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MTB World Cup XC #9 & DH #7 - CDM
Schladming, Austria, September 11-14, 2008
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Race 3 - September 12: Elite men 4X
Protest delays finals
By Luke Webber in Schladming
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Under heavy rains and in the most bizarre circumstances, the four cross World Cup Finals will not be remembered for close racing or a battle to the final, but rather for Roger Rinderknecht's protests.
In the semi-finals, Rinderknecht claimed Romain Saladini (Team Sunn) cut a flag and was not penalised - dumping the Swiss rider from the finals. What followed was an official protest and then an unofficial one, which consisted of Rinderknecht walking up the start straight and refusing to let the final start.
After 15 minutes, the decision was finally taken that the original result would stand and Rinderknecht was to ride in the small final only - a race he ran away with, crossing the line with his hands over his eyes, still clearly angry about a decision which cost him a shot at the win.
More controversially, it was Saladini who went on to win the final in a thrilling race. Within the first 50 meters Jakub Hindak and Joost Wichman (Cannondale Factory Racing) collided, leaving Dan Atherton (Animcal Commencal) to pass Saladini on the first corner. The Frenchman Saladini, however, had in mind Atherton's weakness - a longer sweeping bend halfway down the track, on which Atherton had been struggling all night. Saladini made his move here and despite a desperate attempt on the lower reaches of the course, Atherton could not overtake him for the win.
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The battle for the overall World Cup series was decided far earlier in the evening. When Rafa Alvarez took an early exit in the quarter finals, there were rumours the World Champion's luck had run out. Obviously not enjoying the rain and sporting a black jacket for the heats, the pressure fell to title contender Guido Tschugg.
Paired against Atherton and Cedric Gracia (Commencal - Furious - Oakley Team) - who had been racing aggressively all night - Tschugg was bullied out of the race in the first corner as Gracia made an impossible pass from fourth to second. By the finish, Hnidak had profited from Gracia and Tschugg's battle which ultimately benefited neither rider.
Alvarez, in his first international campaign, has captured the clean sweep in four cross by winning both the World Championship and World Cup. Next year it will be interesting to see if his dominant form continues with the return of Michal Prokop and Jared Graves.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Luke Weber
- During practice the views were spectacular.
- And the course was dry and fast.
- Unfortunately, not even the official jackets would help with the following deluge.
- Riders started the evening in overcast conditions.
- This panoramic gives a better idea of the rolling nature of the jumps.
- The clouds rolled into the Schladming valley.
- Final-round winner Saladini managed at least one ride in the dry.
- Alvarez completed the clean sweep with his final podium appearance in 2008.
Results
Big Final 1 Romain Saladini (Fra) Team Sunn 2 Dan Atherton (GBr) Animal Commencal 3 Joost Wichman (Ned) Cannondale Factory Racing 4 Jakub Hnidak (Cze) Small final 5 Roger Rinderknecht (Swi) 6 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) Suzuki-RB 7 Aurélien Giordanengo (Fra) 8 Jurg Meijer (Ned) 1/4 finals 9 Cédric Gracia (Fra) Commencal - Furious - Oakley Team 10 Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lucas (Spa) 11 Georg Sieder (Aut) Solid Aclass Factory Team 12 Johannes Fischbach (Ger) Team Ghost International 13 Guido Tschugg (Ger) 14 Matej Vitko (Svk) 15 David Graf (Swi) 16 Lukasz Baran (Pol) 1/8 finals 17 Scott Beaumont (GBr) Rocky Mountain UK 18 Quentin Derbier (Fra) 19 Rastislav Pirman (Svk) 4 Elements Yeti/Hotec/Rsp 20 Lewis Lacey (GBr) 21 Filip Polc (Svk) Kenda Tomac 22 Marek Pesko (Svk) 23 Felix Beckeman (Swe) 24 Will Longden (GBr) Team BikeRadar 25 Pascal Seydoux (Swi) 26 Markus Pekoll (Aut) Solid Aclass Factory Team 27 Sascha Meyenborg (Ger) 28 Lukas Mechura (Cze) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 29 Florian Gottschlich (Ger) 30 Joey Van Veghel (Ned) 31 Adrian Weiss (Swi) Tomac Factory Racing 32 Markus Sedlak (Aut) 1/16 finals 33 John Swanguen (USA) MS-Intense Factory-Racing 34 Tomas Slavik (Cze) 35 Peter Prajczer (Hun) 36 Adrian Kiener (Swi) 37 Tilen Frank (Slo) Team Scott Lactat 38 David Axelsson (Swe) 38 Georg Engel (Aut) 40 Bernard Kerr (GBr) 41 Tom Dowie (GBr) 42 Nico Vink (Bel) Dolphin-Trek Mountainbike Racing Team 43 Matej Stapic (Slo) Team Enduro Mulisha 44 Krisztian Meszaros (Hun) 45 Werner Muther (Swi) 46 Stephen Taylor (GBr) 47 Robert Kulesza (Pol) 48 Duncan Ferris (GBr) 49 Hannes Slavik (Aut) 50 Tomas Haluza (Cze) 51 Stepan Tumpach (Cze) 52 Adam Stasek (Cze) 53 Thomas Bubla (Aut) 54 Martin Frei (Swi) 55 Pascal Furrer (Swi) 56 Grzegorz Borodajko (Pol) 57 Luka Novak (Slo) Team Enduro Mulisha 58 Lukas Jaeger (Swi) 59 James Norton (GBr) 60 Zdenek Nasinec (Cze) 60 Walter Zeidler (Aut) 60 Stefan Maderthaner (Aut) 63 Mathieu Troquier (Fra) Solid Aclass Factory Team 64 Boris Tetzlaff (Aut) Solid Aclass Factory Team Qualifications 65 Fabian Kuttel (Swi) 66 Peter Roschner (Aut) 67 Ales Rogozan (Cze) 68 Nico Seidel (Ger) 69 Piotr Paradowski (Pol) 70 Mirco Weiss (Swi) 71 Nicolas Gspan (Swi) 72 Frans Sjoblom (Swe) 73 Jakub Koutny (Cze) 74 Bostjan Pisanec (Slo) 75 Ole Hahn (Ger) 76 Stepan Novotny (Cze) 77 Michael Garcia (Ned) 78 Patrick Campbell-Jenner (GBr) 79 Jordan Gould (GBr) 80 Martin Buck (Swi) 81 Sorin Mircea Parau (Rom) 82 Jan Poric (Slo) 83 Nikolay Pukhir (Rus) 84 Sergey Maltsev (Rus) DNF Ziga Knez (Slo) DNS Matthew Simmonds (GBr) DNS Oskar Harnstrom (Swe) Teams 1 Suzuki-RB 2 Team Sunn 3 Animal Commencal 4 MS-Intense Factory-Racing 5 Cannondale Factory Racing 6 Norco World Team 7 Commencal - Furious - Oakley Team 8 Solid Aclass Factory Team 9 Team Ghost International 10 Suspension Center World Cup final standings 1 Rafael Alvarez De Lara Lucas (Spa) 895 pts 2 Guido Tschugg (Ger) 830 3 Dan Atherton (GBr) Animal Commencal 755 4 Cédric Gracia (Fra) Commencal - Furious - Oakley Team 610 5 Romain Saladini (Fra) Team Sunn 590 6 Jared Graves (Aus) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 500 7 Joost Wichman (Ned) Cannondale Factory Racing 465 8 Johannes Fischbach (Ger) Team Ghost International 445 9 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) Suzuki-RB 395 10 Filip Polc (Svk) Kenda Tomac 210 11 Tomas Slavik (Cze) 205 12 Brian Lopes (USA) 200 13 Sam Willoughby (Aus) 200 14 Jurg Meijer (Ned) 185 15 Luke Madill (Aus) 150 16 Rastislav Pirman (Svk) 4 Elements Yeti/Hotec/Rsp 120 17 Jakub Hnidak (Cze) 120 18 Thomas Hubert (Aus) 120 19 Michal Prokop (Cze) 120 20 Mickael Deldycke (Fra) 120 21 Roger Rinderknecht (Swi) 100 22 Leigh Darrell (Aus) 100 23 John Swanguen (USA) MS-Intense Factory-Racing 80 24 Sascha Meyenborg (Ger) 75 25 Scott Beaumont (GBr) Rocky Mountain UK 75 26 Ross Milan (USA) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 70 27 Aurélien Giordanengo (Fra) 60 28 Will Longden (GBr) Team BikeRadar 55 29 Quentin Derbier (Fra) 50 30 Fabien Cousinie (Fra) 35 31 Tomas Haluza (Cze) 35 32 Dave Wardell (GBr) 30 33 Thomas Tokarczyk (USA) 30 34 Georg Sieder (Aut) Solid Aclass Factory Team 30 35 Terrence Scarr (Aus) 30 36 Sidney Gerber (Swi) 25 37 Tim Dunn (Aus) 25 38 Joey Van Veghel (Ned) 20 39 Dominik Gspan (Swi) 20 40 Matej Vitko (Svk) 15 41 William Evans (GBr) 15 42 Ludovic Gadois (Fra) 15 43 Hans Lambert (Can) Norco World Team 15 44 Lewis Lacey (GBr) 10 45 Erik Nelson (USA) 10 46 Michael Garcia (Ned) 10 47 David Graf (Swi) 10 48 Thomas Twentyman (Aus) 10 49 Miroslav Jirka (Cze) 10 50 Cody Eichhorn (Aus) 5 51 Lukas Mechura (Cze) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 5 52 Adrian Weiss (Swi) Tomac Factory Racing 5 53 Lukasz Baran (Pol) 5 54 Frans Sjoblom (Swe) 5 55 Livio Zampieri (Ita) 5 Teams 1 MS-Intense Factory-Racing 350 pts 2 Suzuki-RB 168 3 Animal Commencal 151 4 4 Elements Yeti/Hotec/RSP 146 5 Commencal - Furious - Oakley Team 141 6 Norco World Team 122 7 Team Sunn 113 8 Team Ghost International 109 9 Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 104 10 Cannondale Factory Racing 94 11 Kenda Tomac 70 12 Rocky Mountain UK 28 13 Team Bike Radar 19 14 Solid Aclass Factory Team 10 15 Tomac Factory Racing 5 16 Suspension Center 5 17 Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 5
