World Mountain Bike Championships Day 4

 

Friday 7 September

4-Cross

Report & Images: Joolze Dymond/Eddie Allen

 

The 4X finals were run on Friday night under massive floodlight lights on an extended new course. Team GB looked to have a strong hand, with Scott Beaumont, Will Longden, Gee and Dan Atherton, Nigel Page and Lewis Lacey, all keen to get into the final and ride off with a medal.

However it was a night of drama that saw top rider Cedric Gracia go home with nothing more than a broken wrist and the Brits having to settle for a best of seventh, with that pleasure going to Scott Beaumont. I caught up with Beaumont and Lewis Lacey after and asked them about their races:

Scott Beaumont - semi finalist - and Michal Prokop, former champion

 

Scott Beaumont - 4X

"The 4X went really well, I've been focusing on this event for over a year and the plan was to make the final, but in the semi finals I came up a bit short. My gates all night weren't too good, I was behind coming down in the semi final, I was using the outside berms and catching back up. In the penultimate corner, I was thinking a bit too much maybe because I thought Meijer was gonna round on a double-double, but just in the last second he came right in front of me, buzzed my front wheel and crashed. As I looked up Gracia's tyre exploded, it was so close if I'd just rattled round, which wasn't really an option I'd have got through. I'd make the complete wrong choice and it fell apart from there. The small finals felt pretty flat from there.

 

I've got to be honest I was coming down the course, it was almost an anti climax, you still want to do your best. I was going for the same move in the small final, carrying speed through to the last straight, I came onto the last straight having got the lines perfect after setting them up, on any other day I'd have turned the pedal and got 5th, but I got into the straight and my legs wouldn't turn, I was just flat. Not physically gone but mentally. I was just drained from being so close and yet so far. I mean 7th in the World Champs is pretty cool, it's not exactly what I came here for but yeah top brit feels good, but I so badly wanted to get a medal for the crowd. The crowd up there last night was just unbelievable, really loud, full support for all the GB riders."

Lewis Lacey - 4X

"It was a good race, I had some fun out there, I wanted to get into the semi's but I had a bit of bad luck. Scott twitched on the gate; it put me off a little bit. I had a good first straight with him and I moved over on Gee, he moved over on both of us and I got boxed in. On the first straight I tried to put an extra pedal in where I shouldn't have, I was too excited, slid out on the first corner and then went high low on the first old corner and just washed out and it was over. I'm disappointed but I had fun, it was amazing out there. I liked the new course a lot better than the old one; it's a lot longer but more fun."

The winner of the World men's 4X Champs was the USA's Brian Lopes, once again, blasting his way to the e finish. Lopes' team mate Jill Kintner held off a strong challenge by Anneke Beertent and Melissa Buhl to take another World title. Meanwhile GB rider Joey Gough did a sterling ride to take 7th, with Ffion Griffiths just missing out in 9th.

Brin Lopes, gold medal winner

 

Results

Men's 4-Cross

Big Final
1. LOPES Brian USA
2. SALADINI Romain FRA
3. MEIJER Jurg NED
4. RINDERKNECHT Roger SUI
 
Small Final
5. ALVAREZ DE LARA LU Rafael ESP
6. SLAVIK Tomas CZE
7. BEAUMONT Scott GBR
8. GRAVES Jared AUS

1/4 Finals
9. TATARKOVIC Kamil CZE 42.84
10. DELDYCKE Mickael FRA 43.02
11. ATHERTON Gee GBR 43.15
12. FISCHBACH Johannes GER 44.02
13. GRACIA Cðgic FRA 43.37
14. WICHMAN Joost NED 43.47
15. POLC Filip SVK 43.93
16. LACEY Lewis GBR 44.11

1/8 Finals
17. ATHERTON Dan GBR 44.10
18. MILAN Ross USA 44.31
19. GSPAN Dominik SUI 44.58
20. VITKO Matej SVK 44.81
21. LONGDEN Will GBR 44.99
22. PRAJCZER Peter HUN 45.14
23. DELI Gabor HUN 45.20
24. 31 SLO19870518 FRANK Tilen SLO 45.46
25. PROKOP Michal CZE 42.15
26. HNIDAK Jakub CZE 44.75
27. STAPIC Matej SLO 44.77
27. RANDO Jared AUS 44.77
29. WORK Jeremiah USA 45.19
30. MEYENBORG Sascha GER 45.26
31. PAGE Nigel GBR 45.48
32. STROM Luke AUS 47.01

1/16 Finals
33. TSCHUGG Guido GER 43.58
34. AUERSWALD Daniel GER 46.31
35. WALLNER Robin SWE 46.48
36. BOE Reon NZL 47.67
37. TOKARCZYK Thomas USA 48.42
38. SIEDER Mario AUT 48.57
39. RICARDO Jijon ECU 55.10
40. SWANGUEN John USA 1:00.71
41. WESTMANN Jonas SWE 46.79

Women's 4-Cross

Final
1. KINTNER Jill USA
2. BEERTEN Anneke NED
3. BUHL Melissa USA
4. HORAKOVA Jana CZE

Small Final
5. SUEMASA Mio JPN
6. SEYDOUX Rachel SUI
7. GOUGH Joey GBR
8. BUCHANAN Caroline AUS

1/4 Finals
9. GRIFFITHS Fionn GBR 48.99
10. MARTH Steffi GER 52.55
11. MARGGRAFF Diana ECU 56.57
12. BOER Julia HUN 58.06
13. MOLCIK Anita AUT 50.48
14. STEINMETZ Neven USA 56.25
15. BRETHAUER Laura GER 57.46
16. CANEPA Elisa ITA 57.94

Qualifications
17. SZEGHALMI Orsolya HUN 59.97
18. VOGT Jessica USA 1:00.19
PETTERSON Joanna RSA DNS