World Mountain Bike Championships Day 3

 

Thursday 6 September

Cross-Country - Junior Male

Report & Images: Joolze Dymond

A great sight - a Brit on an Cross-Country podium

 

What a day! The rain stopped....oh and GB took their first medal of the World Champs! Thursday kicked off early, with the junior men's Cross-Country race, with GB fielding a four-man strong team of Dave Fletcher, Hamish Creber, Alex Paton and Shaun Hurrell.

Ahead lay 4 laps of the course, which they were confident knowing it so well having trained here and ridden it so many times in the last couple of months. But this time they had the added complication of 85 other men joining them. On the plus side it wasn't raining so much.

Once again the Swiss were being touted as the favourites here, having taken Gold last year and dominating much of the Junior racing on the circuit. With so many riders entered, gridding was going to be important, as was a clean start. Of our boys, Fletcher had the best grid, starting on the 2nd row, with Creber next a few rows back, then Paton and finally Hurrell well back on the grid.

Alex Paton hurtles through the woods

The start, as ever, was fast and furious with the Swiss rider Thomas Litscher and Frenchman Fabien Canal, sprinting from the line with the rest of the field rapidly stringing out behind them. On the first brutal climb a pack of 15 riders got a lead, headed up by Litscher. Behind the first of many dramas was being playing out as one rider unclipped, leaving a massive build up of riders on the final climb, trying desperately to get in contention with the leading group: one of these was Hamish Creber who had an unfortunate incident, when running with his bike: he struck his nose on his stem, leaving him a little concussed and a possible broken nose. Meanwhile, Dave Fletcher was happily tucked in at 4th spot riding a confident race, unaware of the carnage behind him.

By lap two Paton, Creber and Hurrell were all pulling back places and climbing up the ranks.

Lap three saw Swiss rider Litscher open a small gap, but close behind was Polish rider Piotr Brzozka with Fletcher on his wheel in third. Paton came through in the twenties followed by Hurrell who'd pulled himself up to the thirties. Meanwhile there was no sign of Creber. Minutes a late a bloodied Creber came running into view, with a puncture. He'd punctured on the second section of the descent and had run the rest of the lap and now had a fair old run to get to the next section before he could get a wheel. By this time he was virtually last.

Swiss rider Thomas Litscher claims gold - right, David Fletcher looks equally happy with his bronze

Into the finish and it was Litscher who calmly picked up the gold. Poland took Silver just 27secs later. But the biggest cheer of the week so far, came with the sight of the GB kit as Fletcher came into view in 3rd spot to take a well earned bronze, just 13 secs later. It was the first GB Worlds medal in Cross-Country since Liam Killeen's Under-23 silver in 2004. Before Liam there was only Nicole Cooke's Junior women's race win in 2001, her bronze in 2000 and Dave Baker's bronze way back in 1992. It puts Dave Fletcher's ride into some perspective!

Behind him the rest of the GB team had mixed fortunes. Paton rode his heart out to take a fantastic 17th spot, finishing with a dramatic sprint with the Belgian Mineur, with poor Alex nearly collapsing on the finish line with the effort. Next in was Hamish Creber who despite being very nearly last on the 3rd lap had managed to claw his way up the rankings to take an incredible 55th. Last in of the GB boys was Hurrell who finished in a disappointing 61st, sporting yet another flat tyre for the GB team, which he'd had for nearly half a lap.

Left, David Fletcher chases Polish rider Brzozka - right, that magic medal feeling!

So, it was a great result for team GB, one that I'd been happily telling people might happen all week. The hard work that all these guys have put in over the season, backed fully by the Olympic Development Programme and coach Phil Dixon and manager Helen Mortimer is finally paying dividends.

Fletcher was delighted to take a medal in his final year as a junior and has thrown down the gauntlet now for the first year juniors Paton and Creber. Let's hope they take that challenge and run with it.

I caught up with Fletcher after the ceremony and found out that he'd been riding with quite a sore hand after crashing the day before, but that hadn't put him off one of the best rides of his career. He told me how his race had gone and how it felt to take a medal:

"This is a dream scenario for me really. I'm over the moon that I got a medal. I wasn't expecting one to be honest. I was expecting a good ride but not a medal. On the second lap there was a group of us, then on the third lap the Swiss guy made an attack and got away and on the last lap there was me and the Polish guy who got together to try and bring him back and it came round to the finish and I was only 40 secs from him really.

 

I felt really, really good from start to finish really. My form was better than I expected it to be. I 'm just happy that it's all over now. I've put the rest of the guys under a bit of pressure now I think, they'll try and do the same and if not better now! Like I said I'm over the moon to get a medal in my final year as a junior. Last year I was 18th in the World Champs and this year I'm 3rd, brilliant."

Coach Phil Dixon, a man of very few words was clearly delighted with the whole team:

"That was a really good team performance today. We had a good team meeting last night and when I walked away from it they were really calm and I just thought to myself we're gonna have a good day. The boys have gone out and done well. We had a couple of problems in the ranks, but it didn't faze them. They did it and I'm proud of all four of them, I thought they were really good.

Dave, well you can't ask for much more than that. It's a dream to come away with a medal. but as I said they all did great rides and I'm proud of them all.As an ODP group the skills and training that we're doing is definitely paying off".

Team manager Helen Mortimer was also looking pretty happy when I spoke to her:

"Fantastic result for the whole team today: it was a great team effort out there actually. We had four very good guys on the line and to come away with a bronze medal makes it a good day. There were some fantastic performances; Paton did a superb ride there, coming through and finishing in the top 18, which was a superb ride for a first year junior. Great stuff all round really.

 

We had some bad luck as well, both Shaun Hurrell and Hamish Creber punctured. Hamish also took a nasty blow to his nose and he felt a little bit concussed as well, which obviously isn't good when you're trying to ride a mountain bike down a fast downhill. Phil Dixon has been working with Fletcher for a few years now, I take my hat off to the guy he's done a fantastic job there and to come away with a bronze medal can only add to his CV."

Left, Hamish Creber had a trying day - right, punctures have been a problem for the GB riders

More Rider Reaction

Shaun Hurrell

"Yeah I had that puncture and a Dutch rider pushed me off on the first lap as well! I was feeling really good, the best I've felt all year, I was gridded near the back so the plan was to build it up the 1st lap. I got back 15places or something. I was up to 37th around lap 3. I probably got that up to 30th by the top of the climb then on the descent I caught up with a group of 4 I came round a berm and there was a section I normally jump over, I saw at the last minute this Belgian had stopped on the rocks, so in mid air I had to land it and in doing so I cracked my back wheel and punctured. Well done to Fletch that was a great ride."

 

Hamish Creber

"Not exactly my day today but basically I think I did well. I just tried my hardest. I'm quite pleased with how I did despite everything. On the first lap I was on the first bit of climb - it got really bunched up and a couple of people in front of me got off and so I had to get off too. I was pushing my bike then somebody hit my front wheel, it flicked my bike up and hit my nose and it might be broken, I felt really concussed on the first lap. I recovered again in the second lap caught a lot more places up and then I punctured just a little bit after the first tech zone I had to run nearly 3 km to get a wheel change and I was almost dead last at that point but then I kept on going, didn't give up and raced hard for the next couple of laps and brought my placing up. So in the end I was pleased with how I did. I'm really proud with how Dave did as well. I've got next year as a junior so it's not all over yet!"

Alex Paton

"Yeah it all went well I had a steady start and gradually progressed through the race and just finished so job well done. I got caught in all the carnage at the start, I got caught in 2 lots of pile ups really but then so did most people, it was alright and it was a bit frustrating to begin with but you just get on with it and look on it as recovery. It was a cracking experience, the crowds were amazing the last lap you just kept going and when you thought you couldn't go any harder you'd get someone cheering you on and it made you give that extra bit more. It's just amazing that Fletcher won a medal, I'm really happy for him. Fletcher's given us something to aim for now."

Results

1. LITSCHER Thomas SUI 1:37:06
2. BRZOZKA Piotr POL 1:37:33 + 27
3. FLETCHER David GBR 1:37:47 + 40
4. GEHBAUER Alexander AUT 1:38:47 +1:40
5. CARABIN Sebastien BEL 1:38:49 +1:42
6. CANAL Fabien FRA 1:38:58 +1:51
7. SHLOMI Haimy ISR 1:39:01 +1:54
8. SAGAN Peter SVK 1:39:27 +2:20
9. EYRING Andy GER 1:39:38 +2:32
10. KONWA Marek POL 1:39:49 +2:42
11. FLESCHHUT Marcel GER 1:40:25 +3:18
12. HUGUENIN Jöémy SUI 1:40:49 +3:43
13. RUPP Matthias SUI 1:40:52 +3:45
14. HAAVARDSHOLM Ole NOR 1:40:54 +3:47
15. BAUER Markus GER 1:41:09 +4:02
other
17. PATON Alex GBR 1:41:22 +4:15
55. CREBER Hamish GBR 1:48:49 + 11:42
61. HURRELL Shaun GBR 1:50:11 + 13:04

Shaun Hurrell (left) and Joe Oakley in the Junior trials

 

Other News
In the 26" wheel junior men's trials both our competitors, Joe Oakley and Scott Wilson are through to the finals, more on those when they happen?