DOM
Eats Squid
August 21, 2005.
With the World Cup title already wrapped up, round 7 of the men’s UCI Mountain Bike World Cup held today in Pila, Italy, served more as a litmus test for the upcoming World Championships in 2 weeks where the top contenders got to see how each other had prepared in the past 5 weeks away from World Cup racing. Adding to this however, was the mixed weather conditions, which saw a damp course for the semi finals, with no rain, but a rainy final for the majority of the men’s field.
For the Team G-Cross riders, their goals today were a little different with Greg wishing to have a solid result ahead of the World Championships, and Matti chasing more points for his overall result in the World Cup Series.
Training for both riders went well and without incident. In timed training Greg recorded the 7th fastest time after making some errors in his timed run. Matti scored a solid 11th at 4m 24.97secs and was feeling good on the course despite spending the last 5 weeks off the downhill bike resting his shoulder. Matti’s shoulder injury from round 3 will ultimately require surgery after the World Cup finals next month, to re-attach a ligament in his shoulder. So after his 11th in timed training, Matti was looking forward to race day.
The course was a very difficult mixture of open sections, forests, rocky parts, and slick fast sections, making tyre choice very difficult. The course was designed by 1997 World Cup Champion Corrado Herin who did well to challenge the elite field. However, the biggest challenge was to be the weather. After overnight rain, and snow at the top of the mountain, riders were faced with racing the semi finals with the course 10 seconds slower due to the slippery conditions. In the semi final the two top riders forced out of the World Cup due to injury, Sam Hill (AUS) and Steve Peat (GBR), showed they were back in form by finishing 1st and 2nd respectively, with Greg close behind in 3rd. Matti had a good run but was disappointed to see it was only good enough for 19th place.
In the final the rain came after the first few riders had started. One of those riders to benefit from better conditions was 2005 European Junior Champion, 17 year old Brendan Fairclough of Great Britain. Brendan sat in the lead for more than an hour and half and by his own admission felt very lucky to have gone early after qualifying poorly due to a crash in the semi finals. Nevertheless, his time was super quick and would have placed him 2nd in the semi finals earlier in the day. Matti came down the course and despite having a good split time, he hit a tree and lost about 5 seconds pushing him out of the top ten. Greg however was the first rider in the rain to get a faster time at the interval than Brendan, having a 1.3 second lead, which was enough to get him into first place with just Steve Peat and Sam Hill to come. Steve had a great split time, 3 seconds up on Greg, but lost control in the lower section of the course, crashing into a tree and losing valuable time to ult
imately finish 9th. Finally, Sam Hill who had been riding very fast all week, rode like he did in Austria at round 3, and scored a big margin win, 6 seconds ahead Greg, serving notice that he will be the man to watch for the World Championships.
l #9 Greg Minnaar (2nd Place)
“I’m pretty happy with today’s result. I mean Sam rode an awesome race, the course really suited his style with plenty of off camber open corners, and I know he was keen to come back strong after injury. For me this race was important to see where I am with my preparation for the World Championships and I’m very happy with how things went. I know what I need to do in two weeks and will be ready to give it everything”.
l #11 Matti Lehikoinen (20th Place)
“The run I was having in the final was actually the best run I’ve had on this course all week, so I’m frustrated to have hit the tree. I know I was on for another top 10 result so I was unlucky not to achieve that. My shoulder wasn’t really bad this week, and I was feeling great on the bike even though I haven’t ridden for a few weeks, but I was having a hard time feeling the speed. I felt faster than the time shows, so I will be looking to work on that next week.”
l Team Director Martin Whiteley
“A little bit mixed this week in very difficult weather conditions. It was, dry, wet, there was snow, a bit of everything. Overall though Greg has had 3 wins, 3 second places and a 4th, out of 7 World Cups, so that’s very impressive. Matti has more speed than the result shows today so I am confident both riders will be at their maximum in 2 weeks for the World Championships.”
Semi Final Results:
Pos. No. Name Team Time
1 2 Sam Hill Iron Horse Mad Catz 4m 21.95s
2 1 Steve Peat Team Orange 4m 23.49s
3 9 Greg Minnaar Team G Cross Honda 4m 23.98s
4 8 Fabien Barel Kona Les Gets 4m 25.27s
5 18 Marc Beaumont MBUK Santa Cruz 4m 27.11s
19 11 Matti Lehikoinen Team G Cross Honda 4m 37.85s
Final Results:
Pos. No. Name Team Time
1 2 Sam Hill Iron Horse Mad Catz 4m 15.64s
2 9 Greg Minnaar Team G Cross Honda 4m 22.39s
3 40 Brendan Fairclough Royal Racing 4m 22.94s
4 6 David Vazquez Maxxis-MSC 4m 25.60s
5 8 Fabien Barel Kona Les Gets 4m 25.76s
6 18 Marc Beaumont MBUK Santa Cruz 4m 26.77s
7 22 Justin Leov Fox Racing Shox 4m 29.43s
8 68 Alan Beggin Mapei 4m 29.62s
9 1 Steve Peat Team Orange 4m 29.92s
10 10 Markolf Berchtold Maxxis-MSC 4m 30.70s
20 11 Matti Lehikoinen Team G Cross Honda 4m 35.57s
World Cup Overall Standings:
Pos. No. Name Team Points
1 9 Greg Minnaar Team G Cross Honda 1485
2 2 Sam Hill Iron Horse Mad Catz 795
3 3 Nathan Rennie Santa Cruz Syndicate 720
4 8 Fabien Barel Kona Les Gets 702
5 5 Mickael Pascal Maxxis-MSC 678
6 4 Cedric Gracia Siemens Cannondale 633
7 18 Marc Beaumont MBUK Santa Cruz 610
8 7 Gee Atherton Animal Giant 587
9 31 Chris Kovarik Intense Bicycles 573
10 22 Justin Leov Fox Racing Shox 561
13 11 Matti Lehikoinen Team G Cross Honda 517
World Cup Overall Team Points:
Pos. Team Points
1 Maxxis-MSC 470
2 Team G Cross Honda 348
3 Kona Les Gets 309
4 Commencal Oxbow 190
5 Siemens Cannondale MTB 114
Team G Cross Honda now heads to La Bresse, France for the French Cup Finals next week which they will use as a preparation event for the all important UCI World Mountain Bike Championships taking place in two weeks, in Livigno, Italy, September 6th to 10th.
With the World Cup title already wrapped up, round 7 of the men’s UCI Mountain Bike World Cup held today in Pila, Italy, served more as a litmus test for the upcoming World Championships in 2 weeks where the top contenders got to see how each other had prepared in the past 5 weeks away from World Cup racing. Adding to this however, was the mixed weather conditions, which saw a damp course for the semi finals, with no rain, but a rainy final for the majority of the men’s field.
For the Team G-Cross riders, their goals today were a little different with Greg wishing to have a solid result ahead of the World Championships, and Matti chasing more points for his overall result in the World Cup Series.
Training for both riders went well and without incident. In timed training Greg recorded the 7th fastest time after making some errors in his timed run. Matti scored a solid 11th at 4m 24.97secs and was feeling good on the course despite spending the last 5 weeks off the downhill bike resting his shoulder. Matti’s shoulder injury from round 3 will ultimately require surgery after the World Cup finals next month, to re-attach a ligament in his shoulder. So after his 11th in timed training, Matti was looking forward to race day.
The course was a very difficult mixture of open sections, forests, rocky parts, and slick fast sections, making tyre choice very difficult. The course was designed by 1997 World Cup Champion Corrado Herin who did well to challenge the elite field. However, the biggest challenge was to be the weather. After overnight rain, and snow at the top of the mountain, riders were faced with racing the semi finals with the course 10 seconds slower due to the slippery conditions. In the semi final the two top riders forced out of the World Cup due to injury, Sam Hill (AUS) and Steve Peat (GBR), showed they were back in form by finishing 1st and 2nd respectively, with Greg close behind in 3rd. Matti had a good run but was disappointed to see it was only good enough for 19th place.
In the final the rain came after the first few riders had started. One of those riders to benefit from better conditions was 2005 European Junior Champion, 17 year old Brendan Fairclough of Great Britain. Brendan sat in the lead for more than an hour and half and by his own admission felt very lucky to have gone early after qualifying poorly due to a crash in the semi finals. Nevertheless, his time was super quick and would have placed him 2nd in the semi finals earlier in the day. Matti came down the course and despite having a good split time, he hit a tree and lost about 5 seconds pushing him out of the top ten. Greg however was the first rider in the rain to get a faster time at the interval than Brendan, having a 1.3 second lead, which was enough to get him into first place with just Steve Peat and Sam Hill to come. Steve had a great split time, 3 seconds up on Greg, but lost control in the lower section of the course, crashing into a tree and losing valuable time to ult
imately finish 9th. Finally, Sam Hill who had been riding very fast all week, rode like he did in Austria at round 3, and scored a big margin win, 6 seconds ahead Greg, serving notice that he will be the man to watch for the World Championships.
l #9 Greg Minnaar (2nd Place)
“I’m pretty happy with today’s result. I mean Sam rode an awesome race, the course really suited his style with plenty of off camber open corners, and I know he was keen to come back strong after injury. For me this race was important to see where I am with my preparation for the World Championships and I’m very happy with how things went. I know what I need to do in two weeks and will be ready to give it everything”.
l #11 Matti Lehikoinen (20th Place)
“The run I was having in the final was actually the best run I’ve had on this course all week, so I’m frustrated to have hit the tree. I know I was on for another top 10 result so I was unlucky not to achieve that. My shoulder wasn’t really bad this week, and I was feeling great on the bike even though I haven’t ridden for a few weeks, but I was having a hard time feeling the speed. I felt faster than the time shows, so I will be looking to work on that next week.”
l Team Director Martin Whiteley
“A little bit mixed this week in very difficult weather conditions. It was, dry, wet, there was snow, a bit of everything. Overall though Greg has had 3 wins, 3 second places and a 4th, out of 7 World Cups, so that’s very impressive. Matti has more speed than the result shows today so I am confident both riders will be at their maximum in 2 weeks for the World Championships.”
Semi Final Results:
Pos. No. Name Team Time
1 2 Sam Hill Iron Horse Mad Catz 4m 21.95s
2 1 Steve Peat Team Orange 4m 23.49s
3 9 Greg Minnaar Team G Cross Honda 4m 23.98s
4 8 Fabien Barel Kona Les Gets 4m 25.27s
5 18 Marc Beaumont MBUK Santa Cruz 4m 27.11s
19 11 Matti Lehikoinen Team G Cross Honda 4m 37.85s
Final Results:
Pos. No. Name Team Time
1 2 Sam Hill Iron Horse Mad Catz 4m 15.64s
2 9 Greg Minnaar Team G Cross Honda 4m 22.39s
3 40 Brendan Fairclough Royal Racing 4m 22.94s
4 6 David Vazquez Maxxis-MSC 4m 25.60s
5 8 Fabien Barel Kona Les Gets 4m 25.76s
6 18 Marc Beaumont MBUK Santa Cruz 4m 26.77s
7 22 Justin Leov Fox Racing Shox 4m 29.43s
8 68 Alan Beggin Mapei 4m 29.62s
9 1 Steve Peat Team Orange 4m 29.92s
10 10 Markolf Berchtold Maxxis-MSC 4m 30.70s
20 11 Matti Lehikoinen Team G Cross Honda 4m 35.57s
World Cup Overall Standings:
Pos. No. Name Team Points
1 9 Greg Minnaar Team G Cross Honda 1485
2 2 Sam Hill Iron Horse Mad Catz 795
3 3 Nathan Rennie Santa Cruz Syndicate 720
4 8 Fabien Barel Kona Les Gets 702
5 5 Mickael Pascal Maxxis-MSC 678
6 4 Cedric Gracia Siemens Cannondale 633
7 18 Marc Beaumont MBUK Santa Cruz 610
8 7 Gee Atherton Animal Giant 587
9 31 Chris Kovarik Intense Bicycles 573
10 22 Justin Leov Fox Racing Shox 561
13 11 Matti Lehikoinen Team G Cross Honda 517
World Cup Overall Team Points:
Pos. Team Points
1 Maxxis-MSC 470
2 Team G Cross Honda 348
3 Kona Les Gets 309
4 Commencal Oxbow 190
5 Siemens Cannondale MTB 114
Team G Cross Honda now heads to La Bresse, France for the French Cup Finals next week which they will use as a preparation event for the all important UCI World Mountain Bike Championships taking place in two weeks, in Livigno, Italy, September 6th to 10th.