July 11/03 11:23 am - Grouse Mountain World Cup: 4 X Story & Results

Posted by Editoress on 07/11/03
 

Grouse Mountain World Cup

This report made possible through the sponsorship of Rocky Mountain Bicycles

By Mike Badyk

It's truly amazing how ingenuity can make 4-Cross courses so different from one another. The new Grouse Mtn. course has virtually no resemblance to the one at Mt. Ste. Anne. Walking up the hill from the parking lot, I was surprised to see all of the marking and the noise from the race qualifiers just above the main lift building.

Congratulations for the course must go to Jordie Lunn and his dad Brian, who did the lion's share of the work. It's unfortunate that Jordie couldn't race thanks to a damaged ankle courtesy of a spill at a photo shoot at Whistler. They took a good slope just above the expo area and created an incredibly technical 4-Cross course. Huge amounts of earth were moved and the natural slope above the course made for excellent bleachers for the large crowd that gathered. Speaking with Chantal Lachance of Gestev, the World Cup organizer, I learned that the course is going to remain up for the rest of the summer. It will be a welcome addition to the local racing scene.

From the steep drop at the start, racers gain good speed into a table top, followed immediately by a hairpin left. Then it got really interesting because there were easily 3 different lines through either a set of rollers, two large rollers, or one large kicker. The problem with kicker was a tight left that robbed all the speed. Take the rollers and lose speed but you get a berm out of it. Lots of chaos here. Next was a set of big jumps, getting larger as you went along. Then a big up around a looping left curve, followed by several more small jumps before the finish in the parking lot. It is just a brilliant course, one of the best that I've ever seen.

The racing was simply great. To have a chance at the win, riders had to "give it" hard all the way into the hairpin turn. Carry too much speed though and the dusty ground would take you down. Riders such as Cedric Gracia to name but one, were claimed by the loose surface. Make one small mistake and it was all over.

In the men's race, all eye's were on Eric Carter and Mike King, even with 64 men qualifying for the finals. Carter has proven to be the man to beat all season. Here at Grouse he qualified rather conservatively (11th), but easily worked his way through the rounds. Likewise, King proved to be the master of the holeshot. He has unbelievable acceleration out of the gate, which often put him a couple of bike lengths ahead by the first obstacles. Other notable strong rides were from Wade Bootes and Steve Peat, but with the quality of the racing, they didn't make it to the final. The final four were Carter, Michal Prokop and Bas De Bever and King. Carter got the holeshot this time, but King stayed right with him, right on his wheel. Through the big jumps in the middle of the course, Carter held his advantage, but in through the last big berm and the final three jumps, King poured it on for the win. Prokop was a close 3rd, with De Bever in 4th.

In the women's race, Australian Katrina Miller proved once again two strong for the field. She blazed through the rounds, with technically perfect run after technically perfect run. She is an incredibly precise rider. Another Aussie rider, Tai-Lee Muxlow was having a good evening, winning her round. Joining the two Australian in the final were Sabrina Jonnier and Jill Kinter. Miller powered out of the gate taking the inside line through the first obstacles, with Jonnier right behind. On the outside Kinter crashed after washing out her rear wheel, almost taking Muxlow out in the process. From there it was Miller all the way.

With the perfect weather here in Vancouver we are looking forward to the downhill tomorrow. There's nothing like the home course advantage and we would love to see some Canadian downhillers up on the podium. The course is running in the neighbourhood of 2 minutes for a fast run, which should prove to be very close racing, such as we saw at the Mt. Ste. Anne World Cup.

4-Cross photos will be up tomorrow.


Women
1. Katrina Miller (Aus)
2. Sabrina Jonnier (Fra)
3. Tai-Lee Muxlow (Aus)
4. Jill Kinter (USA)
5. Jamie Lilly (USA)
6. Fionn Griffiths (GBr)
7. Anneke Beerten (Ned)
8. Missy Giove (USA)
9. Mio Suemasa (Jpn)
10. Claire Buchar (Can)
11. Michelle Dumaresq (Can)
12. Keli Sherbinin (Can)
13. Melissa Buhl (USA)
14. Danika Schroeter (Can)
15. Katrina Strand (Can)
16. Junelle Cassidy (Can)
Annie Bisson (Can)
Leana Gerrard (USA)

Men
1. Mike King (USA)
2. Eric Carter (USA)
3. Michal Prokop (Cze)
4. Bas De Bever (Ned)
5. Wade Bootes (Aus)
6. Chris Powell (USA)
7. Rich Houseman (USA)
8. Sascha Meyenborg (Ger)
9. Colin Bailey (USA)
10. Brian Schmith (USA)
11. Scott Beaumont (GBr)
12. Jared Rando (Aus)
13. Guido Tschugg (Ger)
14. Gary Houseman (USA)
15. Christopher Kovarik (Aus)
16. Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze)
17. Cedric Gracia (Fra)
18. Greg Minnaar (RSA)
19. Tyler Clarke (Can)
20. Bernat Guardia Pascual (Esp)
21. Chris Del Bosco (USA)
22. Remo Heutschi (Sui)
23. Kenji Takamatsu (Jpn)
24. George Atherton (GBr)
25. Nathan Rennie (Aus)
26. Steve Peat (GBr)
27. Kirt Voreis (USA)
28. Kyle Strait (USA)
29. Travis Collins (USA)
30. Dave Wardell (GBr)
31. Robin Baloochi (USA)
32. John Kirkcaldie (NZl)
33. David Vazquez Lopez (Esp)
34. Michal Marosi (Cze)
35. Scott Sharples (Aus)
36. Samuel Hill (Aus)
37. Benjamin Cory (Aus)
38. Chris O'driscoll (USA)
39. Markolf Berchtold (Bra)
40. David Mclaughlin (Aus)
41. Brian Gerrard (USA)
42. Andrew Neethling (RSA)
43. Chris Van Dine (Can)
44. Bryn Atkinson (Aus)
45. Andy Czuczor (Can)
46. Andrew Yoong (Irl)
47. Daniel Atherton (GBr)
48. Shane Ferguson (Can)
49. Kyle Guay (Can)
50. Stuart Hilder (Can)
51. Trevor Porter (Can)
52. Marc Fontaine (Can)
53. Henry O Donnell (USA)
54. John Starcevic (Can)
55. Jean-Jacques Desormeaux (Can)
56. Casey Northern (USA)
57. Nathan Rankin (NZl)
Will Longden (GBr)
DNS. Jordie Lunn (Can)
Oscar Saiz Castane (Esp)
Joel Panozzo (Aus)
Justin Havukainen (Aus)
Cody Swansborough (Can)