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Four-cross World Cup #5 - CDM
Calgary, Canada, July 2, 2004
Results Cross country Downhill
Prokop & Jonnier land another; welcome retuurn for Lopes
By Colin Meagher
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The fifth gravity assisted race of the UCI World Cup series 4-Cross was marked by the return of Brian Lopes to the competition scene. He had some rust-and it showed-but put on a strong showing for his first competition of the season with a fifth place overall , winning the small final, beating out Brian Schmith, Bas De Bever, and Nathan Rennie.
The course featured a flat start, a sweeping right turn, and then a steep descent into a bermed left hand corner that led into a technical lower section punctuated by a massive double (massive enough that American Kyle Strait pulled off a backflip in his losing quarter final run) before the final straight-away to the finish.
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The early men's rounds were a mix of the expected and some surprises. Surprisingly, Cedric Gracia, despite being hampered by an injured foot from Mt St Anne, still managed to advance to the quarter finals. Another surprise was Swiss racer Roger Rinderknecht. Despite nipping at a semi final spot all season, the Swiss rider had as yet to put together an effort that would get him into the finals. But he kept a level head in his quarter final to beat out Trek's Wade Bootes, and did it again in his semi to land in the finals. American Eric Carter of Mongoose/Hyundai put in the fastest qualifying time, and marched through the field to take his usual place in the finals next to Roger, where they were joined by the persistent Bootes and reigning world champ, Michel Prokop of the Czech Republic. Since moving to 26 inch wheels, Prokop has just been killing it, and this race was no different. Prokop grabbed the hole shot on the top of the course and never looked back.
On the women's side of things, it was business as usual for Frenchwoman Sabrina Jonnier. Since her third place finish at Fort Williams, and her second place finish at the second stop of the tour, she's been on a roll, winning the last three contests. The other top podium finishers, Americans Jill Kinter and Tara Llanes were also in familiar shoes-second and third respectively-for the third race in a row. The only surprise was Team Morzine's Celine Gros a consistent fifth place finisher in three of the five 4-Cross races on the UCI World Cup circuit this year, moving up to a podium spot with her 4rth place finish behind the "regulars".
With the women's field only numbering 16 riders, and the domination displayed so far this season by the top riders, there were no real surprises as Sabrina and the other favorites marched through to the finals. And once there, the story was a simple one, with Sabrina grabbing the hole shot leading into the steep descent, and despite threats from Kinter and Llanaes, making no mistakes and never relinquishing her spot. Look for her to be the woman to beat this year at the World Championships.
Photography
Images by Colin Meagher
- Eric Carter leading Brian Schmith
- Celine Gros cracking into the finals
- Sabrine Jonnier in the berm during the quarters
- Tara Llanes winning the quarter finals.
- Prokop edging out Lopes and Gracia in the quarters
- Roger Rinderknecht working over the boys--Nathan Rennie and Wade Bootes--in semi final #2
- Prokop setting the tone in the first heat of the finals
- The women's podium
- The men's podium
- Eric Carter "baptising" Prokop on the podium with Prokop's bottle of bubbly.
Results
Men Final 1 Michal Prokop (Cze) 2 Roger Rinderknecht (Swi) 3 Eric Carter (USA) 4 Wade Bootes (Aus) Trek-Volkswagen Small Final 5 Brian Lopes (USA) 6 Brian Schmith (USA) 7 Bas De Bever (Ned) Be One / Madhouse 8 Nathan Rennie (Aus) 1/4 Finals 9 Michael Robinson (Aus) 10 Jared Graves (Aus) 11 Chris Powell (USA) Specialized Mountain Bike 12 Cedric Gracia (Fra) Siemens Mobile Cannondale 13 George Atherton (GBr) 14 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) 15 Kyle Strait (USA) 16 Guido Tschugg (Ger) Fusion MTB Pro Racing 1/8 Finals 17 Jared Rando (Aus) 18 Cameron Zink (USA) 19 John Kirkcaldie (NZl) 20 Cody Warren (USA) 21 Markolf Berchtold (Bra) Maxxis-MSC 22 Colin Bailey (USA) 23 Dustin Adams (Can) 24 Chris Vandine (USA) 25 Tyson McCrea (Can) 26 Daniel Atherton (GBr) 27 David Vazquez Lopez (Spa) Maxxis-MSC 28 Robin Baloochi (USA) 29 Andrew Neethling (RSA) 30 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 31 Travis Collins (USA) 32 Kyle Guay (Can) 33 Adam Muys (Can) 34 Mike King (USA) 35 Henry O Donnell (USA) 36 Karl Rogne (USA) 37 Rudiger Jahnel (Aut) ARBÖ RSP Downhill Racing 38 Jeff Ingram (Can) 39 Nathaniel Ball (Can) 40 Matt Sturgeon (Can) 41 Peter Fernbach (Aut) ARBÖ RSP Downhill Racing 42 Marco Erbrich (Ger) 43 Kenji Takamatsu (Jpn) Women 1 Sabrina Jonnier (Fra) 2 Jill Kinter (USA) 3 Tara Llanes (USA) 4 Celine Gros (Fra) Team Morzine Avoriaz Small Final 5 Katrina Miller (Aus) 6 Anneke Beerten (Ned) 7 Vanessa Quin (NZl) 8 Marla Streb (USA) Luna Women´s MTB Team 1/4 Finals 9 Mio Suemasa (Jpn) 10 Lisa Sher (USA) 11 Claire Buchar (Can) 12 Anita Molcik (Aut) ARBÖ RSP Downhill Racing 13 Diana Marggraff (Ecu) Zenith-MTB-International 14 April Lawyer (USA) 15 Kathy Pruitt (USA) Luna Women´s MTB Team World Cup standings after round 5 Men 1 Michal Prokop (Cze) 170 pts 2 Guido Tschugg (Ger) Fusion MTB P 96 3 Wade Bootes (Aus) Trek-Volkswageg 95 4 Cedric Gracia (Fra) Siemens Mobile Cannondale 88 5 Roger Rinderknecht (Swi) 72 6 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) 70 7 Karim Amour (Fra) 68 8 Samuel Hill (Aus) 67 9 Bas De Bever (Ned) Be One / Madhouse 65 10 Romain Saladini (Fra) Commencal-Ox 52 11 Chris Powell (USA) Specialized 49 12 Brian Schmith (USA) 48 13 Nathan Rennie (Aus) 47 14 Eric Carter (USA) 40 15 Thomas Allier (Fra) 35 16 Lucas Tamme (Cze) 30 17 Michael Robinson (Aus) 29 18 Robin Baloochi (USA) 27 19 Mickael Deldycke (Fra) 22 20 Brian Lopes (USA) 21 21 Dale Holmes (GBr) 21 22 Steve Peat (GBr) Team Orange 21 23 Scott Beaumont (GBr) 18 24 Jared Graves (Aus) 17 25 Mike King (USA) 17 26 Filip Polc (Svk) 15 27 Michal Marosi (Cze) 14 28 David Vazquez Lopez (Spa) Maxxis-MSC 13 29 George Atherton (GBr) 12 30 Dave Wardell (GBr) 11 31 Kyle Strait (USA) 10 31 Jared Rando (Aus) 10 33 Benoit Colin (Fra) 9 34 Luka Novak (Slo) 8 35 Pablo Galán Carrasco (Spa) 8 36 Jakub Hnidak (Cze) 7 37 Markolf Berchtold (Bra) Maxxis-MSC 6 38 Carmine Falco (Fra) 6 39 Frans Sjoblom (Swe) 6 40 Cameron Zink (USA) 5 41 Mathieu Laurin (Can) 5 42 Lukas Panka (Cze) 5 43 Matej Vitko (Svk) 5 43 Michal Pribyl (Cze) 5 45 John Kirkcaldie (NZl) 4 46 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 4 47 Arne Tschug (Ger) 4 48 Xavier Aumaitre (Fra) 4 49 Cody Warren (USA) 3 50 Vlastimil Hyncica (Cze) 3 51 Colin Bailey (USA) 2 52 Chris Vandine (USA) 2 53 Joel Panozzo (Aus) 2 54 Simon Newton (GBr) 2 55 Dustin Adams (Can) 1 56 Stephane Mailhot (Can) 1 57 Michael Staufer (Aut) 1 58 Johannes Hwang (Aut) 1 58 Richard Batey (GBr) 1 Women 1 Sabrina Jonnier (Fra) 220 pts 2 Tara Llanes (USA) 100 3 Katrina Miller (Aus) 85 4 Anneke Beerten (Ned) 80 5 Celine Gros (Fra) Team Morzine 65 6 Anne-Caroline Chausson (Fra) Commencal-Ox 50 7 Vanessa Quin (NZl) 49 8 Jill Kinter (USA) 40 9 Jill Kintner (USA) 40 10 Diana Marggraff (Ecu) Zenith-MTB 35 10 Tracy Moseley (GBr) Kona Clarks 35 12 Mio Suemasa (Jpn) 33 13 Marla Streb (USA) Luna Women´S 25 14 Anita Molcik (Aut) Arbö Rsp Dow 22 15 Fionn Griffiths (GBr) 13 16 Joey Gough (GBr) 10 17 Marissa Erbrich (Ger) 6 18 Lisa Sher (USA) 5 19 Michelle Dumaresq (Can) 4 20 Eva Castro Fernandez (Spa) 4 21 Zsofia Koczka (Hun) 3 22 Helene Fruhwirth (Aut) 3 23 Claire Buchar (Can) 2 24 Florence Scheibli (Swi) 2 25 Kathy Pruitt (USA) Luna Women´s 1
