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World Cup XC #7, DH & 4X #6 - B
Angel Fire, New Mexico, USA, July 9-10, 2005
Main Page Results Overall standings Previous Race Next Race
Race 2 - July 9: Men downhill
Minaar mauls a quality field
By Eric Wallace
The men's DH race started immediately following the ladies finale. Intense rider Chris Kovarik flatted in his qualifying run but quickly set the top time to beat and essentially moved house to the hot seat. Rider after rider posted times 5-6 seconds off of Kovarik's as the top ten riders hit the course. Number four qualifier Cedric Gracia (Siemens-Cannondale) floated across the line just missing the top posting, and with only three riders left on course, a podium position for Kovarik was inevitable. Rising star Kiwi Justin Leov came within a second of toppling Gracia from his time firmly locking in the first ever World Cup podium for a male downhiller.
World Cup series leader Greg Minnaar (Honda G-Cross) scorched the course and knocked a solid five seconds off of Kovarik's time to take the hot seat and the race lead. With only Jared Graves (Yeti) left to finish, Minnaar was assured a top podium sport that would guarantee his Series overall title. Graves was simply spectacular and had a small advantage at the intermediate split. Coming around the corner and in sight of the finishing line Graves was on track to unseat the leader Minnaar.
At the line it was Graves at +.22 seconds to take the silver on the day with Kovarik in third, Gracia in fourth and Leov in fifth. "I rode a bit of a stupid race, a little slow at the top so I knew I had to pedal hard at the bottom," said Minnaar "I gave it all and pushed hard because I was wanting to win the World Cup overall, the first ever for the Honda G-Cross program."
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Marek Lazarski/ www.lazarskiphoto.com
- George Atherton (GBr) is definitely flying
- Marc Beaumont (GBr) is suspended mid-jump
- Justin Leov (NZl)
- Mickael Pascal (Fra) goes hard
- Nathan Rennie (Aus) looks composed
- Jared Graves (Aus) had a great ride today, coming in third
- Cedric Gracia (Fra) came in 4th today
- Chris Kovarik (Aus) was another Aussie making his mark on the course today
- Michael Hannah (Aus)
- Greg Minnaar (RSA) was today's winner
- Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) gets some air happening, just like Finnish rally drivers
- Greg Minnaar at the finish with a big smile...and why not?
- The men's podium (l-r):Cedric Gracia, Chris Kovarik, Greg Minnaar, Jared Graves and Justin Leov
Results
1 Greg Minnaar (RSA) Team G-Cross Honda 4.34.04 2 Jared Graves (Aus) 4.34.26 3 Chris Kovarik (Aus) 4.39.00 4 Cédric Gracia (Fra) Siemens Cannondale 4.39.82 5 Justin Leov (NZl) 4.40.06 6 Marc Beaumont (GBr) 4.43.13 7 Andrew Neethling (RSA) 4.43.15 8 Michael Hannah (Aus) 4.43.23 9 John Kirkcaldie (NZl) 4.43.27 10 George Atherton (GBr) 4.43.36 11 Julien Camellini (Fra) Commencal Oxbow 4.43.64 12 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 4.44.13 13 Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) Team G-Cross Honda 4.44.41 14 Mickael Pascal (Fra) Maxxis-Msc 4.44.68 15 Nathan Rennie (Aus) 4.45.16 16 Markolf Berchtold (Bra) Maxxis-Msc 4.45.97 17 Joel Panozzo (Aus) 4.46.02 18 Jared Rando (Aus) 4.46.03 19 Claudio Caluori (Swi) Ms-Racing Team Europe 4.46.44 20 Christopher Panozzo (Aus) 4.47.01 21 Kyle Strait (USA) Specialized 4.47.41 22 David Wardell (GBr) 4.47.57 23 Luke Strom (Aus) 4.47.93 24 Cody Warren (USA) 4.48.02 25 Neil Donoghue (GBr) 4.48.90 26 Rich Houseman (USA) 4.49.45 27 Amiel Cavalier (Aus) 4.50.65 28 David Vazquez Lopez (Spa) Maxxis-Msc 4.50.85 29 Sven Martin (RSA) 4.50.97 30 Daniel Atherton (GBr) 4.51.42 31 Justin Havukainen (Aus) 4.51.59 32 Matt Johnston (USA) 4.51.74 33 Lars Peyer (Swi) 4.52.98 34 Henry Odonnell (USA) 4.53.22 35 Liam Panozzo (Aus) 4.53.24 36 Curtis Keene (USA) 4.53.27 37 Duncan Riffle (USA) 4.53.30 38 Kain Leonard (USA) 4.55.14 39 Will Longden (GBr) 4.55.41 40 Jamie Popham (Irl) 4.55.82 41 Robin Baloochi (USA) 4.57.03 42 Tom Braithwaite (GBr) 4.57.48 43 Kirt Voreis (USA) 4.57.84 44 Daniel Weinman (USA) 4.58.69 45 Matthieu Troquier (Fra) 4.58.72 46 Herman Oelund (Swe) 4.59.73 47 Chris Vandine (USA) 4.59.86 48 Des Curry (NZl) 5.01.77 49 Geritt Beytagh (USA) 5.02.94 50 Scott Beaumont (GBr) Kona 5.03.57 51 Matthew Thompson (USA) 5.03.60 52 Christopher Herndon (USA) 5.04.86 53 Ayden Eves (Aus) 5.05.06 54 James Marples (GBr) 5.06.40 55 Jason Green (Can) 5.06.87 56 Rowan Sorrell (GBr) 5.07.74 57 Steve Wentz (USA) 5.08.27 58 Darren Pokoj (Aus) 5.09.72 59 Cameron Zink (USA) 5.09.75 60 Ben Reid (Irl) 5.10.10 61 Warren Willy (USA) 5.22.59 62 Jonathan Cheetham (GBr) 5.24.20 63 Brian Eller (Can) 5.24.78 64 Derek Chambers (Can) 5.32.85 65 Hugo Garzon Albarran (Spa) 5.36.11 66 Andy Czuczor (Can) 6.25.31 67 Fabien Barel (Fra) Kona Les Gets 6.27.10 68 David Klaassenvandorschot (USA) 7.15.85 69 Ryan Sutton (USA) 7.57.22 DNF Chris Delbosco (USA) World Cup Standings 1 Greg Minnaar (RSA) Team G-Cross Honda 1295 pts 2 Nathan Rennie (Aus) 720 3 Mickael Pascal (Fra) Maxxis-Msc 678 4 Cédric Gracia (Fra) Siemens Cannondale Mtb Ra 578 5 Fabien Barel (Fra) Kona Les Gets 567 6 Christopher Kovarik (Aus) 555 7 Samuel Hill (Aus) 545 8 George Atherton (GBr) 512 9 Marc Beaumont (GBr) 495 10 Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) Team G-Cross Honda 475 11 Justin Leov (NZl) 471 12 Markolf Berchtold (Bra) Maxxis-Msc 439 13 Julien Camellini (Fra) Commencal Oxbow 425 14 Mick Hannah (Aus) 419 15 Daniel Atherton (GBr) 417 16 David Vazquez Lopez (Spa) Maxxis-Msc 403 17 Andrew Neethling (RSA) 338 18 Jared Graves (Aus) 313 19 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 306 20 Justin Havukainen (Aus) 260 21 Steve Peat (GBr) 250 22 Claudio Caluori (Swi) Ms-Racing Team Europe 235 23 Neil Donoghue (GBr) 223 24 Kyle Strait (USA) Specialized Factory Racin 184 25 Marcus Klausmann (Ger) Ghost International Racin 178 26 Damien Mermoud (Swi) 161 27 John Kirkcaldie (NZl) 155 28 Will Longden (GBr) 151 29 Dave Wardell (GBr) 149 30 Ivan Oulego Moreno (Spa) 114 31 Oscar Saiz Castane (Spa) Giant-Racing-Team 113 32 Nico Vink (Bel) Merlan Duo-Be One 108 33 Jared Rando (Aus) 101 34 Amiel Cavalier (Aus) 98 35 Bernat Guardia Pascual (Spa) 95 36 Joel Panozzo (Aus) 92 37 Antionio Leiva (Chi) 86 38 Brendan Fairclough (GBr) 75 39 Pascual Canals Flix (Spa) 74 40 Vlastimil Hyncica (Cze) 65 41 Thomas Braithwaite (GBr) 63 42 Frank Schneider (Ger) 62 43 Henry O Donnell (USA) 61 44 Mickael Deldycke (Fra) 49 45 Liam Panozzo (Aus) 48 46 Maxime Remy (Fra) 47 47 Robin Baloochi (USA) 46 48 Pierre Charles Georges (Fra) 46 49 Rich Houseman (USA) 45 50 Filip Polc (Svk) 44 51 Mathieu Troquier (Fra) 40 52 Christopher Panozzo (Aus) 40 53 Felipe Costa Wermuth (Bra) 39 54 Cyrille Kurtz (Fra) 39 55 Sven Martin (RSA) 38 56 Gertje Tholen (Ned) 35 57 Dan Harper (GBr) 34 58 Adam Vagner (Cze) 34 59 Damien Spagnolo (Fra) Qbikes Les Sybelles 34 60 Herman Oelund (Swe) 32 61 Guido Tschugg (Ger) 32 62 Luke Strom (Aus) 32 63 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) Kona Les Gets 32 64 Cristian Valdiviezo (Ecu) 31 65 Cody Warren (USA) 30 66 Romain Saladini (Fra) Commencal Oxbow 30 67 Himar Sanchez Salminen (Spa) 30 68 Nathaniel Giacomozzi (Bra) 28 69 Jamie Popham (Irl) 26 70 Sebastian Vasquez (Chi) 25 71 Rob Warner (GBr) 25 72 Duncan Riffle (USA) 24 73 Mario Jarrin (Ecu) Zenith-Mtb-International 24 74 Volkmar Berchtold (Bra) 23 75 Matt Johnston (USA) 22 76 Anderson Furlanetto (Bra) 21 77 Charles-Alexandre Dube (Can) 21 78 Thibaut Ruffin (Fra) American Products Factory 20 79 Lars Peyer (Swi) 19 80 Cristian Soto (Chi) 19 81 Ayden Eves (Aus) 19 82 Yoann Barelli (Fra) Lpi 19 83 Maurizio Acuna (Chi) 18 84 Leandro Campovilla (Bra) 17 85 Fabien Pedemanaud (Fra) American Products Factory 17 86 Echeverria Diego (Chi) 16 87 Chris Ball (GBr) 16 88 Ignacio Rojo (Chi) 15 89 Curtis Keene (USA) 15 90 Maty Charoat (Cze) 15 91 Samuel Zbinden (Swi) 15 92 Des Curry (NZl) 14 93 Rowen Sorrell (GBr) 14 94 Richard Thomas (GBr) 14 95 Ben Cathro (GBr) 14 96 Vincent Saut (Fra) Lpi 14 97 Andres Sotomayor (Ecu) 13 98 Daniel Critchlow (GBr) 13 99 Kain Leonard (USA) 13 100 Mathieu Laurin (Can) 13 101 Alan Beggin (Ita) 13 102 Matthew Thompson (USA) 12 103 Geritt Beytagh (USA) 12 104 Lee Pincher (GBr) 12 105 Michal Marosi (Cze) 12 106 Mauricio Estrada Pulgarin (Col) 12 107 Romain Lescure (Fra) 11 108 Chris Vandine (USA) 10 109 Scott Beaumont (GBr) Team Kona Racing Beaumont 10 110 Dino Cecchi (Per) 10 111 Carlo Gambirasio (Ita) 10 112 Jorge Acuna (Chi) 9 113 Jon Cheetham (GBr) 9 114 Florent Payet (Fra) 9 115 James Marples (GBr) 8 116 Kirt Voreis (USA) 8 117 Justin Brown (Can) 8 118 Tom Holland (NZl) 8 119 Sebastian Reategui (Per) 7 120 David Klaassenvandorschot (USA) 7 120 Daniel Weinman (USA) 7 122 Mathias Haas (Aut) Ms-Racing Team Europe 7 123 Thomas Vanderham (Can) 7 124 Steve Wentz (USA) 6 125 Richard Cheetham (GBr) 6 126 Giuliano Tessaro (Bra) 5 127 Louis-Philippe Leonard (Can) 5 128 Remy Charrier (Fra) 5 129 Guilherme Bisarria (Bra) 4 130 Ashley Mullane (GBr) 4 131 Felipe Bortoletti (Bra) 3 132 Geoff Pendrel (Can) 3 133 Ben Reid (Irl) 3 134 Dan Stanbridge (GBr) 3 135 Oscar Pellegrina (Arg) 2 136 Salvador Gonzalez (Spa) 2 137 Gonzalo Rodriguez (Arg) 1 138 Filip Matus (Cze) 1
