Magic Sagan Claims Junior Title

 

Mountain Bike World Championships

Val di Sole, Italy, June 17-22, 2008
Report & Images: Rob Jones

Link: Mountain Bike Worlds Home Page

Day3 - Junior Men XC

The awesome Peter Sagan

 

Peter Sagan of Slovakia is the European mountain bike champion. He also finished second at the Cyclo-Cross Worlds, and fourth at the Road Worlds last autumn. Now, he is the Junior Mountain Bike champion. Obviously, this is one talented rider.

Sagan went to the front of the huge 102 rider field at the base of the first climb, taking Arnaud Jouffroy (France) with him. At the top of that climb they had a gap of 12 seconds on chaser Alexander Gehbauer (Austria), another favoured rider, and by the end of the first of five laps they were 30 seconds ahead of him.

Sagan then upped the pace again to drop Jouffroy, and was nearly 30 seconds clear two kilometres into the second lap. Gehbauer was still sitting third, just ahead of Matthias Rupp (Switzerland), but a broken derailleur at the top of the second climb put him out of the race, moving Rupp into the bronze medal spot.

Jouffroy & Rupp, second and third

This is how it would remain for the rest of the race, with Sagan steadily pulling away to win by over a minute and a half on Jouffroy, with Rupp at nearly three minutes, and fourth place Fabian Strecker (Germany) over five and a half minutes down.

Great Britain's top finisher was Hamish Creber of Edinburgh in 39th place, 15 minutes down on Sagan, with Alex Paton 47th and Sebastian Batchelor 50th, both one lap behind.

Hamish Creber compares notes with GB Team Manager Helen Mortimer

For Creber, it was a much better result than last year in Fort William, Scotland, when he double punctured.

"I'm pretty pleased with my ride. I tried to start steady because it was a long race. This put me back a bit after the first couple of laps, but I was able to work my way up through the field in the second half. My original goal was a top-30 result, but the start was so fast and then the gaps that opened up were too big to close."

Seb Batchelor climbs early in the race

Alex Paton feeling the heat on a climb

Jouffroy, Sagan and Rupp pose after the race

 

Downhill Quaification

 

In the Downhill qualifying, Gee Atherton continued his recent run of form and he was comfortably the fastest of the Elite Men, almost 4 seconds clear of Greg Minnar of South Africa. Justin Leov of New Zealand and Sam Hill of Australia were third and fourth. Other Brits included Steve Peat in 7th and Brendan Fairclough in 8th.

In the Elite Women's qualifying, Rachel Atherton was a stunning 11 seconds clear of Emmeline Ragot and 16 clear of defending champion Sabrina Jonnier. Tracy Moseley was 6th and Fionn Griffiths 12th.

Josh Bryceland was second in the Junior men's qualifying, behind Remi Thirion of France. Jo Smith and Sam Dale were 6th and 7th.

 

The Brits are therefore very well set going into Saturday's fianls, though past experience has shown that qualification counts for little on race day, when the pressure is intense. We'll bring you all the news on the day!

 

Results

Junior Men Cross-Country

1. Peter Sagan (Slovakia) 1:35:21
2. Arnaud Jouffroy (France) +1:33
3. Matthias Rupp (Switzerland) +2:50
4. Fabian Strecker (Germany) +5:33
5. Mirco Widmer (Switzerland) +5:41
6. Luca Braidot (Italy) +5:42
7. Henk Jaap Moorlag (Netherlands) +6:06
8. Marcus Schulte-Luenzum (Germany) +6:14
9. Mattthias Stirnemann (Switzerland) +6:32
10. Marek Konwa (Poland) +7:00
11. Martin Gluth (Germany) +7:16
12. Tim Wellens (Belgium) +9:36
13. Micki Van Empel (Netherlands) +9:55
14. Blaz Znidarsic (Slovenia) + 10:54
15. Anthony Grenet (France) + 10:58
16. Daniele Braidot (Italy) + 11:00
17. Jonas De Backer (Belgium) + 11:16
18. Nicholas Pettina' (Italy) + 11:40
19. Ondrej Cink (Czech Republic) + 11:43
20. Zsolt Juhasz (Hungary) + 11:55
21. Arnaud Grand (Switzerland) + 12:07
22. Jan Nesvadba (Czech Republic) + 12:13
23. Robbie Squire (United States Of America) + 12:24
24. Simon Stiebjahn (Germany) + 12:29
25. Dirk Peters (New-Zealand) + 12:29
26. Ricardo Paulo Reis Marinheiro (Portugal) + 12:30
27. Thomas Decugis (France) + 12:32
28. Erik Groen (Netherlands) + 13:00
29. Matthias Hoi (Austria) + 13:00
30. Mykhaylo Batsutsa (Ukraine) + 13:15
31. Reto Indergand (Switzerland) + 13:18
32. Robbie Hucker (Australia) + 13:24
33. Elia Silvestri (Italy) + 13:55
34. Peter Braunsteins (Australia) + 13:58
35. Marcel Fleschhut (Germany) + 14:20
36. Olof Jonsson (Sweden) + 14:33
37. Andreas Gravdal (Norway) + 14:41
38. Adriaan Louw (South Africa) + 14:45
39. Hamish Creber (Great Britain) + 15:00
40. Donat Albin (Switzerland) + 15:44
41. George Bennett (New-Zealand) + 15:44
42. Rourke Croeser (South Africa) + 15:47
43. Liam Mcgreevy (Ireland) + 16:49
44. Valentin Fiderer (Germany) + 17:18
45. Evan Guthrie (Canada) + 17:25
46. Amotz Nehoray (Israel) + 17:47
47. Alex Paton (Great Britain) -1Lap
48. Filippo Blanc (Italy) -1Lap
49. Umbert Almenara Verges (Spain) -1Lap
50. Sebastian Batchelor (Great Britain) -1Lap
51. Pavel Pryadein (Russian Federation) -1Lap
52. Ashley Hough (New-Zealand) -1Lap
53. Tyson Wagler (Canada) -1Lap
54. David Miguel Costa Rodrigues (Portugal) -1Lap
55. Kevin Santana (Argentina) -1Lap
56. Benedikt Muendle (Liechtenstein) -1Lap
57. Filip Adel (Czech Republic) -1Lap
58. Attila Bela (Hungary) -1Lap
59. Ruben Scheire (Belgium) -1Lap
60. David Johnston (Australia) -1Lap
61. Joris Bagnol (France) -1Lap
62. Michael Pesse (Italy) -1Lap
63. Charlton Durie (Australia) -1Lap
64. Foronda Mauricio (Colombia) -1Lap
65. Luke Fetch (Australia) -1Lap
66. Rob Van Der Heijden (Netherlands) -1Lap
67. Jonathan Boucher (Canada) -1Lap
68. Michalis Kittis (Cyprus) -1Lap
69. Zoltan Bene (Hungary) -2Laps
70. Manfred Reis (Germany) -2Laps
71. Timofei Ivanov (Russian Federation) -2Laps
72. Alexios Kokovikas (Greece) -2Laps
73. Oscar Byhlinder (Sweden) -2Laps
74. Diogo Beatriz Gome Afonso (Portugal) -2Laps
75. Brazhnik Rodion (Ukraine) -2Laps
76. Mario Rodriguez Bravo (Chile) -2Laps
77. Keisuke Goda (Japan) -2Laps
78. Richard Malinowsky (Brazil) -2Laps
79. Francisco Lopez Pallares (Spain) -2Laps
80. Juan Siles (Argentina) -2Laps
81. Sagi Fainshtain (Israel) -2Laps
82. Szymon Galczynski (Poland) -2Laps
83. John Bennett (United States Of America) -2Laps
84. Andras Szatmary (Hungary) -2Laps
85. Kerry Werner (United States Of America) -2Laps
86. Abdurrahman Dandal (Turkey) -2Laps
87. Charalampos Takidis (Greece) -2Laps
88. Stepan Stepanov (Russian Federation) -2Laps
89. Neil Mc Gimpsey (Ireland) -2Laps
90. Scott Green (New-Zealand) -2Laps
91. Klemen Nicoletti (Slovenia) -2Laps
92. Seamus Powell (United States Of America) -2Laps
93. Tomer Laks (Israel) -2Laps
DNF. Alexander Gehbauer (Austria)
DNF. Jakub Magnusek (Czech Republic)
DNF. Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Italy)
DNF. German Dorhmann (Argentina)
DNF. Paul O'reilly (Ireland)
DNF. Balint Lukacs (Hungary)
DNF. Aleksei Kuzmenko (Russian Federation)
DNF. Vid Tancer (Slovenia)
DNF. Kieran Hambrook (New-Zealand)
DNS. Joze Zagar (Slovenia)