XC Racer Blog Post

World Cup XCO Round 4 - Vallnord, Andorra

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BY: Anna Buick

Published: 1st August, 2013


Words and Photographs by Anna Buick

The reason a large swathe of professional riders had headed for the dizzy heights of the Swiss Alps or the likes of Livigno in Italy leading up to Round Four of the World Cup series in Vallnord, Andorra, became acutely apparent on arrival at the race course. At 1900m above sea level, the 200m of steep climbing per lap was made especially onerous. As well as the brutal climbs were sections of technically demanding natural singletrack, littered with roots and rocks and ruts. The air was dry, and so was the earth. The racing, however, was not. 

As at the previous round in Val di Sole, the World Cup in Andorra included both Downhill and Cross Country disciplines. As such, the timetable of racing was subject to some changes, with the Under 23 men racing on Friday evening, at the hot and tension-inducing time of 5pm. 

The opening lap saw considerable gaps open up through the field with many of the top names not making the leading trio, or even the top fifteen. The white World Cup leader's jersey of Markus Shultze-Luenzum, the number one board of Michiel van der Heijden and the Versluys blue of Jens Schuermanns were uncharacteristically far back. Shuermanns' team mate Jeff Luyten, on the other hand, had found his legs and was working his way up through the field. European Champion Jordan Sarrou was proving his class, as was his fellow Frenchman Hugo Drechou. Indeed, by the fifth and final lap, after continual reshuffling in the ranks, the two Frenchmen were fighting it out for the podium positions. For Sarrou the fight was much harder but he managed to hold off Luyten by nine seconds to take third spot. Drechou, meanwhile, had taken the race on and managed to accrue a lead of fifty seconds to claim the win. In between these two, Shultze-Luenzum had pegged his way back through the field to claim second place and increase his lead in the overall series. Grant Ferguson and Kenta Gallagher were Britain's representatives, both riding for Superior Brentjens MTB Racing Team, the former showing signs of a good race in the opening laps but fading towards the end, and the latter never looking particularly comfortable on a climber's course. Ferguson came in sisxteenth and Gallagher twenty eighth. Orange Monkey's South African rider, Rourke Croeser, finished nineteenth.


The following day, Saturday, featured a packed programme, with the Junior and Under 23 Women categories sandwiching the elite races. 

The U23 and Junior Women had the best conditions of the weekend; an early start meant the sun was yet to reach full strength and the wind too was not yet strong. Yana Belomoyna, whose slight build correctly indicates her climbing prowess, led from start. She looked to float up the climbs and in so doing built a healthy lead over the rest of the field. However, on a course as brutal as Vallnord an early lead is no guarantee of victory. The World Cup leader, Rebecca Henderson (who won at Round Four of the BCXCS at Margham) is another rider who thrives in the hills, and her Aussie grit saw that she never gave up hope of winning. The gap to Belomoyna was slowly decreasing until, with half a lap to go, there seemed a real chance that the long-standing leader would be caught. But it was not to be. Belomoyna took the win, and with it the overall lead, Henderson took second and Andrea Waldis continued her impressive run of form to claim third, sixteen seconds behind Henderson. 


The Junior Women's race, which started two minutes behind the U23s, was dominated by Swiss rider Alessandra Keller. Keller rode through a significant proportion of the U23 women on her way to victory, looking particularly strong on the long, steep climb to the pits at the half lap point. Behind her, number one ranked rider Emilie Collomb settled into second position and Audrey Menut looked safe in third. Further down the field the time gaps were much smaller with clusters of riders trying to stay in contact with each other, some prevailing on the ascents and others on the descents. Imogen Buick was the only Brit to race, conservative with her efforts on the first lap and a combination of demon descending and an aggresive last half lap seeing her finish in thirteenth. 


The Elite Women were subject to the midday sun and an increasingly strong and persistent wind which blew accross the hillside and down the start/finish straight. With one lap completed it was Jolanda Neff, the young Swiss talent, who hit the headwind first. With a slight gap over the chasing three, including her team mate Maja Wloszczowska who was not about to give chase and slowed up to force Eva Lechner and Katerina Nash to take to the front, the wind played into Neff's hands. As Wloszczowska had been on the first lap, Neff was now reeled in on the second. The lead four were joined by Gunn Rita Dahle-Flesjaa and Sabine Spitz, two stalwarts of the sport who prove age and motherhood are no barrier to World class performance. This group established themselves at the front of affairs, but were kept in sight by World Cup leader and European Champion Tanja Zakelj and World and Olympic Champion Julie Bresset, who is returning from early season injury. Also in amongst the chase at various points were the Ghost Factory Racing trio of Lisi Osl, Alexandra Engen and Katrin Leumann. Nash was the aggressor of the leading pack, breaking away on the long singletrack descent and attacking up the subsequent steep, gravel road climb,spinning a high cadence and pulling out a useful gap on her competitors. Twice she tried, and twice it was pulled back. It was not entirely fruitless though. Neff, who had yo-yoed on and off the back of the group was finally dislodged and Wloszczowska, who had looked so strong to begin with, also slipped backwards. Lechner was sitting in the wheels, never showing herself to the wind, whilst Dahle-Flesjaa and Spitz closed gaps and took tactical turns at the front. With half a lap to go the leading four - Nash, Lechner, Dahle-Flesjaa and Spitz -  were together. It was Spitz, who had looked composed throughout, who broke free from the group up the last steep, grassy hill. It is not a long climb, but it was enough to distance herself and establish a small lead. Despite their efforts, the others could not pull the former Olympic Champion back into their clutches. Spitz entered the final singletrack section with a small gap but, following a mistake, the gap almost completely closed. As they exited the woods and climbed up onto the finish straight it seemed that a four-way sprint could decide the win, but Spitz was simply too strong. Nash closed on Spitz in the final fifty metres but only because the delighted German was rolling across the line, hands aloft, with a huge grin (or grimace) spread across her face. Lechner, who was very happy to perform so well after a week of sickness, took third and Dahle-Flesjee fourth, while Zakelj had moved up to fifth. Fifth and sixth were taken by the Swiss duo of Luemann and Neff, the latter almost collapsing into the barriers with 150 metres to go, so exhausted and in oxygen debt that she barely made the finish line. An example of how altitude can effect riders, but moreover the passion and determination of our sport's finest athletes. Donning her new National Champion's stripes, Lee Craigie rode to 37th position on a track that even the Highlands of Scotland cannot prepare you for - "That was an utter sufferfest! Things we have learned today 1. Racing at 2000m sucks 2. Grass is deceptively hard work 3. Being hot is horrid"...!


The Elite Men's race was an equally exciting spectacle, with incredible crowds and a string of top names wheel-to-wheel for the first lap and, perhaps most interestingly, the absence from this string of this year's two top contenders, Nino Shurter and Julien Absalon, who both suffered mechanicals in lap one. Absalon was last into the first piece of singletrack after dropping back through the field at the foot of the first climb, and Schurter front wheel punctured, though thankfully for him he managed to climb up to the pits for a quick wheel change. After the flurry of a furiously fast and frantic first lap, the first decisive move came from the 22 year old U23 World Champion, Andrej Cink, who built a remarkable lead over the following laps. A chasing group formed consisting of Fabian Giger and Gerard Kerschbaumer and then Thomas Litscher, Maxime Maroote, Florian Vogel, Alexander Gehbauer, Nino Schurter, Marco Fontana, Sergio Mantecon, Miguel Martinez and Jose Hermida, and small gaps back down to around twentieth place. Absalon, meanwhile, was caught in the void between the two chasing groups and the rest of the field as he made it quite clear that the back of the field was certainly not where he belonged. Not that he needed to demonstrate this to the crowd who were very vociferous supporters of the sport's more decorated riders. Another rider who was working his way up through the field was Stephane Tempier, who managed to find himself in the lead chasing group, a great feat to see following a nasty crash in Nove Mesto which resulted in three days in hospital with internal injuries . A high-speed crash and a mechanical saw Giger and Fontana deposited from the lead chase group, which left Schurter, Kerschbaumer, Marrotte, Tempier and Vogel. Absalon was close to joining until another chain problem cost him yet more time.  The two Fluckiger brother's also suffered bad luck, both with punctures, and they too lost any chance of a podium finish. The race remained in a similar way for a couple of laps. As the bell rang out Cink had a twenty nine second lead and it really was his race to lose, especially as the others looked to be fighting for second, no one willing to lead into the wind. The first year Elite Kerschbaumer was the first to crack as Tempier and Schurter turned the screw and started eating into Cink's lead at an alarming rate. Schurter, having descended akin to a rock, caught Cink and immediately attacked up the final big climb. Tempier, who had also caught back to Cink, could not hold Schurter's wheel and, like Cink, had to watch the World Champion disappear up the climb. Cink, who looked to have completely bonked, did not give up however, and chased with admirable determination  to regain the lead. Despite coming back to Schurter, the young Czech could not hold his wheel through the singletrack. Schurter took the win, Cink second and Tempier third, the three of them collapsing on the floor as they crossed the line, their breathing audible above the animated tones of Dan Jarvis on the PA. Marrotte took fifth, Kerschbaumer sixth and they were followed in by Giger, Vogel, Absalon, Martinez and Fumic. David Fletcher continued his come-back with a fine forty fourth place whilst Gareth Montgomerie was the only other Brit to take the start, afterwards stating "what a horrendous day on the bike", finished sixty fifth, on the same lap as the leader. 


In the Junior Men's race Jan Vastl was the star rider, taking the win by a minute after four gruelling laps. Many of the big names from the previous rounds were missing - some National Federations stating the altitude as the reason for not taking as many, if any, Junior riders - but the racing was nonetheless fast and exciting. Two prominant riders, both on the podium in Albstadt, who were racing were Rapheal Gay and Neilo Perrin-Ganier, but they failed to make an impression in Vallnord. New Zealander Samuel Gaze and Gioele Bertolini (unsurprisingly from Italy) stepped up to take the podium positions behind Vastl. Orange Monkey's Billy Harding rode a strong race, unlucky to be alone for much of the time, to finish a career-best thirty nineth. 


Round Four of the UCI MTB World Cup from Vallnord, Andorra, offered spectacular views, incredible crowds and thrilling racing. The World Cup now leaves Europe for the first and only time this year as it heads to Mt St Anne, Canada, in two weeks time. That should give just enough time for the sprawling set-ups of giant gazebos and titanic trucks to get packed-up and weave their way out on the winding roads of altitudinous Andorra. 













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