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Britain Move Up In Olympic Mountain Bike Rankings

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Britain has moved up in both men's and women's rankings as the qualification race for the 2012 Olympic  mountain bike race moves into a decisive stage.

When combining the Nation Rank points totals from year one and year two to date, Britain have moved from thirteenth to twelfth in the men's standings, where nations ranked 1-5 qualify three starting positions, nations ranked 6-13 qualify two places and nations ranked 14-24 a single starter.

In the women's standings, Britain have moved from seventeenth to sixteenth, where nations ranked 1-8 qualify two riders and 9-18 one place.

Such results are in line with British Cycling's Olympic Mountain Bike Coach, Phil Dixon, who revised his original ambition - of qualifying one man and one woman to the London Games - to qualifying a minumum one man and one woman.

This revision came following the first period of Olympic qualificaiton (May 23 2010 - May 22 2011), where Britian finished 12th in the men's ranking and 15th in the women's ranking.

Currently in the second period of Olympic qualification, running May 23 2011 - May 23 2012, Britain are ranked 14th men's nation and 18th women's nation. The two rankings consist of a nation's top three UCI point scorers (male and female) in each year and are combined to qualify riders to the line of the Olympic Games.

Britain's top point scorers in year one were Liam Killeen (694). Oli Beckingsale (534), Dave Fletcher (293), Annie Last (852), Lily Matthews (330) and Maddie Horton (151).

Two rounds of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in the next two weeks and the World Championships (September 1-4) are the next major events and will conclude the significant points scoring opportunities of the 2011 season.