World Mountain Bike Championships - CDMSierra Nevada, Spain, June 7 - 11, 20001999 Results Main Page Elite Men Elite Women Day 5 - June 11: Cross CountryElite Men - 42.8 kmMartinez wins finaleBy Gabriella Ekström, cyclingnews.com correspondent
The rocky course did in fact help Martinez to stay away, as so many of the favourites suffered from punctures and crashes. Both Van Dooren and Dupouey suffered flat tires, and eventually withdrew from the race. Another rider who suffered badly was last year's U23 World Champion Marco Bui, who fell while being in a good position in the race. Bui broke his collarbone and had to be transported to the nearest hospital. Just like Fullana, Martinez had a gap of 43 seconds at the end of the first lap. Bui, who was still in the race at this point was the closest chasing rider together with Canada's Roland Green. Italian Hubert 'Hubie' Pallhuber, Australian Cadel Evans and Dutchman Bart Brentjens made up a group behind them. A former World Champion, an Olympic Gold Medallist and a World Cup winner. Spanish MTB Champion Jose Marquez started to move up in the field during the second lap, and rode as fourth rider for a while, behind Green who was now alone after Bui's crash, and Pallhuber who followed as third. Marquez was then overtaken by Brentjens in the third lap. Brentjens started to put in some time to Marquez, and the top three riders were now Martinez, Green and Brentjens, since Pallhuber and Evans lost contact with the front riders on the final lap. Martinez increased the gap all the way to the finish, and over the line the tiny Frenchman was almost three minutes ahead of Roland Green, who surprised everyone, including himself to take the second place. Bart Brentjens came in as third rider and bronze medallist nearly five minutes behind Martinez. Martinez celebrated the happiest day in his life and was quoted saying that "The Junior Worlds are for the parents, but the senior gold medal is for the athlete. I'm so very, very happy, this is a dream coming true. I never thought I could win a race like this, with so many riders around me concentrating on doing the same thing." Let me guess that Miguel's next target is an Olympic Gold Medal. Results1 Miguel Martinez (Fra) 2.17.38 2 Roland Green (Can) 2.52 3 Bart Brentjens (Ned) 4.51 4 Jose Marquez (Spa) 6.14 5 Ludovic Dubau (Fra) 6.20 6 Patrick Tolhoek (Ned) 6.37 7 Gregory Vollet (Fra) 7.41 8 Hubert Pallhuber (Ita) 7.56 9 Filip Meirhaeghe (Bel) 8.26 10 Tom Larsen (Nor) 8.45 11 Luca Bramati (Ita) 9.27 12 Lado Fumic (Ger) 9.45 13 Cadel Evans (Aus) 10.14 14 Thomas Frischknecht (Swi) 10.44 15 Dario Cioni (Ita) 10.50 16 Pavel Tcherkassov (Rus) 11.03 17 Greg Randolph (Usa) 11.15 18 Rob Woods (Aus) 11.37 19 Marc Hanisch (Ger) 12.05 20 Seamus Mcgrath (Can) 12.42 21 Craig Gordon (Aus) 13.14 22 Geoff Kabush (Can) 14.04 23 Steve Larsen (Usa) 14.19 24 Paul Rowney (Aus) 14.23 25 Marek Galinski (Pol) 14.26 26 Dominique Arnould (Fra) 14.46 27 Chris Sheppard (Can) 15.15 28 Ziranda Madrigal (Mex) 15.34 29 Marc Gullickson (Usa) 15.46 30 Marcel Heller (Swi) 15.54 31 Primoz Strancar (Slo) 16.02 32 Mirko Pirazzoli (Ita) 16.13 33 Roberto Lezaun (Spa) 16.32 34 Robin Seymoure (Irl) 16.39 35 Andres Brenes (Crc) 16.43 36 Christophe Herisset (Fra) 16.49 37 Oliver Beckingsale (Gbr) 17.39 38 Eric Tourville (Can) 17.45 39 Jure Golcer (Slo) 18.02 40 Alberto Leon (Spa) 18.14 41 Lubos Kondis (Svk) 18.24 42 Diego Garavito (Col) 18.32 43 Henrik Djernis (Den) 19.24 44 Milan Barenyi (Svk) 20.32 45 Frederik Stormo (Nor) 21.18 46 Ruud Van Mil (Ned) 21.33 47 Milan Spesny (Cze) 22.14 48 Roger Smeets (Ned) 22.20 49 Josh Fleming (Aus) 22.31 50 Roel Paulissen (Bel) 22.43 51 Marjan Jauk (Slo) 23.53 52 Christian Weber (Swi) 24.09 53 Marcio Ravelli (Bra) 24.30 54 Peter Wedge (Can) 25.32 55 Zacharias Amando (Mex) 26.16 56 Pavel Sticha (Cze) 26.48 57 Mannie Heymans (Nam) 27.26 58 David Galle (Bel) 27.36 59 Peter Van Den Abeele (Bel) 27.50 60 Paul Lasenby (Gbr) 29.06 61 Thomas Bonne (Den) 29.33 62 Stefan Sahm (Ger) 31.10 63 Grajales Cesar (Col) 34.37 64 Matej Pistor (Slo) 1 Lap 65 Tomio Sakaeda (Jpn) 1 Lap 66 Esteban Toledo (Chi) 1 Lap 67 Gerard Dirks (Rsa) 1 Lap 68 Fritz Pienaar (Rsa) 1 Lap 69 Philip Mcnamara (Irl) 1 Lap 70 Andreas Markakis (Gre) 2 Laps 71 Georgios Ginis (Gre) 2 Laps 72 Nikolav Ilin (Uzb) 2 Laps Michael Rasmussen (Den) DNF Bas Van Dooren (Ned) DNF Christophe Sauser (Swi) DNF Thomas Hochstrasser (Swi) DNF Christophe Dupouey (Fra) DNF Marco Bui (Ita) DNF Jesper Agergaard (Den) DNF Carsten Bresser (Ger) DNF Beat Wabel (Swi) DNF Tinker Juarez (Usa) DNF Dario Acquaroli (Ita) DNF Radim Korinek (Cze) DNF Guillermo De Portugal (Spa) DNF Andoni Olaberria A. (Spa) DNF Kirk Molday (Usa) DNF Juan Carlos Garro (Spa) DNF Bas Peters (Ned) DNF Dariusz Gil (Pol) DNF Tomohiro Saito (Jpn) DNF Ignacio Di Lorenzo (Arg) DNF Shinaaku Goto (Jpn) DNF Siegfried Bauer (Aut) DNF Richard Mccauley (Irl) DNF Ales Habe (Slo) DNF Raita Suzuki (Jpn) DNF Ivandir Santos (Bra) DNF Martino Fruet (Ita) DNS Barrie Clarke (Gbr) DNS
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Margarita Fullana was by all means considered as the favourite for the gold medal in the women's race. Earlier this week she helped her country win a gold medal in the Team Relay category, a World Championship category that first was raced in Åre, Sweden last year. A complete team for the Team Relay consists of four riders, a male junior, a male U23, a male elite and a woman who should also be elite.
Marga Fullana who normally races for Gert-Jan Theunisse's Subaru-Specialized team, took her first gold medal at this years world's when she won the relay together with Inaki Lejarreta Errasti (junior rider and nephew of more well known road racer Marino Lejarreta), Jose Antonio Hermida (U23 gold medallist) and Roberto Lezaun (elite). Spain has been dominating the XC races so far at this championship, and as reigning World Champion, Marga Fullana had little choice but to take the medal. She took the lead in the first lap, just as she did in Åre last year. She was followed by Paola Pezzo, the leading lady in Italian MTB, and Alison Sydor, Canada's hope for the win. Behind them Barbara Blatter from Switzerland rode together with Alison Dunlap from USA.
Marga Fullana's pre-race plan was actually to take it easy, and not to push herslf, risking a crash or something worse. Her plan was to gain time on the climbs as she is a climber of class. However she did not quite stick to her early plans. On the first lap she asked her management for permission to go.
A small gap on the first lag quickly grew to 43 seconds on the second lap. At the end of the second lap, Fullana had a gap of two minutes down to her rivals. Pezzo who had left Sydor behind earlier, now found herself beeing chased back by the Canadian.The closest chasing rider was now Alison Sydor, and she kept her position until the end of the race, finishing three and a half minutes down on Fullana. Marga Fullana, the daughter of an ex-road racer, took her second World Champion title in two years. All the girls had nothing but praise to say about their competitors, and Marga told the press that although she wasn't afraid of anyone, she had the deepest respect for all the other girls in the race. They were all great champions.
Fullana further reports that she will not be taking part in the World Cup races, instead she will concentrate on preparing for the Olympics, something that probably goes for most elite mountain bikers. Expect some unexpected winners in the World Cup races to come.
Results
1 Marga Fullana (Spa) 2.07.42 2 Alison Sydor (Can) 3.27 3 Paola Pezzo (Ita) 4.14 4 Barbara Blatter (Swi) 4.23 5 Mary Grigson (Aus) 6.00 6 Alison Dunlap (Usa) 6.56 7 Chrissy Redden (Can) 6.56 8 Jimena Florit (Arg) 8.44 9 Sophie Villeneuve (Fra) 9.34 10 Regina Marunde (Ger) 9.57 11 Irina Iagoupova (Rus) 10.37 12 Ann Trombley (Usa) 11.15 13 Alla Epifanova (Rus) 11.22 14 Lesley Tomlinson (Can) 11.36 15 Corine Dorland (Ned) 12.16 16 Ruthie Matthes (Usa) 13.06 17 Patricia Sinclair (Can) 13.57 18 Chantal Daucourt (Swi) 14.26 19 Sabine Spitz (Ger) 14.55 20 Annabella Stropparo (Ita) 15.36 21 Sandra Temporelli (Fra) 16.01 22 Giuliana Tovaglieri (Ita) 16.19 23 Flor Delgadillo (Col) 16.30 24 Janet Puiggros Miranda (Spa) 16.35 25 Lory Laroy (Bel) 16.43 26 Petra Henzi (Swi) 17.23 27 Silvia Rovira Planas (Spa) 17.48 28 Anna Baylis (Aus) 18.10 29 Hannele Kotze (Rsa) 18.57 30 Anna Szafraniec (Pol) 20.20 31 Hanneke Geysen (Aus) 21.14 32 Sadie Parker (Nzl) 22.04 33 Marie-Helene Premont (Can) 22.17 34 Maroussia Rusca (Swi) 22.38 35 Hedda Zu Putlitz (Ger) 23.46 36 Yukari Nakagome (Jpn) 23.46 37 Erica Green (Rsa) 25.37 38 Dellys Franke (Aus) 25.39 39 Helene Marcouyre (Fra) 27.02 40 Melanie Dorion (Can) 27.46 41 Jacqueline Mourao (Bra) 27.47 42 Rocio Gamonal (Spa) 28.40 43 Barbel Jungmeier (Aut) 29.56 44 Blaza Klemen Cic (Slo) 30.52 45 Cariza Munoz Carrette (Mex) 31.10 46 Tessa Sollaart (Ned) 31.53 47 Kaja Polivkova (Cze) 33.21 48 Tarja Owens (Irl) 34.58 49 Yuko Sato (Jpn) 41.09 50 Veronica Leal Balderas (Mex) 42.39 51 Yolanda Speedy (Rsa) 1 Lap 52 Seiko Nakanishi (Jpn) 1 Lap 53 Tatiana Kaverina (Rus) 1 Lap 54 Iryna Simonova (Ukr) 1 Lap 55 Rosa Morcillo Del Brio (Spa) 1 Lap 56 Beth Mc Cluskey (Irl) 1 Lap Caroline Alexander (Gbr) DNF Louise Robinson (Gbr) DNF Maria Ostergren (Swe) DNF Aya Tazaki (Jpn) DNF Veronica Germano (Arg) DNF