September 28/12 7:38 am - Guiyang International Invitational: XC report, photos and results
Posted by Editoress on 09/28/12
Some of the top riders on the World Cup cross-country circuit extended their season a few weeks to attend the Guiyang International Mountain Bike Invitational in Guiyang, China. Fabian Giger (Rabobank Giant) won the men's event, while Blaza Klemencic (Slovenian National Team) took the women's title.
Guiyang, a city of nearly five million, located 1800 kilometres southwest of Beijing, is one of the major tourist regions in China, due to its temperate climate and many natural attractions. The city hopes to add mountain biking as a destination activity, and the Guiyang Invitational is a test event for a potential World Cup here next season (Cross-country and Eliminator).
The 4.1 kilometre course was built amid rolling, wooded hills on the outskirts of the city. While not extremely technical, it does offer considerable climbing and a few tricky descents. Overall, there was strong feedback from the riders that this course is suitable as a World Cup circuit. Designed as a series of loops radiating out from the start-finish area, it offers excellent spectator viewing, with fans able to criss-cross the course to see the riders multiple times, as well as watch them climb up and down the sides of the valley from the center of the venue.
The women's five lap race quickly came down to three riders - Klemenicic, Eva Lechner (Colnago) and Sarah Koba (JB Felt). Under 23 world champion Yolanda Neff (Swiss National Team) rode with the leaders for the first lap, but began to struggle on the second and faded to finish tenth. Lechner, who had won a demonstration Short Track race the day before, attacked on the fourth lap, opening a ten second gap on Klemencic as she entered the last lap. However, the Slovenian national champion battled back to catch and drop Lechner on the climbs and win by 22 seconds. Koba took third at 1:09.
Blaza Klemencic wins
The men's race followed a similar pattern, with three riders opening a gap on the rest of the field on the first of seven laps. Giger was joined at the front by Swiss compatriot Martin Gujan (Swiss National Team) and Maxime Marotte (BH-SR Suntour), and the three quickly pulled away from Emil Lindgren (Rabobank Giant), who managed to hold on for fourth at the finish.
Fabian Giger wins
The three rode cooperatively for the first half of the race until Giger decided to go it alone on lap four. Gujan dropped Marotte almost immediately in a solo chase. It looked like Giger was going to easily take the victory, but he backed off on the descents late in lap five, allowing Gujan to pull within ten seconds as they started the sixth lap. Digging deep, the number-five world ranked rider re-established his lead by the start of the final lap and extended it to finish 56 seconds ahead of Gujan, with Marotte taking third at 1:20.
Race Notes
- While the UCI and the Guiyang organizers still have to work out details and sign a contract, it appears that Guiyang has a strong chance of opening the World Cup Cross-country and Eliminator season for 2013, likely in late April or early May. This will take the series back up to six events.
- In the past few months, the organizers have literally built a venue from scratch. In addition to creating the trails, they also constructed paved roads and parking in the venue, brought in electrical services, and poured a concrete base big enough for the finish area, teams area, media centre and stands.
- The opening ceremonies left everyone gasping. Broadcast live on television for the region, it resembled a mini-Olympic opening ceremony, with performances, fireworks and a team presentation. It was rumoured to have cost into seven figures.
- Not racing, but present, was a familiar face: former World Cup winner Ren Chengyuan. Ren said that she is coming back from a knee injury and plans to be able to compete by next season.
- We have interviews wit the winners, but connection to YouTube is not allowed in China, so they will be posted on Sunday when the editor is back in Canada.
Results from the Cross Country (XC) at the Guiyang International Invitational, on Friday September 28th in Guiyang, China
| Women, 21 km | |
| 1 Blaza Klemencic (Slo) Slovenian National Team | 1:19:27 |
| 2 Eva Lechner (Ita) Team Colnago | at 0:22 |
| 3 Sarah Koba (Sui) JB Felt Team | 1:09 |
| 4 Nathalie Schneitter (Sui) Team Colnago | 2:59 |
| 5 Sabrina Enaux (Fra) Specialized Solodet | 3:04 |
| 6 Judy Freeman (USA) CrankBrothers | 3:31 |
| 7 Kathrin Stirnemann (Sui) Swiss Cycling | 4:15 |
| 8 Chloe Woodruff (USA) CrankBrothers Race | 5:00 |
| 9 Elisabeth Sveum (Nor) Crampfix Nakamura | 5:13 |
| 10 Jolanda Neff (Sui) Swiss Cycling | 5:54 |
| 11 Zephanie Blasi (USA) WXC World Racing | 7:53 |
| 12 Helene Marcouvre (Fra) BH-SR | 9:07 |
| 13 Asa Erlandsson (Swe) Swedish National Team | 9:08 |
| 14 Mariske Strauss (RSA) Cycling South Africa | 9:31 |
| 15 Zhuanzhuan Ye (Chn) National Team of China | 10:10 |
| 16 Jialing Han (Chn) National Team of China | 10:56 |
| 17 Ying Liu (Chn) National Team of China | 11:23 |
| 18 Jovana Crnogorac (Srb) Serbian National Team | 14:12 |
| 19 Samantha Sanders (RSA) Cycling South Africa | 14:39 |
| 20 Na Tian (Chn) National Team of China | 15:13 |
| 21 Angelica Edvardsson (Swe) Swedish National Team | 16:48 |
| 22 Maxine Filby (Gbr) British Cycling | -1 Lap |
| 23 Alexandra Gabriela Serrano Rodriguez (Ecu) Ecuador National Team | -1 Lap |
| 24 Jiangna Shan (Chn) National Team of China | -2 Laps |
| 25 Yingying Wang (Chn) National Team of China | -2 Laps |
| 26 Grisetti Z N Everon (Aru) Aruba National Team | -4 Laps |
| DNF Ann Berglund (Swe) Swedish National Team | |
| DNF Lelde Ardava (Lat) Latvian National Team | |
| DNF Julia Innerhofer (Ita) Team Colnago | |
| DNS Xin Yuan (Chn) National Team of China | |
| DNS Tingyu Zhu (Chn) National Team of China | |
| Men, 30 km | |
| 1 Fabian Peter Giger (Sui) Rabobank Giant | |
| 2 Martin Gujan (Sui) Swiss Cycling | 1:30:50 |
| 3 Maxime Marotte (Fra) BH-SR | at 0:56 |
| 4 Emil Lindgren (Swe) Rabobank Giant | 1:20 |
| 5 Carlos Coloma Nicolas (Esp) WILDWOLF - TREK | 2:10 |
| 6 Moritz Milatz (Ger) BMC | 2:38 |
| 7 Martin Fanger (Sui) Swiss Cycling | 4:12 |
| 8 Jan Skarnitzl (Cze) Rubena Auto-Mencik | 4:19 |
| 9 Uwe Hochenwarter (Aut) Muskelkater Genesis | 5:33 |
| 10 Hendrik Jakob Moorlag (Ned) Rabobank Giant | 5:46 |
| 11 Erik Groen (Ned) Feenstra-Stevens | 6:25 |
| 12 Matthias Stirnemann (Sui) Swiss Cycling | 6:54 |
| 13 Sebastien Carabin (Bel) Versluys | 6:54 |
| 14 Reto Indergand (Sui) BMC | 7:27 |
| 15 Philip Buys (RSA) Cycling South Africa | 8:37 |
| 16 James Reid (RSA) Cycling South Africa | 9:04 |
| 17 Catriel Andres Soto (Arg) WILDWOLF - TREK | 9:52 |
| 18 Sanghoon Na (Kor) Korean National Team | 11:20 |
| 19 Jhonnatan Botero Villegas (Col) Giant Italia Team | 12:24 |
| 20 Matiss Preimanis (Lat) Latvian National Team | 13:29 |
| 21 Chris Jongewaard (Aus) Milka-Superior | 13:57 |
| 22 Jianhua Ji (Chn) National Team of China | -1 Lap |
| 23 Zhen Wang (Chn) National Team of China | -1 Lap |
| 24 Pietro Sarai (Ita) Giant Italia Team | -1 Lap |
| 25 Tim Lemmers (Ned) Feenstra-Stevens | -2 Laps |
| 26 Magnus Darvell (Swe) Swedish National Team | -2 Laps |
| 27 Jose Alberto Gonzalez Merchan (Ecu) Ecuador National Team | -2 Laps |
| 28 Lukas Sablik (Cze) Rubena Auto-Mencik | -2 Laps |
| 29 Travis Woodruff (USA) CrankBrothers | -2 Laps |
| 30 Ludwig Soderquist (Swe) Swedish National Team | -2 Laps |
| 31 Steffen Thum (Ger) Ultra Sports Rose | -2 Laps |
| 32 Rourke Croeser (RSA) Orange Monkey | -3 Laps |
| 33 Bojan Durdic (Srb) Serbian National Team | -3 Laps |
| 34 Pontus Fagerhill (Swe) Sweden | -3 Laps |
| 35 Xuanfu Wu (Chn) National Team of China | -3 Laps |
| 36 Filip Turk (Cro) Croatian National Team | -3 Laps |
| 37 Dmitrij Sorokin (Lat) Latvian National Team | -3 Laps |
| 38 Ping Qin (Chn) National Team of China | -3 Laps |
| 39 Ivars Prokofjevs (Lat) Latvian National Team | -3 Laps |
| 40 Yangyang He (Chn) National Team of China | -3 Laps |
| 41 Pavao Roset (Cro) Croatian National Team | -4 Laps |
| 42 Jie Ding (Chn) National Team of China | -4 Laps |
| 43 Aleksa Maric (Srb) Serbian National Team | -4 Laps |
| 44 Xinjun Liu (Chn) National Team of China | -4 Laps |
| 45 Dingchang Liu (Chn) National Team of China | -4 Laps |
| 46 Guangyu Zhang (Chn) National Team of China | -4 Laps |
| 47 Run Ge (Chn) National Team of China | -4 Laps |
| 48 Qi He (Chn) National Team of China | -5 Laps |
| 49 Le Wang (Chn) National Team of China | -5 Laps |
| 50 Lakappa Basappa Kurani (Ind) Indian National Team | -5 Laps |
| DNF Jeff Luyten (Bel) Versluys | -6 Laps |
| DNF Jens Schuermans (Bel) Versluys | |
| DNF Simon Gegenheimer (Ger) Ultra Sports Rose | |
| DNF Urban Ferencak (Slo) Slovenian | |
| DNF Xiaolong Che (Chn) National Team of China | |
| DNF George J Winterdal (Aru) Aruba National Team | |
| DNF Zhiqiang Duan (Chn) National Team of China | |
| DNF Thibault Geneste (Fra) French National Team | |
| DNF Venkateswarlu Reddy Kunchala (Ind) Indian National Team | |
| DNF Xiaolong Sun (Chn) National Team of China | |
| DNF Hewang Wang (Chn) National Team of China | |
| DNS Sergio Mantecon Gutierrez (Esp) Australian National Team | |
| DNS Olof Jonsson (Swe) Swedish National Team | |
| DNS Cameron Ivory (Aus) Australian National Team | |
| DNS Alexander Meyland (Aus) National Team of China | |
| DNS Ruidong Qi (Chn) National Team of China | |
| DNS Qingyun Zeng (Chn) National Team of China | |
| DNS Jixun Zhang (Chn) National Team of China |
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