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2002 MTB Worlds - CDM
Kaprun, Austria, 24 August - 1 September, 2002
Results Team Relay Cross Country Downhill Four Cross Other events
August 28 - Team Relay
Canada too strong for late charging France
Canada has won the first gold medal at the 2002 World Mountain Bike Championships in Kaprun, Austria. The team consisting of Ryder Hesjedal, Roland Green, Max Plaxton and Alison Sydor took the honours in the Team Relay event, that marked the official opening of the World Championships today. The quartet beat a fast finishing French team by 53 seconds, with Switzerland finishing in the bronze medal position at 1'24.
The Team Relay is a mass start cross country event consisting of teams made up of three men and one woman, each of whom ride a lap of the course. The teams can select their riders in any order, with most opting to send off their fastest riders first to avoid traffic jams.
Canada's Roland Green hit the front on the second of four laps, and never looked back. By the end of the lap, Green had opened up a 1'08 gap on his nearest competitor, Thomas Frischknecht (Switzerland), with Britain and France holding down third and fourth spots respectively.
France had decided to ride their female competitor, Laurence Leboucher in third position, with Cedric Ravanel to bring them home. This worked well, with Ravanel making a lot of ground on the last lap to move France up into second position. However, he couldn't catch Alison Sydor, who crossed the line for Canada's gold medal with a 53 second advantage.
One rider, Andreas Markakis (Greece) was not authorised to start today, due to a high hematocrit level.
Results
1 Canada (Ryder Hesjedal/Roland Green/Maximilian Plaxton/Alison Sydor) 1.43.36 2 France (Julien Absalon/Jean Eudes/Laurence Leboucher/Cedric Ravanel) 0.53 3 Switzerland (Florian Vogel/Thomas Frischknecht/Lukas Flueckinger/Petra Henzi) 1.24 4 Sweden (Frederik Kessiakof/Emil Lundgren/Anna Enocsson/Magnus Palmberg) 3.44 5 Italy (Marco Bui/Franz Hofer/Camilla Bertossi/Tony Longo) 4.30 6 Australia (Josh Fleming/Trent Lowe/Mary Grigson/Sid Taberlay) 4.30 7 Germany (Manuel Fumic/Sabine Spitz/Benjamin Rudiger/Lado Fumic) 5.49 8 Great Britain (Liam Killeen/Oli Beckingsale/Steven Clarck/Caroline Alexander) 5.57 9 Denmark (Jakob Fuglsang/Mette Andersen/Christian Poulsen/Peter Riis Andersen) 6.21 10 Austria (Robert Kircher/Baerber Jungmeier/Christian Moitzi/Markus Weber) 7.00 11 USA Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Walker Ferguson, Adam Swarzbaugh, Susan Haywood
