Napa Valley - MTB World Cup #1USA, April 7 & 8, 2001Main page Course map Complete live report so far Live ReportWelcome to Cyclingnews' live coverage of the 2001 MTB World Cups, kicking off with the first round at Napa Valley California. The women's race starts at 10.30 local time, 19:30CET and the men's at 14:00/23:00CET. Men The men will ride seven 6.4km laps plus the two 1km start loops. In a much bigger field than thewomen's race it's more nearly wide-open and yesterday's time trial, won by Marco Bui (AS Marin-Helly Hansen), isn't necessarily an indicator. There's a big difference between going hard for 14 minutes and sustaining pace for two and a half hours. Nevertheless, Bui is a contender as are Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru-Gary Fisher), Roland Green (Trek-Volkswagen), Bart Brentjens (Giant) and Cadel Evans (Volvo-Cannondale). Miguel Martinez (Fulldynamix) was out of the top ten yesterday but connot be discounted at the full distance. 16:02 – Finish Hermida's final attack was enough to just edge out Hanisch and Bui and give him the narrow margin needed to take this first World Cup round under grey skies with intermittent light rain. The lead trio were followed in by Dupouey after a remarkable charge through the field. Results (unofficial) 1 Jose Antonio Hermida (Spa) Bianchi Motorex 2.02.06 2 Marc Hanisch (Ger) Orbea 0.03 3 Marco Bui (Ita) A.S. Marin Helly Hansen 0.06 4 Christophe Dupouey (Fra) Giant 0.45 5 Lado Fumic (Ger) T-Mobile 0.54 6 Gregory Vollet (Fra) 77510 Bellot 1.01 7 Bart Brentjens (Ned) Giant 1.25 8 Filip Meirhaeghe (Bel) Specialized 1.45 9 Paul Rowney (Aus) Yeti/Pearl Izumi 1.51 10 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Subaru-Gary Fisher 2.01 Women The women will race five laps of the 6.4km course. Based on times from Saturday's time trial the race is expected to last around an hour and a half. The field is not large and this race is expected to be a three-way contest between Alison Dunlap (GT) Caroline Alexander (Specialized) and Barbara Blatter (Specialized). Coming off her win at Sea Otter, and the rocky, technical Napa course makes Caroline Alexander the slight favourite. 12:28 On the last climb, Alison Dunlap put in a sprited attack to drop Sydor and attempt to close the gap to Blatter, but Blatter just managed to hold off the American woman and take the race by about 12 seconds. Results 1 Barbara Blatter (Swi) Specialized 1.58.07 2 Alison Dunlap (USA) GT 0.12 3 Alison Sydor (Can) Trek/Volkswagen 1.16 4 Chrissy Redden (Can) Subaru-Gary Fisher 1.25 5 Caroline Alexander (GBr) Specialized 1.59
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