September 24/00 1:00 am - Olympic Men's MTB Lap Reports

Posted by Editoress on 09/24/00
 

Men's Olympic MTB Race Lap Reports

10:20pm - Men, start of Lap 1

The start was very fast. Brentjens went from the gun, but held the lead for just the briefest time, as Thomas Frischknecht moved into the lead through the remainder of the start loop and set the pace as the pack moves out onto the main part of the course.

The riders will do 7 laps and cover 50 km of this very technical course.

At the 7:19 point, Frischknecht is still in the lead followed by Chrisophe Dupouey, Filip Meirhaghe, Cadel Evans, Miguel Martinez and Christophe Sauser. Roland Green, started with the early leaders, but dropped back early in lap 1 to the back of the lead group, sitting in the high teens or low 20's.

10:30pm - Men, Lap 2

Frischknecht now has a 45 second lead on Martinez, Dupouey, Evans, Bas VanDooren and Meirhaghe. Green and Kabush are sitting in the low 20's. It seems as though Roland Green has some sort of problem (possibly a difficulty arising from course congestion, that caused him to drop back from an early higher ranking position).

10:55pm - Men, Lap 3

Frischknecht has extended his lead over Martinez as the riders pass the half way mark in lap 3.

Frischknecht
Martinez at + 1:07
Meirhaghe + 1:10
Dupouey + 1:13

11:40pm - Men, Lap 5

Frischknecht holds onto his lead, but the chase group is hunting him down. Meirhaghe is just 30 seconds down, followed by a group (Sauser, Martinez, Evans, VanDooren and Dupouey) that is chasing hard and changing positions regularly. Kabush and Green are together and sitting around 17th/18th.

Thanks to Chris and Chrissy Redden for this report.

12:25am - Men, Lap 6

Martinez in true 'Martinez' style has put the hammer down and surged past Frischknecht to take the lead with 1 lap to go.

Miguel Martinez (Fra) 1:51:45
Meirhaeghe (Bel) at 0.09
Sauser (Sui) 0:43
Van Dooren (Ned) 1:09
Frischknecht (Sui) 1.16
Lado Fumic (Ger) 1.38
Jose Antonio Hermida (Esp)
Evans (Aus) 2.10

12:45am - Martinez takes the Gold

Miguel Martinez has taken the gold in the 2nd ever Olympic MTB event.

Frischknecht, who lead for the first 5 laps seemed to run out of gas in lap 6 and was overtaken first by Filip Meirhaeghe and then they were both passed by Martinez.

1. Miguel Martinez (Fra) 2:09:02
2. Filip Meirhaeghe (Bel) 1:03
3. Christophe Sauser (Sui) 2:18
4. Jose Antonio Hermida (Esp) 2:39
5. Lado Fumic (Ger) 2:55
6. Thomas Frischknecht (Sui) 3:40
7. Cadel Evans (Aus) 4:29
8. Carsten Bresser (Ger) 4:34
9. Geoff Kabush (Can) 4:50
10. Paul Rowney (Aus) 5:19

14. Roland Green