Great Britain’s Evie Richards produced a superb performance to finish sixth in the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships junior women’s cross-country race in Hafjell, Norway, on Thursday.
Richards’ result, along with seventh for Isla Short and 13th for Ffion James represented career-best rides for all three athletes, with the world title going to Switzerland’s Nicole Koller.
"I’m never really aware of what position I’m in so I was really pleased when I found out," said a delighted Richards after the race. "But I think I got too excited and I kept falling off after that because I was so excited I was in sixth place.
"It’s been such an amazing experience I can’t say. Learning off of all the other people about different race situations and how to prepare for it."
Richards made an excellent start from 36th on the grid, sixth through the first intermediate split, 21 seconds down on early leader, Denmark’s Malene Degn, with Isla Short in eighth, two seconds back on her teammate.
At the end of the first lap Richards and Short had moved up to fifth and seventh while James came through in 19th, two minutes behind the leaders.
Short briefly led her teammate at the start of lap two but at the halfway point of the four-lap race Richards was back in fifth as Short slipped back to seventh.
Then early in lap three a crash for Short saw her lose over a minute to Richards, who crossed the line to start the final lap one minute and 55 seconds back from the two- way fight for the title between Koller and Degn.
Despite her crash, Short hung on to seventh place at the final intermediate split, with Richards looking secure in sixth.
Up ahead Koller crossed the line to take the world title, with Degn silver and Switzerland’s Sina Frei bronze.
Three minutes later Richards came through to record an excellent sixth, while one minute and 51 seconds further back, Short crossed the line in seventh, to make it two Great Britain riders in the top ten.
Ffion James pressed on through the race to move up to 13th at the chequered flag, rounding out an outstanding performance for Great Britain’s under-18 cross-country women.
Commenting on the performance, Great Britain Olympic Development Programme coach Simon Watts said:
"Career-best performances for all riders, outstanding progression of results for two first-year girls particularly in terms of long-term headroom.
“Isla is obviously disappointed but should still be pleased with performance."
Later in the day Great Britain’s Thomas Craig put in an impressive ride to take 25th in the junior men’s event, the 17-year-old moving from 70th on the grid to finish ahead of teammates Dylan Kerfoot-Robson and Frazer Clacherty.
"Very hot and quite hard," said Craig post-race. "I think we were all pretty similar on the gridding on the start and the first thing I noticed was all the dust going in my face on the start line.
"From there it was just trying to move through the field slowly, not try and take ten places on one lap and suffer for it at the end.
"At other races i’ve gone a bit mad and tried to move too quickly and paid for it.
"If we ever get a better gridding in the future we’ll notice the benefits for sure."
It was Kerfoot-Robson got off to a strongest start, moving from a grid position of 82nd to 37th at the end of the first of five laps. Clacherty had also dealt with the first lap melee well, up to 44th from 64th on the grid, while Craig had gained 11 places, up to 59th.
Kerfoot-Robson continued to push on, up to 31st place at the end of lap two, three minutes and 34 seconds back on leader and race favourite Andreassen, who went for the title from the gun, soloing away to open up a lead that he would maintain until the flag.
Clacherty had moved up two places to 45th, while Thomas Craig continued his impressive start, into 45th place as the race approached the halfway stage.
The Great Britain trio continued to move up as the race entered the fourth lap, Kerfoot-Robson climbing to 26th, while Craig had leapt to 33rd ahead of Clacherty in 35th.
Into the final lap and Kerfoot Robson continued to lead the Great Britain challenge in 27th with Craig now 29th, just 11 seconds behind his elder Olympic Development Programme stable mate.
With the finish line beckoning it was clear that Craig had metered his effort to perfection, passing Kerfoot-Robson and moving into 26th place at the final check, the impressive youngster eventually crossing the line in 25th.
Kerfoot-Robson finished 28th while Clacherty took 31st.
Action continues on Friday with Grant Ferguson and Iain Paton competing in the under-23 men’s cross-country, while Beth Crumpton and Alice Barnes represent Great Britain in the under-23 women’s event. Reports and reaction will appear on the British Cycling website.
Results
