World Mountain Bike Championships - Trials
6-9 September 2007
Images: Joolze Dymond
Friday - Women's Final
Firday saw women's 20/26" elite trials competition, featuring GB rider Lois Morgan, who at the tender age of 18 has 7 years of competition under her belt, 7 National titles and European (BI U) Champion 2006. She's a talented lady, who got into the sport at the age of 11 via her dad's interest in Motorbike trials.
Lois Morgan shows her skills
Anyhow back to the action and with 8 girls entered it was straight to the final. They have 8 sections to complete and the winner is the one who racks up the least points. Pre race favourite was unsurprisingly a Swiss rider, Karin Moor, who picked up just 7 points to take the title. Close behind 3 points adrift was Spanish rider Gemma Abant Condal with her sister Mireia just another point adrift in 3rd.
Lois had a good competition, riding some sections better than even she anticipated finishing in 6th spot, I caught up with her later and she explained her final to me:
"Yeah it went good, the weather stayed nice for us luckily all the sections turned out well. It seemed pretty difficult yesterday, but when you got in there and had a look round it was pretty steady in fact. We have to complete 8 sections, including a man made course, a north shore sort of section, a rock section, and a tree trunk section, and the rest were in the river. The North shore by far was the trickiest; you're on a slight slope on a plank really with hardly any grip on it at all."
"The Nissan set was pretty scary as you're up high, but my favourite had to be the natural in the stream. This is my first UCI World Champs and it was great - so much better in front of a home crowd, you knew you had to do well with all the people watching, it makes you go so much better. The crowds really helped today. I just really enjoyed myself. I 'm chuffed with a few sections that I did, I didn't think I'd do too well on them, but I got through on no points so I was so chuffed, it was a nice day in the end!"
Results
Elite Women 20"/26"
1 MOOR Karin SUI 7
2 ABANT CONDAL Gemma ESP 10
3 ABANT CONDAL Mireia ESP 104 PESENTI Julie FRA 12
5 BRIEDEN Elisa GER 41
6 MORGAN Lois GBR 42
7 KRAMARCZYK Katarzyna POL 66
8 JOHANSSON Susanne SWE 78
Thursday - Junior Men Semi-Finals
First news from the Trials was that Chris Boyles had made it through to the final of the 20inch Junior men's category and Both Joe Oakley (pictured) and Scott Wilson had done likewise in the 26inch Junior Men's category.
Results
20" Junior Men Semi-Final
Top 8 into the final
1 PLANAS NUхZ Eduard ESP 19
2 FONTENOY Aur鬩en FRA 22
3 BRAUN Loris SUI 24
4 AGLAE Kevin FRA 31
5 POLICANTE Francesco ITA 31
6 BOYES Chris GBR 31
7 VENCL Jakub CZE 32
8 PETER Julian GER 35
9 AGUILAR COROMINAS Gerard ESP 36
10 BăKGREN Peter SWE 36
other
12 OAKLEY Joe GBR 38
18 competitors
26" Junior Men Semi-Final
Top 8 into the final
1 FONTENOY Aur鬩en FRA 3
2 VUILLERMOT Nicolas FRA 18
3 HERRMANN Hannes GER 20
4 VENCL Jakub CZE 28
5 BARTON James CAN 29
6 BRAUN Loris SUI 29
7 OAKLEY Joe GBR 36
8 WILSON Scott GBR 36
18 competitors