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Road To 2012
UCI Mountain Bike World Cup XCO
Round 3 Offenburg, Germany
Posted May 28 2011
Words And Photography By Luke Webber
Homepage: Road To 2012 | British Cycling's Performance Programs Explained
Team GB Mountain Bike Roster | Join Team GB
Mountain Biking: Olympic Qualification Explained | UCI National Rankings
UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Round 3 Results:
Elite Men | Elite Women | Under-23 Men | Under 23 Women | Junior Men | Junior Women
Pro Sprint Eliminator Results:
Men | Women
Liam Killeen returned to the top twenty of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Offenburg, Germany, concluding a successful - if unpredictable - race weekend for the British Cycling team as the chase for Olympic qualification resumed.
Round 3 of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup served as the first opportunity for all nations to open their points account for the second year of Olympic qualification - the first chance to score coming in Friday's Pro Sprint Eliminator.
Run differently than at Dalby, the Offenburg course was grass track, with six riders in each round. This did little to effect Annie Last, who continued her Olympic point haul with a third position behind Pavla Havlikova and Eva Lechner in the final.
Racing again on Sunday in the Elite World Cup, Last made a strong start, riding with ten riders who would battle for the win. But with such a ferocious pace, and following a personal best at Dalby where the 21-year-old gave everything in front of the home crowd, Last had to concede position. Following a crash on lap two, the British Champion continued to finish 39th and looks to resume her regular top-twenty performances following the four week break in the World Cup schedule.
For Liam Killeen, it was a return to form following a disappointing result in Dalby; a race where the British Champion had hoped to crack the top ten. In Offenburg and with favourable hot conditions, Killeen posted a result which will move him up the grid and crucially, allow for a better start.
Finishing 16th and 40 seconds outside of the top ten, Killeen started with a battle, 44th after the start loop. On lap one, groups began to form, with an elite rank of ten riders at the front and two defined chases.
Killeen hauled his way into the second chase group by lap three, but was forced to wait until a mid-race shuffle occurred on lap five. A rolled tyre by World Champion and front-group evictee Jose Hermida helped Killeen pace his way through the pack and at one stage only a ten second margin seperated the pair from the group which eventually settled fifth to fourteenth positions.
Oli Beckingsale had a second consecutive race plagued by mechanical misfortune - finishing 47th after a puncture and twisted front mech cost three minutes and a top twenty position.
SATURDAY
Dave Fletcher dropped outside of the top ten in the under-23 World Cup for the first time this season following eighth in South Africa and sixth at Dalby.
For the last-year under-23 it was a nightmare race, rolling a tyre 1km into the race. Rejoining in 50th place from the pit and making good progress into the top 25, another rolled tyre concluded a run of bad luck and a 33rd place finish.
Meanwhile Kenta Gallagher returned from a race-ending crash in Dalby to race from 105th to 57th and continue his progress as a first year under-23.
JUINIORS
Saturday saw a return to Junior racing and while the British riders will not influence Olympic qualification for 2012, experience gained in this environment will be essential for the future development of British Olympians.
Fresh from fifth at Dalby, Grant Ferguson continued his good form with sixth place in Offenburg. Despite an increased field of 109 riders, the Scottish rider finished one minute off of the win on a track that treats him well, coming off of an eleventh place finish in 2010.
Matt Sumpton rode into the top-15 on the final lap, only to be undone by a mechanical, forcing a DNF.
Beth Crumpton, in only her second World Cup, finished eleventh in a 48 rider field, backing up her top-five performance last week, with British XC Junior Champion Katy Winton 32nd.
The 2011 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup XCO resumes at Mont Sainte Anne, July 2-3.
