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MTB World Cup #5 - B
Grouse Mountain, Canada, July 12-13, 2003
Main Page Results Previous Race
Race 3 - July 13: Downhill
Fionne on fire; Neethling gets his first top 10
By Martin Whiteley, Global Racing
Women
Fionn Griffiths, who turns 21 next month, scored her second World Cup victory here in Grouse Mountain, Canada, hot on the heels of her first win 2 weeks ago in Mont-Sainte-Anne. After a solid qualifying run which placed her ahead of her main competition for the overall title, Tracy Moseley (GBR) and Sabrina Jonnier (FRA), Fionn had her sights set on gaining even more points in the final, and chasing back to back wins.
After her crash in Fort William which resulted in Fionn suffering severe bruising to her thigh, and a complete lack of mobility, it wasn't looking good at the beginning of the season, but having overcome that injury, Fionn is on charge in latter half of the season and is well poised to chase down some important titles before the year is out.
"I really nailed the top half of the course this time and my second half was better than in the quaifiers so I'm really happy with my run", said Fionn to race announcer petere Graves, shortly after gettign into the hot seat. With only one rider to come, Kathy Pruitt (USA), Fionn was mid sentence with Peter when she realised that she had it. "And now it looks like I've just won my second World Cup!"
This second win now moves Fionn up from 3rd overall to 2nd in the World Cup series, with only one race to go. She is only 14 points behind Tracy Moseley, and after scoring 240 points this weekend, anything's possible for the finals.
In the post race TV interview Fionn acknowledged her main sponsors who have totally believed in her for this season, most notably Foes, Azonic, RockShox and Zeal Optics.
Men
Global Racing's African rider, Andrew Neethling, scored his first Top 10 result in World Cup racing after opting to ride his qualifying race slower than usual in the hope that rain would affect the final, and he would therefore start earlier and beat the rain. Weather reports had suggested showers "late in the day" so there was an outside chance that the rain could arrive before 4pm, but most teams and riders thought that very unlikely, despite the generally overcast conditions that prevailed throughout the morning here at Grouse Mountain on the edge of Vancouver, Canada.
However with only 45 riders of the 80 having completed their run in the dry, the rain hit hard, and low cloud also moved in reducing visibility to less than 10m on some sections of the course. All of the top World Cup contenders had qualified fast and were now faced with racing for minor points. Andrew however had got down before the rain and recorded a time of 2mins 08.96secs, which was 2 seconds faster than his qualifier and only 2.5 seconds off the eventual race winning time of Gary Houseman (USA).
"Not having such a great qualifier really paid off for me today. It's a lucky result in a way, but I'll take it! I made a big mistake in the final, in the same place as I did in the qualifier, but hey, to score some prize money and bonus money makes this result all the more enjoyable," said a clearly happy Andrew after the results board showed his top 10 placing.
Matti Lehikoinen (FIN) was just 3 minutes off having the same sort of luck, but still managed a great 11th place, despite having to race in the rain without mud tires. Matti slowed right down at the end of his qualifier to get a mid field start for the afternoon race, also hoping for rain. When the rain did hit, it came with a real suddenness that caught all the riders by surprise, and had mechanics scrambling for wet weather tires.
Matti unfortunately had only 2 minutes to go when the heavy rain hit and was already at the start house and had no chance to change his tires. "There's a bridge on the course that was so slippery I have no idea how I got across it. Some guy who was watching the race from there told me afterwards that it was the best display of skill he'd seen for the whole race. It was like ice. So were the big rocks in the open sections, but the forest was OK. If the rain had come three minutes later I'm sure I could have got very close to the podium."
Results
Men 1 Gary Houseman (USA) 2:06.3 2 Ivan Oulego Moreno (Spa) 2:06.6 3 Kirt Voreis (USA) 2:06.9 4 Colin Bailey (USA) 2:07.8 5 Stuart Thomson (GBr) 2:08.5 6 Mickael Pascal (Fra) Maxxis-MSC 2:08.8 7 Rich Houseman (USA) 2:08.8 8 Mathieu Laurin (Can) 2:08.8 9 Henry O'Donnell (USA) 2:08.9 10 Andrew Neethling (RSA) 2:09.0 11 Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) 2:09.1 12 Chris Van Dine (Can) 2:09.3 13 Mark Beaumont (GBr) Team Orange 2:09.3 14 Daniel Atherton (GBr) 2:09.4 15 Claudio Caluori (Swi) Be-One 2:09.8 16 Michal Marosi (Cze) 2:09.9 17 Trevor Porter (Can) 2:09.9 18 Jordie Lunn (Can) 2:09.9 19 Robin Baloochi (USA) 2:10.0 20 John Lawlor (Irl) 2:10.2 21 Julien Camellini (Fra) 2:10.3 22 Glyn O'brien (Irl) 2:10.4 23 Chris O'driscoll (USA) 2:10.5 24 Curtis Keene (USA) 2:10.7 25 Rob Hewitt (Can) 2:10.7 26 Eric Goss (Can) 2:11.0 27 James Hughes (GBr) 2:11.0 28 Brant Lyon (Can) 2:11.2 29 Mike Jones (Can) 2:11.9 30 Jamie Popham (Irl) 2:11.9 31 Sebastian Vasquez (Chi) 2:12.0 32 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) 2:12.2 33 Stuart Hilder (Can) 2:12.3 34 Nathan Rankin (NZl) 2:12.5 35 Ashley Cross (GBr) 2:12.7 36 Brian Eller (Can) 2:13.0 37 Dave Wardell (GBr) 2:13.3 38 Paul Angus (GBr) 2:13.3 39 Jamie Green (Aus) 2:13.4 40 Andrew Shandro (Can) 2:13.5 41 Nathan Rennie (Aus) 2:13.6 42 Damien Mermoud (Swi) 2:13.8 43 Dave West (Aus) 2:13.8 44 Julien Poomans (Fra) 2:14.0 45 Christopher Kovarik (Aus) 2:14.5 46 Steve Peat (GBr) Team Orange 2:14.5 47 Guido Tschugg (Ger) 2:14.6 48 Cedric Gracia (Fra) Siemens Mobile Cannondale 2:14.9 49 Samuel Hill (Aus) 2:14.9 50 Kyle Guay (Can) 2:15.0 51 Greg Minnaar (RSA) 2:15.1 52 Andrew Yoong (Irl) 2:15.2 53 Daniel Critchlow (GBr) 2:15.2 54 Justin Havukainen (Aus) 2:16.5 55 George Atherton (GBr) 2:16.8 56 Marc Fontaine (Can) 2:17.6 57 Andy Smith (Irl) 2:18.1 58 Will Longden (GBr) 2:18.7 59 Hugo Donais (Can) 2:19.0 60 Eric Rasmussen (USA) 2:19.2 61 Chris Del Bosco (USA) 2:19.4 62 Shaums March (USA) 2:19.8 63 Charles-Alexandre Dube (Can) 2:20.1 64 Bernat Guardia Pascual (Spa) Maxxis-MSC 2:20.2 65 Kris Hargreaves (GBr) 2:20.5 66 Judd Devall (USA) 2:20.8 67 Joel Panozzo (Aus) 2:20.9 68 John Kirkcaldie (NZl) 2:21.0 69 David Vazquez Lopez (Spa) MSC Bikes 2:22.2 70 Kyle Strait (USA) 2:22.4 71 Oscar Saiz Castane (Spa) Maxxis-MSC 2:22.4 72 Markolf Berchtold (Bra) MSC Bikes 2:23.1 73 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 2:23.2 74 Mick Hannah (Aus) 2:27.4 75 Bas De Bever (Ned) Be-One 2:28.1 76 Jared Rando (Aus) 2:29.5 77 David Mclaughlin (Aus) 2:31.4 78 Will Clifford (Aus) 2:33.9 79 Benjamin Cory (Aus) 2:39.3 DNF Chris Ball (GBr) Women 1 Fionn Griffiths (GBr) 2:17.3 2 Sabrina Jonnier (Fra) 2:17.9 3 Kathy Pruitt (USA) Luna Women's MTB Team 2:19.7 4 Marla Streb (USA) Luna Women's MTB Team 2:20.4 5 Missy Giove (USA) 2:20.6 6 Tracy Moseley (GBr) Kona Clarks Factory Team ` 7 Anneke Beerten (Ned) 2:21.5 8 Mio Suemasa (Jpn) Trek-Volkswagen Racing 2:24.1 9 Nolvenn Le Caer (Fra) 2:24.8 10 Melissa Buhl (USA) 2:25.6 11 Amelie Thevoz (Swi) 2:25.6 12 Danika Schroeter (Can) 2:25.7 13 Tai-Lee Muxlow (Aus) 2:27.8 14 Helen Gaskell (GBr) 2:28.2 15 Claire Buchar (Can) 2:32.3 16 Marielle Saner (Swi) 2:32.5 17 Sandra Walker (Swi) 2:36.2 18 Barb Haley (Can) 2:40.4 19 Debra MacKillop (Can) 2:49.1 20 Michelle Dumaresq (Can) 2:55.6 DNF Bernardita Pizarro (Chi)
