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 ultimately 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.
#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?.
#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.?
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.
Date:
21/08/2005