The UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup once again chose the north eastern
Spanish city of Vigo today to kick off the new international race season, and
once again the two and a half minute trail (slightly shorter this year) took
its toll on the world's best downhill racers and provided some unexpected
results. 2005 World Cup Champion Greg Minnaar (RSA) crashed heavily in the
final and was lucky to escape serious injury after a small tree stump caught
his front wheel in a high-speed section of the course. Team mate Matti
Lehikoinen (FIN) finished 16th after battling to find speed on the course all
week.
As was the case last year, an estimated 15 to 20,000 spectators took to the
hills to watch the action, which was spread over two days due to live TV
schedule requirements, which had the semi final on Saturday and the final
today, Sunday. Strangely, a timed training session was held this morning,
before the final, but none of the riders took advantage of this to any degree
as their times were already well known due to the semi final on Saturday and
there was no need taking on any added risk before the final.
In the semi final, Greg took to the course first as the reigning World Cup
champion, and crossed the line with a time of 2m 28.951secs but he was a little
disappointed knowing that there were a few areas where extra time could have
been found. Matti also had difficulty getting the speed needed but both
improved on their timed runs recorded by the team staff earlier in the day.
Greg finished 7th and Matti's time of 2m 34.516secs had him finishing 21st.
Date:
08/05/2006