May 20/11 18:01 pm - Dalby Cross Country Eliminator : Men: report, results and photos

Posted by Editoress on 05/20/11
 

Results from today's Cross Country Eliminator in Yorkshire, Dalby Forest (GBR)

Our coverage brought to you with the support of Velirium

The new Eliminator series in the Mountain Bike World Cup had a highly successful debut at the Dalby World Cup on Friday evening.  Twenty six women and 42 men took part in the qualifying time trial, with all of the women and the top 32 men moving on to the Heats competition.  Nathalie Schneitter (Colnago Arreghini Sudtirol) took the women's victory and Paul van der Ploeg (Felt Oetztal X - Bionic) the men's.

After later afternoon rainshowers threatened to impact the event, the skies cleared up and the roads dried out just before the start.  Held in the north Yorkshire town of Pickering, the course took riders on a winding up-and-down course, through a church cemetery and down a set of stairs.  The key was a strong start in the top two positions, since passing was difficult.  Thousands of spectators came out to watch, lining the finishing uphill straightaway.


The men's race saw defending champion Thomas Litscher (Felt Oetztal X - Bionic) appear to be well on his way to another win, as he qualified first and won his intermediate heats easily.  Also riding well were Marco Fontana (Cannondale) and Sepp Freiburghas, which made up the final foursome.

Surprisingly, pre-race favourite Brian Lopes went out in the first round, with Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) the only North American to make it out of the first round.  Also going out early were cross-country World Cup leader Nino Schurter (Scott-Swisspower) and his team mate Florian Vogel.

In the final, Litscher got an uncharacteristically slow start, allowing his team mate to take the lead.  van der Ploeg led from start to finish, with Litscher striving to overtake him on the final climb to the finish, but just falling short.