Triple Podium for Orange Monkey-Cannondale!

Orange Monkey-Cannondale recorded their most successful International race weekend with three podium positions on a wet and muddy course at the British Cross Country Series in Dalby Forest, UK.

After arriving back from a successful World Cup in Houffalize the riders were excited to carry there good form into a home race.  Set on the World Cup course of 2011 with just a few minor changes the riders knew the course well.  A hail storm and torrential rain changed a lot but not our rider's spirits. 

The Olympics are just around the corner and with both our top Elite athletes, David Fletcher and Rourke Croeser still very much in contention for Great Britain and South Africa this was a pressure race like no other - and they delivered. 

Getting a great start on the mud soaked start loop was imperative and Rourke soon attached himself to the back of double Olympian, Liam Killeen's wheel as they made their way out of the arena - closely followed by David Fletcher.  At the midway point, David had edged in front of Rourke and Killeen had pulled a small gap out over our young stars.  The chasers behind in this International field of top athletes included Matthias Wengelin of Sweden, Ola Kjoren of Norway and Robby De Bock of Belgium along with Great Britain's Steve James, Seb Bathcelor and Nick Craig.

However the top three would remain and Fletcher came home to record one of his best results and without doubt the biggest triumph for Orange Monkey-Cannondale in there 7 year history.  To put the icing on the cake Croeser maintained his gap on Wengelin to finish a comfortable 3rd (1st Under 23) and give us a double Elite podium for the first time.

Ben Roff recorded a finish of 51st, to continue his remarkable recovery from a broken wrist just a few weeks ago in South Africa whilst Beales was unable to finish with illness.  

We were delighted to have guest rider, Barabara Benko of Team Focus-MIG with us for the weekend - a silver medallist at Under 23 World championships and also an Olympic hopeful.  Benko too had a fantastic race - battling with Great Britain's Annie Last who eventually beat her into second and Rie Katayama of Japan who took third.  We wish her well for the rest of the season.  

In the Junior race, Alex Baker continued with his recent form of late and broke away into a leading group of 7 riders early on before setting such a furious pace on the front that could only be matched by Ed McParland of GT Racing UK.  It would be Baker and McParland who would stay away from the rest of the field by some distance and they entered the arena together for a sprint finale eventually won by McParland, just pipping Baker into 2nd but giving our star Junior his best result of the season and a third podium of the day for Orange Monkey-Cannondale.

Three Podiums at a UCI Category 1 race was undoubtedly one of the proudest moments in the team's history and with two riders battling to make Olympic selection the future is looking very good indeed for this talented young team. 

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