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MTB World Cup XC #6 & DH #4 - CDM
Mont Sainte Anne, Canada, July 25-27, 2008
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Race 3 - July 26: Elite men 4X
World champion Alvarez de Lara Lu rides smoothly to victory
By Sue George in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Québec
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Under threatening skies that didn't deliver any more rain on an already saturated course, World Champion Rafael Alvarez de Lara Lu made it look easy. Clad in his rainbow striped jersey, he won every round on his way to victory in the big final, and celebrated many of them by crossing the line doing a nose-wheelie. Romain Saladini (Team Sunn), Guido Tschugg and Cedric Gracia rounded out the top four.
"It was an easy race as I was first through each round," said Saladini through a translator after his final run. Saladini was all smiles after his race and he said he was not nervous for his first World Cup appearance since winning the World Championships just over one month ago. "I tried to race as if it was the same as any other race. It wasn't any different."
Behind Alvarez de Lara Lu was a chasing Romain Saladini (Team Sunn). The Frenchman was content after his race, his first back after breaking a finger at the Fort William round of the World Cup in early June. "It was smooth for me," said Frenchman Saladini. "I didn't see the crash."
Neither he nor Alvarez de Lara Lu knew what was going on in their wake, where Tschugg and Gracia tangled.
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"My start was not perfect, and I wanted to go directly to the inside but the right side was a little faster, so I had to brake a little," said Tschugg. "I was thinking 'ok' and 'check the lines of the other guys' as I was in fourth."
"I wanted to go inside of Gracia and my front wheel slipped out and I crashed with Gracia," said Tschugg. "We both went down."
Tschugg got up and rode to the finish into third, while Gracia had a longer journey down to the finish after taco-ing his wheel. He crossed the line to cheers of the waiting crowd.
Despite plenty of rain in the days before, which postponed the qualifications until Saturday, the same day as the final, the course was riding well thanks to an army of people deployed by organizers to repair the course Saturday morning.
"The track in the days before was challenging due to the rain, but today it was perfect," said Alvarez de Lara Lu.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Dave McElwaine/www.trailwatch.net
- Guido Tschugg leading Dan Atherton (Animal Commencal)
- Cedric Gracia (Commencal Furious) catching some air.
- Romain Saladini (Team Sunn) went on to finish second.
- Kamil Tatarkovic (Sezuki) winning the small final.
- World Champion Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lu soaring to victory.
- Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lu checking behind him.
- Romain Saladini (Team Sunn)
- Guido Tschugg finished in third place.
- Cedric Gracia (Commencal Furious) finished on a taco'd wheel.
- Romain Saladini (Team Sunn)
- World Champions Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lu and Melissa Buhl (KHS).
- Podium (L-R): Kamil Tatarkovic (Sezuki), Romain Saladini (Team Sunn), Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lu, Guido Tschugg and Cedric Gracia (Commencal Furious).
- Elite men's winner Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lu.
Results
1 Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lucas (Spa) 0.42.78 2 Romain Saladini (Fra) Team Sunn 0.00.27 3 Guido Tschugg (Ger) 0.00.20 4 Gracia Cédric (Fra) Commencal - Furious - Oakley Team 0.01.83 5 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) Suzuki-RB 0.01.04 6 Dan Atherton (GBr) Animal Commencal 0.01.99 7 Filip Polc (Svk) Kenda Tomac 0.02.44 8 Tomas Slavik (Cze) 0.01.25 9 Sascha Meyenborg (Ger) 0.01.73 10 Fabien Cousinie (Fra) 0.02.40 11 Thomas Tokarczyk (USA) 0.03.03 12 Jurg Meijer (Ned) 0.15.49 13 Joey Van Veghel (Ned) 0.02.11 14 Ludovic Gadois (Fra) 0.03.17 15 Michael Garcia (Ned) 0.05.11 16 Adrian Weiss (Swi) Tomac Factory Racing 0.09.13 17 Joost Wichman (Ned) 0.01.20 18 Cody Eichhorn (Aus) 0.03.17 19 Bruno Boissin (Fra) 0.03.41 20 Scott Roberts (GBr) 0.03.60 21 Michael Robert Haderer (USA) 0.03.89 22 Dominik Gspan (Swi) 0.03.98 23 Heikki Hall (USA) 0.05.11 24 Scott Beaumont (GBr) 0.09.65 25 Johannes Fischbach (Ger) 0.01.58 26 Lewis Lacey (GBr) 0.02.68 27 Erik Nelson (USA) 0.03.69 28 George Stephenson (USA) 0.03.87 29 Nicolas Gspan (Swi) 0.05.00 30 Adrian Hanko (Ger) 0.07.18 Teams 1 MS-Intense Factory-Racing 50 pts 2 Team Sunn 35 3 Commencal - Furious - Oakley Team 26 4 Norco World Team 25 5 Suzuki-Rb 22 6 Animal Commencal 20 7 Kenda Tomac 18 8 4 Elements Yeti/Hotec/RSP 15 9 Tomac Factory Racing 5 World Cup standings after four events 1 Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lucas (Spa) 610 pts 2 Guido Tschugg (Ger) 600 3 Dan Atherton (GBr) Animal Commencal 480 4 Cédric Gracia (Fra) Commencal - Furious - Oakley Team 350 5 Romain Saladini (Fra) Team Sunn 280 6 Jared Graves (Aus) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 250 7 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) Suzuki-RB 240 8 Johannes Fischbach (Ger) Team Ghost International 220 9 Joost Wichman (Ned) Cannondale Factory Racing 215 10 Tomas Slavik (Cze) 200 11 Brian Lopes (USA) 200 12 Jurg Meijer (Ned) 135 13 Filip Polc (Svk) Kenda Tomac 120 14 Michal Prokop (Cze) 120 15 Mickael Deldycke (Fra) 120 16 Rastislav Pirman (Svk) 4 Elements Yeti/Hotec/Rsp 120 17 Ross Milan (USA) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 70 18 Sascha Meyenborg (Ger) 60 19 Quentin Derbier (Fra) 50 20 Scott Beaumont (GBr) Rocky Mountain UK 40 21 Fabien Cousinie (Fra) 35 22 Tomas Haluza (Cze) 35 23 Thomas Tokarczyk (USA) 30 24 Dave Wardell (GBr) 30 25 Will Longden (GBr) Team BikeRadar 25 26 Sidney Gerber (Swi) 25 27 Joey Van Veghel (Ned) 20 28 Ludovic Gadois (Fra) 15 29 William Evans (GBr) 15 30 Michael Garcia (Ned) 10 31 Lewis Lacey (GBr) 10 32 Miroslav Jirka (Cze) 10 33 Adrian Weiss (Swi) Tomac Factory Racing 5 34 Frans Sjoblom (Swe) 5 35 Lukas Mechura (Cze) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 5 36 Livio Zampieri (Ita) 5 Team standings 1 MS-Intense Factory-Racing 195 pts 2 Suzuki-Rb 98 3 4 Elements Yeti/Hotec/RSP 96 4 Animal Commencal 90 5 Commencal - Furious - Oakley Team 84 6 Norco World Team 75 7 Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 64 8 Team Sunn 55 9 Team Ghost International 54 10 Cannondale Factory Racing 42 11 Kenda Tomac 40 12 Rocky Mountain UK 16 13 Team Bike Radar 9 14 Tomac Factory Racing 5 15 Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 5
