September 4/09 2:31 am - MTB World Championships: U23 Men's XC, Report, PHOTOS and full results

Posted by Editoress on 09/4/09
 

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Burry Stander (South Africa) successfully took his first his title in the Under-23 Men's cross-country on Friday at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Canberra, Australia.  Alexis Vuillermoz (France) took second at 1:21, with Switzerland's Thomas Litscher winning the bronze medal, 2:46 down.  Canada had one entry in the race, Raphael Gagne.  Gagne finished back in 38th place, 12:55 down on Stander, after another rider crashed into him damaging his rear wheel and forcing him to stop in the pits for a replacement wheel.

Photos

The six lap race saw Litscher attack strongly in the first lap, with Stander glued to his wheel.  A chase group of six formed 25 seconds behind, including Mattias Wengelin (Sweden), Marek Konwa (Poland), Vuillermoz, Peter Sagan, Mathias Flückiger (Switzerland) and Catriel Andres Soto (Argentina).

Then Stander opened it up on the Cardiac Arrest climb, and that was it ... the rest of the race was for second as the Number Two rider in the overall World Cup standings steadily increased his lead through the remainder of the race.

Vuillermoz overtook a fading Litscher in the third lap, with Sagan and Konwa chasing for third.  As the race continued, the front three continued to distance themselves from the chasers, with Sagan and Konwa managing to hold on for fourth and fifth respectively.

"Yeah, the couple of days leading up to the race was pretty nerve wracking," admitted Stander, "and today I was just focussed on the start.  I knew it would play a vital part of the race. Unfortunately, we had a really strong headwind so it wasn't possible to try to take the lead from the beginning.  You had to try to take your chances in the group, and then wait just before the single track to make your move. Fortunately for me, things worked out and I got into the trail second, and from there the race went perfect.  I just tried to keep it smooth, and my Specialized full suspension just worked great out there.  The course was getting tougher and tougher, and really bumpy, and to me it went perfect and I am really really happy."

"[The overnight rain] made the course quite a bit better I think, the course was getting really loose out there and for the first couple of laps it was really compacted and fast, and towards the end it started getting pretty loose and ridden out again.  I think the rain did it a bit of good."

"My biggest fear was the start, but they [the Swiss] controlled the race from the beginning after the first straight and they got the first guy into the single track and I almost let another guy go in front of me, and I only just managed to get past the second Swiss guy going into the trail and from there it was perfect.  On the single track there is not much you can do as a team.  On the switchback climb we set such a quick pace that it immediately opened up to the next group."

For Gagne, it was a disappointing result in his final year of U23 competition, after finishing seventh at the world championships last year.

"I had an okay start, around the top 20, to 22 position by the end of the first lap.  On the second lap I was moving up at bit and was passing a guy in one of the technical sections, when he ran right into my back wheel, breaking off the valve stem, so I could not fix it.  So, I had to ride on my flat and run to the tech zone, and I lost a lot of places, maybe back to 55th before I got going again.  It is a disappointing end to a season that has had many crashes and mechanical problems, but I am already starting to look forward to next season."