal.

Kupfernagel officially retired in 2016. After three and a half years out of compe*ion she participated in the German cyclo-cross championship 2019 at the age of 44 finishing the race in the second place.

External links

• Official website (in German)

References