Some facts from USA Cycling's press release
The Mountain Bike World Championships concluded with the cross-country in Livigno, Italy. NORBA XC and ST number three Adam Craig was en route to the biggest breakout ride of his career until...
Running seventh most of the day and clearly on his way to the first top ten finish by an elite male American cross country rider since 1995, Craig flatted with less than six miles to go.
Despite the bad luck, Craig was happy with his eventually 21st place performance. "I'm not super concerned with results, I'm more concerned with progress and I made some serious progress today," said Craig. "I had a bad start and rode myself into the top five, so that's fine with me."
After an admittedly slow start, Craig finally found his groove and quickly improved his position. "It definitely took me a while to get my legs rolling, but once I did, I was moving through people like crazy. It would have been real nice to have better contact at the start and race from the front, but I'm learning. I could basically shift into a higher gear and pedal faster whenever I wanted, so that was nice."
Throughout the day, Craig was just minutes off the pace of eventual winner and defending champion Julien Absalon, who took his second consecutive world title 18 seconds ahead of current World Cup leader Christophe Sauser.
First and second place certainly had much better tech zone support than Craig. Both Absalon and Sauser flatted and changed wheels during the third and final round of the figure 8 layout. Also suffering flats where NORBA Champ Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) and NORBA ST number four Seamus McGrath (Haro). The Canadian duo ended up respectively finishing 14th at 6:39 and 19th at 8:11.
For the women, Gunn-Rita Dahle pretty much checked out shortly after the start. America's hopes rested on our most consistent and competitive World Cup competitor, Mary McConneloug.
After a conservative start, McConneloug was on the fringe of cracking the podium. She was running fourth after the first time check before a minor disruption caused her to lose a couple of spots.
"I was running fourth, but then I dropped my chain and two women got by me and I just kind of settled in," McConneloug explained. "I think I could have been in the top four or five today if I didn't have my problems but it's alright, I'm psyched."
Throughout much of the race, McConneloug rode in a small three woman group that also included three-time World Champion Alison Sydor and Irina Kalentieva. Ahead of the trio Gunn-Rita Dahle, Maja Wloszczowska, Petra Henzi, Marie-Helene Premont and Sabine Spitz looked to have a lock on the top five spots leaving McConneloug to battle it out for sixth.
"No one would pull on the flats so I just stayed at my own pace and gave it on the climbs. Alison and I dropped Kalentieva who's a really strong climber and then Alison just got away from me a bit on the descent and I could never quite bridge up to her."
2005 NORBA National Mountain Bike Series champion, Shonny Vanlandingham, also turned in a strong performance, placing 12th despite starting in 45th position.
"I came around the first loop in 30th or so and just gradually worked my way up, so I'm pretty happy," said Vanlandingham. "I climbed really well and I was hoping for a top ten finish but I have to do more World Cups to get a better start position."
TALK ABOUT WORLD DESTRUCTION
Both Dahle and Absalon have swept the World Championships two years running, not to mention their respective Olympic titles as well. In additional to all that, Dahle put a new twist on domination. The Norwegian won the World Marathon Champ's just two weeks ago, and the European Champ's two weeks prior to that. The competition can expect her to be around for a while too. Dahle has said that she wants to defend her Olympic gold at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Gunn-Rita Dahle is the most dominant cross-country rider the sport has ever seen.
Next weekend is the World Cup XC, DH & 4X finale in Great Britain. Following a week after is the U.S. National Championships in Mammoth Mountain, CA on September 15-18.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP XC RESULTS
The men race three laps for a total 26.7 mile distance.
1. Julien Absalon (Fra)...Bianchi Agos...2:07:34...12.6 mph
2. Christoph Sauser (Swi)...Siemens Cannondale...at 0:18
3. Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos (Spn)...Multivan Merida...0:54
4. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Swe)...Siemens Cannondale...1:32
5. Thomas Frischknecht (Swi)...Swiss Power...4:15
6. Manuel Fumic (Ger)...4:17
7. Hector Leonardo Paez Leon (Col)...4:29
8. Silvio Bundi (Swi)...Athleticum...4:47
9. Oliver Beckingsale (GBr)...5:08
10. Carlos Coloma Nicolas (Spn)...5:18
21. Adam Craig...Giant...8:46
32. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski...Subaru-Gary Fisher...11:05
42. Michael Broderick...Seven-Kenda...14:06
48. Carl Decker...Giant...16:01
54. Todd Wells...GT-Hyundai...at 18:07
WOMEN
The female raced 2-1/2 laps for an 18.9 mile distance.
1. Gunn-Rita Dahle (Nor)...Multivan Merida...1:47:19...10.6 mph
2. Maja Wloszczowska (Pol)...Lotto...at 2:09
3. Petra Henzi (Swi)...Fischer-BMC...3:07
4. Marie-Helene Premont (Can)...Rky Mtn-Biz Obj...4:14
5. Sabine Spitz (Ger)...Specialized...5:27
6. Alison Sydor (Can)...Rky Mtn-Biz Obj...5:49
7. Mary McConneloug...Kenda-Seven...6:14
8. Severine Hansen (Fra)...7:01
9. Irina Kalentieva (Rus)...Multivan Merida...7:25
10. Anna Enocsson (Swe)...Ghost...7:36
12. Shonny Vanlandingham...Luna Chix...9:36
26. Willow Koerber...Subaru-Gary Fisher...13:45
35. Kelli Emmett...Ford-Specialized...17:24
37. Heather Irmiger...Tokyo Joe's-Go Lite...at 17:55
HERE ARE SOME TRIALS RESULTS
It's part of the MTB World Champ's and there were a few Americans there. Here's how they did.
ELITE 20" TRIALS
1. Benito Ros (Spn)
2. Marco Hosel (Ger)
3. Catalan de la Pena (Spn)
30. Brian Yezierski
JUNIOR 20" TRIALS
1. Ben Slinger (GBr)
2. Karol Sherwin (Pol)
3. Marco Thoma (Ger)
5. Ryan Cecil
ELITE 26" TRIALS
1. Kenny Belaey (Bel)
2. Vincent Hermance (Fra)
3. Ros Charral (Spn)
24. Jeremy Van Schoonhoven
JUNIOR 26" TRIALS
1. Ben Slinger (GBr)
2. Ben Savage (GBr)
3. Wesley Belaey (Bel)
15. Cameron Cowall
16. Edward Gildea |