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UCI World Cup #4: Fort William
The UCI World Cup series continued in Fort William, Scotland this weekend, with a full slate of mountain biking action. Spectators at the event had a chance to watch pros like Michal Prokop, Jill Kintner, and others rip it up on the second 4x event of the season, and downhillers like Sam Hill, Cedric Gracia, and Tracy Moseley pin it on a challenging DH course (men / women). The fourth UCI cross country took place on Saturday, with the usual cast of racers laying it all on the line.
Women’s cross country event
The story of the women’s event wasn’t exactly who won but, rather, who didn’t win. For the first time this season, Gunn-Rita Dahle didn’t stand at the top of the podium following the race. Dahle experienced a tough mechanical problem left her in 60th place after the first lap and, although the reigning World Champ battled back to finish fourth overall, she could catch Nina Gohl (GER), Marie-Helen Premont (CAN), and Irina Kalentieva (RUS).
Women’s xc results. 4 laps, 37.30 km.
- Nina Göhl (GER, Multivan-Merida) 2:04:18
- Marie-Helene Premont (CAN, Rocky Mountain-Business Objects) 1:11 back
- Irina Kalentieva (RUS, Topeak-Ergon) 2:20
- Gunn-Rita Dahle (NOR, Multivan-Merida) 3:43
- Lene Byberg (NOR, Bikin’Cyprus) 3:59
- Sabine Spitz (GER, Specialized) 4:12
- Margarita Fullana Riera (ESP, Spiuk Illes Balears) 4:48
- Eva Lechner (ITA, Colnago) 5:04
- Chengyuan Ren (CHN) 6:16
- Blaza Klemencic (SLO, Pintatim-Full-Dynamix) 7:31
Men’s cross country event
Although it’s starting to sound a bit repetitive, France’s Julien Absalon won his third consecutive World Cup cross country race. After setting a strong pace in the opening laps, Absalon pulled ahead of Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos before the finish line. Bart Brentjens continued his strong start to the season, edging out Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski for fourth place. Switzerland’s Florian Vogel was third.
Men’s xc results. 5 laps, 46.7km
- Julien Absalon (FRA, Bianchi-Agos) 2:16:33
- Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos (ESP, Multivan-Merida) 0:07 back
- Florian Vogel (SUI, Swisspower) 2:24
- Bart Brentjens (NED, Giant) 2:25
- Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (USA, Subaru-Gary Fisher) 2:26
- Moritz Milatz (GER, Multivan-Merida) 2:35
- Christoph Sauser (SUI, Specialized) 2:38< /li>
- Cedric Ravanel (FRA, Lapierre International) 2:41
- Nino Schurter (SUI, Swisspower) 2:43
- Ludovic Dubau (FRA, Pro Race) 2:56
Related news items
- CyclingNews gives us a strong preview of the races, and it’s worth checking out even though you already know the results.
- BikeMagic has a bunch of good writeups fr0m the weekend, and each has some great action photos.
- Singletrack magazine. The website for British print mag Singletrack has two solid reports covering the event at Fort William. In addition to race results, the writeups include sneak peeks at new gear from Crank Bros., Easton, Atom Labs, Hope, and more.
- Mountain Bike Action provides a short-but-sweet recap of the cross country and gravity events.
- Pinkbike posted up some short releases from Brian Lopes and Steve Peat. Be sure to check out the Peaty writeup for an in-close shot of the Brit’s new Troy Lee D2.