All eyes were on the Laoshan mountain bike course this morning as the male and female riders fought out their races amid searing heat.

Woman’s Race

Prior to the start there were a number of favourites in the woman’s race. Current World Champion Margarita Fullana of Spain, former World Champion Irina Kalentyeva of Russia, former World Champion & Athens Olympic Gold medal winner Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa and current World Cup leader Canadian Marie-Helene Premont. Also in the mix were the two Chinese riders Chengyaun Ren and Ying Liu who were a bit of an unknown having been strangely quiet on the circuit this year with rumours of them training really hard on the course for months.

Olympic Champion Sabine Spitz

Once the gun went it was German national champion Sabine Spitz who set the pace with a group at the front but on lap 3 Premont, Dahle Fesjaa and Fullana fpulled over suffering from the heat. Spitz lead with Polish rider Maja Wloszczowska trailing her by almost a minute with a chase group behind. Spitz pushed out her lead with the Polish rider maintaining second and with the start of the last lap Pendrel of Canada lead Kalentyeva by seconds. the wily Russian was not to be beat though and pulled away in the later half of the lap to win the bronze by a few seconds. Spitz though was the champion, nearly delirious crossing the line after a fantastic effort.

Bronze medal winner Irina Kalentyeva

Results

1 Sabine Spitz (Germany)             1.45.11
2 Maja Wloszczowska (Poland)            0.41
3 Irina Kalentyeva (Russia)             1.17
4 Catharine Pendrel (Canada)            1.26
5 Chengyuan Ren (China)                 2.29
6 Petra Henzi (Switzerland)             3.30
7 Mary Mcconneloug (United States)      5.23
8 Georgia Gould (United States)         5.40
9 Rosara Joseph (New Zealand)           5.56
10 Aleksandra Dawidowicz (Poland)       6.10

Mens Race

The men’s field was packed with contendors including 3 Swiss riders, any of whom could win. At the lead of these was World Champion Christoph Sauser, recently recovered from a knee injury sustained during practise at the Canadian World Cup round in Mont Saint Anne. Also in the field were Marathon World Champion Kessiakoff, Belgian Cyclo-Cross World Champion Sven Nys and South African Burry Stander to name a few. The pre-race favourite Julain Absalon had a question mark over him following his unusual off day at the World Champs which saw him withdraw, although back to back wins at the next 2 rounds of the World Cup answered some of the critics.

Julian Absalon

The race started at a furious pace with a massive bunch wheel to wheel all the way around. British rider Liam Killeen was forced off course on one of the first few descents and ended up in a heap on the side of the course, clutching his knee. All the commentators thought that was game over for the unfortunate Brit who was forced to sit out most of last season. His time was so slow on the first lap that it didn’t come up but he fought hard for the remainder of the lap, rising through the field for the performance of the day in 7th. It would seem that had he been able to stay up on the first lap a medal was for the taking.

Jean-Christophe Peraud

Back to the race and towards the end of lap 2, French man Absalon showed why he was the favourite, soaring away from the chasing pack. By lap 4 the race had settled down with Absalon’s compatriot Jean-Christophe Peraud in second and then a chasing pack that included Swiss U-23 World Champion Nino Schurter and World Champion Christoph Sauser joined by Belgian Sven Nys, Italian Marco Fontana and Austrian Christoph Soukup. Absalon pulled further ahead with Peraud consolodating second and the two Swiss riders breaking the chase group. So it stayed with Absalon successfully defending his Athens Gold, Peraud in Silver and a triumphant Schurter proving too strong for a visably tired Sauser.

4th placed World Champion Christoph Sauser

Ireland’s National Champion Robin Seymour unfortunately pulled out of the race mid way.

Results

1 Julien Absalon (France)             1.55.59
2 Jean-Christophe Peraud (France)        1.07
3 Nino Schurter (Switzerland)            1.53
4 Christoph Sauser (Switzerland)         1.55
5 Marco Aurelio Fontana (Italy)          4.00
6 Christoph Soukup (Austria)             4.12
7 Liam Killeen (Great Britain)           4.15
8 Inaki Lejarreta Errasti (Spain)        4.22
9 Sven Nys (Belgium)                     5.01
10 Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos (Spain)    5.02
11 Manuel Fumic (Germany)                5.17
12 Oliver Beckingsale (Great Britain)    5.26
13 Marek Galinski (Poland)               5.30
14 Cedric Ravanel (France)               5.39
15 Burry Stander (South Africa)          5.59
16 Moritz Milatz (Germany)               7.00
17 Fredrik Kessiakoff (Sweden)           7.10
18 Jaroslav Kulhavy (Czech Republic)     7.21
19 Roel Paulissen (Belgium)              7.31
20 Geoff Kabush (Canada)                 7.56