October 8/12 14:02 pm - Marathon World Championships
Posted by Editoress on 10/8/12
On Sunday, Perikilis Ilias (Greece) was the surprise winner of the Men's title at the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships held in Ornans France, leading the race from beginning to end. Annika Langvad from Denmark retained the Women’s title.
The muddy and very difficult course at Ornans, in eastern France, played a key role in the distribution of the medals. Saturday’s summery weather was replaced by rain and fog, which had a considerable effect on the track. To obtain the rainbow jersey, one had to be both physically and mentally strong, and avoid having any significant mechanical problems.
Ilias certainly fulfilled these criteria. At the head of the Elite Men’s race from the start, he maintained that position throughout the entire 84 kilometres. “I didn’t want to break away just then," he explained, "but when I saw that the other weren’t following, I didn’t hesitate, and kept up my effort.”
In spite of two punctures, Ilias held his lead right to the line. He was 2:28 in front of German cross-country pro Moritz Milatz who, struggling from the halfway mark, had “thought of giving up” before getting it back together over the final kilometres. Germany's Kristian Hynek, who crossed the line 2:37 behind, took the bronze medal. Former world champion Christoph Sauser (Switzerland), fourth at 2:58, considered as one of the favourites before the race, failed to make the podium.
At only 26 years of age, Ilias has won the greatest victory of his career. Usually concentrating on cross country, he has been national champion seven times, and was 33rd at the Olympic Games this past summer.
“I trained very hard, and had a very good feeling during the last few days,” he explained. "Although I lost my concentration rather during the last ten kilometres, I held on. It’s my first international win, and I’m very happy.”
Women
It was a bitter fight for victory in the Elite Women’s race. Right from the first climb of the course, Annika Langvad managed to break away from former champion Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Norway). Langvad was alone in the lead but, lacking in confidence and looking over her shoulder on many occasions, allowed her rival to catch up and then overtake her.
The 28 year old Langvald, injured several times this season, might have thought that her chances of winning were fading when she had a puncture six kilometres from the end, and then crashed during the last downhill stretch. However, in spite of these incidents, the Danish rider regained her lead and her title of World Champion.
“I arrived here under no pressure, and in a totally relaxed condition,” explained Langvad. “I remained concentrated over the whole length of the course. It’s just incredible to finish the season in this way. Everything went perfectly for me today.”
Langvald beat Dahle Flesjaa by 45 seconds, with the Swiss rider Esther Süss completing the podium at 1:41 back.
UCI report
|
Elite Women, 63 km |
|
| 1 Annika Langvad (Denmark) | 3:52:23 |
| 2 Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Norway) | 3:53:08 |
| 3 Esther Süss (Switzerland) | 3:54:04 |
| 4 Irina Kalentieva (Russia) | 4:05:13 |
| 5 Sally Bigham (Great Britain) | 4:06:20 |
| 6 Elisabeth Brandau (Germany) | 4:09:02 |
| 7 Jane Nussli (Great Britain) | 4:13:02 |
| 8 Sabrina Enaux (France) | 4:13:22 |
| 9 Borghild Løvset (Norway) | 4:14:50 |
| 10 Helene Marcouyre (France) | 4:18:09 |
| 11 Vera Andreeva (Russia) | 4:20:09 |
| 12 Heidi Rosasen Sandsto (Norway) | 4:20:43 |
| 13 Catherine Hare Willianson (Great Britain) | 4:22:44 |
| 14 Yolande Speedy (South Africa) | 4:23:20 |
| 15 Fanny Bourdon (France) | 4:29:56 |
| 16 Ariane Kleinhans (Switzerland) | 4:31:54 |
| 17 Rikke Kornvig (Denmark) | 4:35:59 |
| 18 Janka Stevkova (Slovakia) | 4:45:46 |
| 19 Katrin Schwing (Germany) | 4:47:27 |
| 20 Coralie Redelsperger (France) | 4:50:12 |
| 21 Sofia Pezzatti (Switzerland) | 4:52:26 |
| 22 Inne Gantois (Belgium) | 4:53:19 |
| 23 Annika Bergman (Sweden) | 4:53:20 |
| 24 Alexandra Clement (Switzerland) | 4:54:20 |
| 25 Helle Qvortrup Bachmann (Denmark) | 4:57:37 |
| 26 Verena Krenslehner (Austia) | 4:57:46 |
| 27 Silke Keinath (Germany) | 5:00:27 |
| 28 Samantha Sanders (South Africa) | 5:03:54 |
| 29 Isabelle Klein (Luxembourg) | 5:06:42 |
| 30 Daniele Troesch (France) | 5:06:49 |
| 31 Sandrine Ponsard (France) | 5:06:49 |
| 32 Virginie Pointet (Switzerland) | 5:15:09 |
| 33 Rachel Fenton (Great Britain) | 5:16:56 |
| 34 Agnieszka Zych (Poland) | 5:20:41 |
| 35 Tina Urnau (Germany) | 5:33:36 |
| 36 Maria Teresa Abumohor (Chile) | 5:43:59 |
| 37 Liliana Alejandra Uzcategui Vasquez (Venezuela) | 5:49:51 |
| 38 Kristien Nelen (Belgium) | 5:53:19 |
| 39 Flavie Montusclat (France) | 5:58:03 |
| 40 Celine Riviere (France) | 6:05:03 |
| Elite Men, 84 km | |
| 1 Periklis Ilias (Greece) | 4:18:17 |
| 2 Moritz Milatz (Germany) | 4:20:45 |
| 3 Kristian Hynek (Czech Republic) | 4:20:54 |
| 4 Christoph Sauser (Switzerland) | 4:21:15 |
| 5 Jiri Novak (Czech Republic) | 4:23:16 |
| 6 Martin Gujan (Switzerland) | 4:23:42 |
| 7 Thomas Dietsch (France) | 4:24:30 |
| 8 Alexey Medvedev (Russia) | 4:25:10 |
| 9 Tim Bohme (Germany) | 4:25:22 |
| 10 Alexandre Moos (Switzerland) | 4:27:18 |
| 11 Lukas Buchli (Switzerland) | 4:28:28 |
| 12 Robert Mennen (Germany) | 4:30:02 |
| 13 Nicola Rohrbach (Switzerland) | 4:30:40 |
| 14 Markus Bauer (Germany) | 4:30:49 |
| 15 Calle Friberg (Sweden) | 4:31:08 |
| 16 Ivan Alvarez Gutierrez (Spain) | 4:33:06 |
| 17 Kevin Van Hoovels (Belgium) | 4:34:31 |
| 18 Max Knox (South Africa) | 4:34:38 |
| 19 Jochen Kass (Germany) | 4:35:38 |
| 20 Konny Looser (Switzerland) | 4:36:43 |
| 21 Stefan Sahm (Germany) | 4:36:43 |
| 22 Alban Lakata (Austia) | 4:37:11 |
| 23 Matthias Leisling (Germany) | 4:38:27 |
| 24 Hector Leonardo Paez Leon (Colombia) | 4:39:04 |
| 25 Michal Lami (Slovakia) | 4:40:32 |
| 26 Hannes Genze (Germany) | 4:41:13 |
| 27 Juan Pedro Trujillo Hernandez (Spain) | 4:41:14 |
| 28 Ruben Almeida (Portugal) | 4:41:19 |
| 29 Claus Crone (Denmark) | 4:47:39 |
| 30 Kevin Evans (South Africa) | 4:47:49 |
| 31 Tony Longo (Italy) | 4:48:20 |
| 32 Jérome Chevallier (France) | 4:49:37 |
| 33 Damian Perrin (Switzerland) | 4:49:54 |
| 34 Jo Thorson Nordskar (Norway) | 4:50:38 |
| 35 Hans Becking (Netherlands) | 4:51:07 |
| 36 Marcus Nicolai (Germany) | 4:51:16 |
| 37 Roland Golderer (Germany) | 4:51:19 |
| 38 Rupert Palmberger (Germany) | 4:51:45 |
| 39 Jesus Del Nero Montes (Spain) | 4:52:01 |
| 40 Erik Skovgaard (Denmark) | 4:54:28 |
| 41 Stefan Roffler (Switzerland) | 4:55:00 |
| 42 Lenart Noc (Slovenia) | 4:57:13 |
| 43 Lars Granberg (Norway) | 4:57:51 |
| 44 Hermann Pernsteiner (Austia) | 4:57:52 |
| 45 Caspar Austa (Estonia) | 5:00:04 |
| 46 Uwe Hardter (Germany) | 5:01:23 |
| 47 Gregory Pascal (France) | 5:01:38 |
| 48 Milton Javier Ramos Gamez (Honduras) | 5:03:00 |
| 49 Damiano Ferraro (Italy) | 5:05:03 |
| 50 Peeter Pruus (Estonia) | 5:05:25 |
| 51 Norbert Wyss (Switzerland) | 5:05:44 |
| 52 Sebastian Stark (Germany) | 5:09:27 |
| 53 Luca Ronchi (Italy) | 5:09:40 |
| 54 Maxime Folco (France) | 5:12:24 |
| 55 Andreas Huber (Germany) | 5:13:46 |
| 56 Oliver Zurbrugg (Switzerland) | 5:17:07 |
| 57 Nico Bell (South Africa) | 5:17:26 |
| 58 Manuel Pliem (Austia) | 5:17:32 |
| 59 Michael Schuchardt (Germany) | 5:19:15 |
| 60 Frans Claes (Belgium) | 5:19:35 |
| 61 Tim Dunford (Great Britain) | 5:21:02 |
| 62 Motoshi Kadota (Japan) | 5:25:51 |
| 63 Frederic Gombert (France) | 5:26:20 |
| 64 Steffen Thum (Germany) | 5:28:00 |
| 65 Romain Cleret (France) | 5:28:12 |
| 66 Yves Corminboeuf (Switzerland) | 5:28:13 |
| 67 Mike Schuler (Switzerland) | 5:29:04 |
| 68 Shun Matsumoto (Japan) | 5:29:09 |
| 69 Martin Larsen (Denmark) | 5:29:15 |
| 70 Martin Foger (Austia) | 5:29:59 |
| 71 Mikael Salomonsson (Sweden) | 5:30:52 |
| 72 Andrew Blair (Australia) | 5:31:20 |
| 73 Dana Weber (United States) | 5:32:37 |
| 74 Remi Laffont (France) | 5:33:13 |
| 75 Mariusz Marszacek (Poland) | 5:41:22 |
| 76 Thomas Holtkamp (Germany) | 5:42:09 |
| 77 Jan Preus (Germany) | 5:45:29 |
| 78 Robert Wittmann (Germany) | 5:47:20 |
| 79 Yuki Ikeda (Japan) | 5:50:51 |
| 80 Oliver Vonhausen (Germany) | 5:56:29 |
| 81 Adrian Jusinski (Poland) | 6:06:15 |
| 82 Timothy Carleton (Canada) | 6:11:32 |
| 83 Ali Çakas (Turkey) | 6:13:25 |
| 84 Yanosuke Fujimoto (Japan) | 6:33:44 |
| 85 Michal Ziulek (Poland) | 6:38:13 |
| 86 Justin Price (New Zealand) | 6:39:03 |
| 87 Bayram Eroglu (Turkey) | 6:42:57 |
| 88 Victor Galvez Perez (Chile) | 6:44:11 |
| 89 Ioannis Skordas (Greece) | 7:08:11 |
| 90 José Juan Trejo (Mexico) | 7:57:37 |
| 91 Cesar Trejo Gachuzo (Mexico) | 7:57:39 |
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