Dalby Forest XC World Cup 2011

Dalby World Cup mk.II

A sign of things to come - one of the Fluckiger brother spotted with a Trek World Racing logo'd up Trek 29er at the Pro Sprint Eliminator on Friday night. Sunday saw Dalby etched into the history of MTB racing with Pauline Ferrand-Prevot piloting a Lapierre to 1st place in the under-23 womens race and Jaroslav Kulhavy becoming the first man to win the elite mens race on a big wheeled bike (a Specialized full sus 29er no less).

Apparently you are allowed to ride through graveyards these days... still not allowed to stand on the grass though! I missed the pro-sprint eliminator last year, so was glad to get to Pickering this time round. Bring back the team relay / short track at our national series please! 

Once you start hunting, there's a lot more singletrack to find than the red route and the waymarked trails go back many years! This years Dalby Dare was a cosmopolitan affair with lots of nationalities in the 250 starters. "a better course than than the world cup" according to many finishers!

Maja Wloszczowska with her race plate done US style and Annie Last (looking super fast on the descents) not far behind. As well as Annie scoring her highest ever world cup finish, other stand out Brit performances for me were Bethany Crumpton riding in the top 3 and finishing 4th in her first junior world cup and David Fletcher's superhuman effort to bridge a 30 second gap on his last lap then win the sprint for 6th place in the U23's.

The view from the edge of the forest looking out over the moors. I'm looking forward to going back to Yorkshire soon and actually riding my bike. The number of people involved in making the weekend happen is mind boggling, so a big thankyou to them all for hosting such a great event.

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