World Mountain Bike Championships Day 5

 

Saturday 8 September

Cross-Country - Senior Women & Senior Men

Report & Images: Joolze Dymond

 

Day 5 and the schedule was as full as ever. And with plenty to see, loads more spectators came piling into the race village, all eager to see some of the Worlds best Cross-Country riders battle it out over the punishing course.

Senior Women's Race

 

First up were the Women's event, with long-time world number one Gunn Rita Dahl Fleshaa not riding, the race was wide open, with plenty of worthy contenders. Those tipped to be in the mix were Russian Irina Kalentieva, former champion Sabine Spitz, up-and-coming Chinese rider JingJing Wang, plus Helene-Marie Premont and Swiss contender Petra Henzi. Representing GB were national Champion Jenny Copnall, Ruth McGavigan and Liz Scalia.

With 72 riders on the line, it was always going to be a scrum on the first lap. As the gun fired and the riders set off at lightening speed, we saw the first of many crashes on the first corner. The main causality was contender Henzi, who just lay there for a few minutes as the race washed over her, before she attempted to set off after the pack. By time she did start off, the dust had well and truly settled and she was pretty much dead last. Could she do a Gunn Rita and battle her way back into the race?

Meanwhile at the head of the race Premont led through a small group on the first lap, containing all the race favourites bar Henzi. On lap two this group had been whittled down to just Wang, Spitz and Kalentieva.

Kalentieva enjoys her winning moment

On lap 3 Kalentieva made her move and started to open up a gap on the then second place Wang, with Spitz further behind in 3rd. And the Russian went on to take the victory, but behind it seemed Wang had started to fade, leaving the experienced Spitz to come through to take the Silver, edging the Chinese girl into 3rd. Meanwhile Henzi stormed round the 4 lap race, carefully picking up places as she went, to finish in an astonishing 12th spot.

And how did the GB girls fare? Jenny Copnall seemed relaxed and rode a strong race to finish 47th, she explained her race to me:

"Yeah that was good I felt under a lot of pressure today I must admit and I'm not sure I enjoyed that part too much, but obviously it was great to be here and the massive crowd support was almost, I think for me, a little bit off-putting at times, because it was too much: I'd approach certain sections and they'd just be screaming so loud that it was actually quite difficult to concentrate. No complaints, it was fantastic but it was my fault for making the odd error. I had a silly crash on the first lap, it took me a little bit to get back into my stride after that. I seemed to be pulling up a little bit on the last lap - we got caught behind the crash on the start, those things are inevitable - on the first lap there were a lot of hold-ups but at least that meant that by the finish I had a little bit left. I'm not convinced that was the best ride I've ever done, but I think in the circumstances it was probably the best I could do. It was good fun to be out there."

Jenny Copnall & Ruth McGavigan got huge support during the race

Meanwhile Scot Ruth McGavigan was having the ride of her life, getting huge cheers from all the crowds, which she thoroughly enjoyed. She also achieved her aim which was to finish higher that her number board, despite a mechanical problem she had to cope with. She was number 60 and she finished 56th. She later told me how much she had enjoyed the whole experience:

"That was great. Unfortunately I didn't have a big ring the whole way. I don't whether I bent my front mech but I dealt with it and it was fine. I had a really good race. I'm quite pleased, I couldn't get any better I think I came in 55th which is 5 better than my number board - that was my ambition to beat my board, I've never done that before. The time went by so quickly; I was riding well down the descents, catching places as I went down, which gave me a boost of confidence. It was brilliant and the crowds were fantastic: up in the Haggis tunnel thing everyone knew my name. I could hear them as I came up the hill, it made a big difference. It keeps you motivated so you don't start feeling the pain. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant and I'd love to do that again."

Third GB rider Liz Scalia had a less than perfect ride when a snapped seat post put paid to her race on the 3rd lap. She was philosophical about her disappointment and went on to tell me;

"The crowd were great out there and it was a great experience but I was very disappointed out there. I had problems with my bike, I snapped my seat post on the start of the 3rd lap, and so I had to ride the entire up hill and half of the downhill, with no seat, which felt really odd. I think now I need to do a good winter to get some better base training in, get my head sorted and then I can think about what I'm doing next year."

Senior Men's Race

 

Next it was the turn of the senior men to tackle 6 laps of the tough course. Favourite this time round was, of course, defending champion Julian Absalon, who's having a fantastic year. Contenders for his crown included Christoph Sauser, Ralph Naef, Florian Vogal and Hermida. Team GB was fielding National Champion Oli Beckingsale, Ian Wilkinson, Nick Craig, Paul Oldham, Simon Richardson and, on a welcome return to racing after an enforced lay off, Liam Killeen.

The men's race gets underway

With such big fields and such a variety of talent, gridding always plays an important part in any race. The nearer the front you are the better the chance you have of missing many of the multiple pile-ups along the way.

Oli had the best grid of the GB squad, due to his comprehensive racing schedule he follows all year. Next up was Wilkinson a row or so behind, then Oldham, Craig, Richardson and Killeen very nearly had the very back of the grid to themselves. This would be a big test for the GB boys, to pick their way through the carnage.

First to make the move in the race was Sauser, making a gap by the top of the Haggis Trap on lap 2. However, his efforts were undone when a broken fixing on one of his shoes caused him to stop and get it taped up in a tech zone, losing him valuable time, time which had soon been picked up and pushed aside by the charging chase group containing Absalon, Naef, Vogel and Fumic.

Right, Julien Absalon celebrates in style

By Lap three Absalon was away alone, taking control of the race from the front, a position he kept until, at 4.17 pm, he became the World Champion once again. Behind him the race for Silver was a cracker, resolving itself in favour of Swiss rider Naef who added to his country's ample collection of medals, with a silver, whilst team mate Vogel picked up a bronze.

Team GB had a grand day out: the atmosphere out on the course was second to none and the noise from the crowds when a GB rider appeared into view was deafening.

Oli Beckingsale, left, and Simon Richardson

 

Oli Beckingsale had a so-so ride by his very high standards: he wasn't disappointed but he also wasn't pleased, coming in as first Brit in 35th spot. He told me later:

"It was alright, racing at home is great, but today was just an alright ride. I thought I was doing okay, but I wasn't quite going fast enough and I wasn't doing too well on the downhills. They were really slippy today and it was just a bit too much for me really, to get those lines, I was riding everything but it just became more difficult I started struggling a bit and losing more time and I blew a little at the end and it cost me a few places. I'm not disappointed, you finish where you are going to finish, I'm not proud of it though."

"We just seemed to fly up the climb every lap, before you knew it you were at the top, the climb was riding really fast, but the decent got slower, so the descent became a more major part of the race. It was such a long downhill, it takes a long time to come down as it's not that steep, there were so many corners and they were getting so greasy and slippy so I was struggling a little bit basically, so I have a little worked to do on that area. It would have been great to have a great ride in front of the home crowd; everyone wants to do that don't they."

"I've had a challenging year this year and I've been piecing it together and this has been part of that year really, getting by and doing a job, try and qualify our points and do stuff for our sponsors, keep racing and keep getting some results together. Today was all about just doing a job and if I'd got a result then great but if not then you just do your job. Hopefully I can get over my problems from this year, put them all behind me and get personal bests next year."

"It was great to see a good turn out for team GB: Wilksie had a good ride today, and great to see Liam back, I enjoy racing with him and the more Brits that are up there the better really. We had a great result in the juniors with Fletcher getting a medal, he stepped it up on the big day and got a result and that takes some doing. That was an amazing result. Paton also did a good ride for a first year junior. We've got a good junior group there"

 

Paul Oldham (left) and Ian Wilkinson in Superman pose!

 

Next up it was showman, Ian Wilkinson, who flew to the finish, quite literally, coming in across the line in superman fashion to take 42nd. His thoughts on the race were:

"I've done Junior and Espoir Worlds before, always abroad and never on the big day, Saturday, so to do the Senior Worlds on the 'big day' and at home is just unbelievable. Practically everyone was cheering Great Britain, not just British people but visitors as well, it was awesome. Thankfully I had a good day, really, the whole problem for any athlete is to feel good for two and a half hours on one day in the year. It's so easy to do and yet so hard and you never know until you get going.

Tell us about that finish Ian!

"If you can't be brilliant on the day then you've got to make it look good anyway. Cycling needs jazzing up doesn't it, it's not about being serious and boring, you could have just rolled across the line and been another person, so why not be different eh?"

Liam Killeen did an amazing ride, starting in such unfamiliar territory on the back of the grid and pretty unsure of his form after returning to racing after an enforced layoff, he came home in a comfortable 44th place. Looking at his lap times it was clear he was winding them up lap by lap, getting faster and faster and clearly enjoying the whole experience.

I caught up Liam later to find out a bit more about his 'mystery' virus and what his plans were now for the future:

"Obviously I'm disappointed to have missed most of the season but I wasn't in a fit state to do any strenuous exercise, so I had a break from my racing and started to feel a bit better, well pretty good actually at the beginning of August. The first weekend of August I started to get back on the road bike and about half way through August I asked if I could be put on the start list for Fort William just because I thought I had nothing to lose. It gave me the option to be able to race here, yeah, so for a couple of weeks now I've been looking forward to this day."

We've also got a longer version of this interview with Liam Killeen

Next in was Paul Oldham who also did a cracking ride, coming home to roost in 55th spot. To say he was chuffed to be given this chance to race in front of a home crowd would be an understatement and it just caps off a truly amazing year for Oldham,

"That was very good. I was very impressed, it was ace. It's never gonna happen again is it? Having a World Champs on your home ground when I'm still racing, so it was really good to have the opportunity to experience it.

The support was that good it was unbelievably. It's sort of been my year, I'm turning 30, I've just become a dad for the first time recently and now I'm riding here, so I'm chuffed to bits, its mega."

And finally but definately not last was the "grand old man" of XC racing Nick Craig (right) taking 61st spot in his 15th World Championship. Not a bad innings, one that has seen Craig rise to be one of the most respected XC racers on the circuit. But for now, he's taken the decision to hang up his XC wheels for good, while the going was still good and concentrate on the enduro style of racing instead:

"It was really nice to be on home soil and I really enjoyed it. I'm not disappointed, I don't know where I finished but that'll do. I think this is a good time to stop XC racing, I'm not going to stop racing all together, I'm going to carry on with Enduros, but that's XC racing for me. I mean another 4 laps round here and I might have pulled a couple more back. I just run at one speed now and that was it."

Simon Richardson climbed off during his race, probably a wise move on his part, as he starts the Tour of Britain on Sunday.

I caught up with XC Coach Phil Dixon, to get his thoughts on the team effort today and the week in general:

"That was a hard fast race today. I think we ran the first lap faster than the relay, 21mins 38secs or something. I think Oli had a clean race as far as I could see he got everything out: he ran 30th until the last lap. Wilkies done all right and Liam did well to pull back to 45 from 112. Paul and Nick both had good rides; the only one of the team that didn't manage to finish was Simon, who climbed off. He didn't get lapped he just called it a day; I'm not sure why, as I haven't spoken to him yet. But as a team I can't ask more than that. The event was amazing, the crowd were given a really good effort we got good cheers.

We're very pleased to see Liam back, he looked relaxed on his bike and didn't get frustrated, he looked like he was enjoying it out there. Hopefully that'll move him in the right direction coming towards next year. Now it's all over we can go back and review performances as a whole. Some areas we need to improve but that's always the case. I like to think that XC has now moved on, without a doubt, our performances has shown that, now it's reviewing and lets move it on again. The Swiss are the leading nation and that's where I want us to be."

Results

Men's Cross-Country

1. ABSALON Julien FRA 2:17:06
2. NAEF Ralph SUI 2:17:32 + 25
3. VOGEL Florian SUI 2:18:00 + 54
4. KESSIAKOFF Fredrik SWE 2:18:08 +1:01
5. FUMIC Manuel GER 2:18:11 +1:04
6. SAUSER Christoph SUI 2:18:15 +1:08
7. PERAUD Jean-Christophe FRA 2:18:26 +1:19
8. PAULISSEN Roel BEL 2:19:10 +2:03
9. FL܃KIGER Lukas SUI 2:19:13 +2:06
10. HERMIDA RAMOS Josí“ntonio ESP 2:19:16 +2:09
11. SOUKUP Christoph AUT 2:20:17 +3:10
12. COLOMA NICOLAS Carlos ESP 2:20:21 +3:14
13. ALVAREZ GUTIERREZ Ivan ESP 2:20:31 +3:24
14. ANDERSEN Peter Riis DEN 2:20:37 +3:30
15. SPESNY Milan CZE 2:20:41 +3:34
16. NYS Sven BEL 2:20:43 +3:36
17. MILATZ Moritz GER 2:20:52 +3:45
18. VAN HOUTS Rudi NED 2:20:55 +3:48
19. FUMIC Lado GER 2:21:10 +4:03
20. GALINSKI Marek POL 2:21:15 +4:08
other
35. BECKINGSALE Oliver GBR 2:24:33 +7:26
42. WILKINSON Ian GBR 2:25:50 +8:43
44. KILLEEN Liam GBR 2:26:08 +9:01
55. OLDHAM Paul GBR 2:28:52 + 11:45
61. CRAIG Nicholas GBR 2:30:06 + 12:59
RICHARDSON Simon GBR DNF

 

Women's Cross-Country
1. KALENTIEVA Irina RUS 1:44:08
2. SPITZ Sabine GER 1:44:47 + 39
3. WANG Jingjing CHN 1:45:50 +1:42
4. PREMONT Marie-Helene CAN 1:47:24 +3:16
5. JOSEPH Rosara NZL 1:47:42 +3:34
6. PENDREL Catherine CAN 1:48:19 +4:11
7. SZAFRANIEC Anna POL 1:48:45 +4:37
8. BYBERG Lene NOR 1:48:58 +4:50
9. GOULD Georgia USA 1:49:11 +5:03
10. KLEMENCIC Blaza SLO 1:50:07 +5:59
11. BISARO Kiara CAN 1:50:31 +6:23
12. MC CONNELOUG Mary USA 1:51:02 +6:54
13. HENZI Petra SUI 1:51:17 +7:09
14. RODE RAVANEL C¨¦Jle FRA 1:51:34 +7:26
15. KOERBER Willow USA 1:51:47 +7:39
16. RUSCA Maroussia SUI 1:51:49 +7:41
17. LEUMANN Katrin SUI 1:51:56 +7:48
18. MORATH Adelheid GER 1:52:20 +8:12
19. LEBOUCHER Laurence FRA 1:52:22 +8:14
20. SADLECKA Magdalena POL 1:52:52 +8:44
other
47. COPNALL Jenny GBR 1:59:33 + 15:25
56. MCGAVIGAN Ruth GBR 2:04:29 + 20:21
62. SCALIA Elizabeth GBR -1Lap