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World Cup XC #5 DH/4X #4 - B
Mont Sainte-Anne, Canada, June 25-26, 2005
Main Page Results Overall standings Previous Race
Race 6 - June 26: Elite Men DH
Barel victorious as tough course takes toll
By Rob Jones in Mont Sainte-Anne
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This course took a heavy toll on equipment in the men's race. The high speed sections meant lots of pinch flats, broken wheels and general carnage. Just that much more track is enough to damage a bike when riders are going hard.
The early part of the race had a wide assortment of riders on the hot seat, but it was Chris Kovarik (Fox) in the 15th from last start position who ended up claiming it for the longest period of time. With the rider start separation going to two minutes for the final 20, it must have seemed like forever for him. Even though Kovarik eventually was eventually pushed down to fifth, it certainly marks a return form after a year off the circuit with a badly broken leg from a motorcycle accident. Mont Ste Anne is his second World Cup this season.
The last five racers are always the one's to watch. Gee Atherton (Gbr) had a mechanical which dropped him out of the running. Then Fabien Barel, the defending World Champion, laid down a scorching run of 5:02:07. He knew when he crossed the line that he had done a superb run. Marc Beaumont (Shift), the third last starter was over six seconds back, good enough for third. Second for last starter Mickael Pascal (Maxxis-MSC) was over 7 seconds back, good enough for fourth.
That left only Greg Minnaar (Team G-Cross Honda), the fastest qualifier, to come through. Minnaar was over 2 seconds faster than his qualifying run, but it was still 0.52 seconds slower than Barel. Barel erupted from the hot seat to thunderous applause. He came forward into the finish chute and took a very gracious bow to audience.
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Barel was very pleased with his win. "It was not an easy day. Coming back from missing the second race of the season (Barel missed his start at Willingen due to miscommunication within his team) and generally having a crap season so far feels really good. Coming back now and winning this race is a real success. You have to have a real strategy on a course like this. You can't be full gas from the top to the bottom. My strategy was to go kind of easy in some of the technical parts and taking some risks, but not too much, and then trying to attack as much as possible on the fast spots and make some time. In the beginning of the season you know that you can't win everything. I know that I can't. I just try to pick up some points. Winning this race was good.
Minnaar was philosophical about his second "It's a long season. This is just one of the races. I have to worry about the World Cup overall. I'm really happy with second. You can't be upset. Its good for the points. You can't win every race. I knew I was up for a good run, but then I lost concentration and ran quite wide in one section and I couldn't get my footing back. It messed up that whole section. It took quite a bit of time and I tried to make it back up down at the bottom. The course is long for sure but that actually makes it more forgiving because you have a chance to make up for mistakes. Obviously today it was really close so I just didn't have enough."
With his win Barel moves to sixth in the World Cup points standing, with Minnaar continuing to pad his huge lead atop the points.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Rob Jones/www.canadiancyclist.com
- Chris Kovarik claimed the hot seat for the longest period of time
- Cédric Gracia (Siemens Cannondale) always a crowd favourite
- World Champion Fabien Barel (Kona Les Gets) would claim the day
- Marc Beaumont (GBr)
- Mickael Pascal (Maxxis-Msc)
- Greg Minnaar (Team G-Cross Honda) - "It's a long season. You can't win every race."
Results
1 Fabien Barel (Fra) Kona Les Gets 5.02.27 2 Greg Minnaar (RSA) Team G-Cross Honda 5.02.79 3 Marc Beaumont (GBr) 5.08.42 4 Mickael Pascal (Fra) Maxxis-Msc 5.09.47 5 Chris Kovarik (Aus) 5.10.43 6 Justin Leov (NZl) 5.11.67 7 Nathan Rennie (Aus) 5.13.54 8 Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) Team G-Cross Honda 5.13.83 9 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 5.14.11 10 Justin Havukainen (Aus) 5.14.73 11 John Kirkcaldie (NZl) 5.14.91 12 Julien Camellini (Fra) Commencal Oxbow 5.14.93 13 Dan Atherton (GBr) 5.15.26 14 Cédric Gracia (Fra) Siemens Cannondale Mtb 5.15.42 15 Jared Graves (Aus) 5.15.47 16 Jared Rando (Aus) 5.15.51 17 Michael Hannah (Aus) 5.15.93 18 Markolf Berchtold (Bra) Maxxis-Msc 5.16.61 19 Amiel Cavalier (Aus) 5.17.06 20 Neil Donoghue (GBr) 5.17.95 21 Joel Panozzo (Aus) 5.20.22 22 Andrew Neethling (RSA) 5.21.46 23 Liam Panozzo (Aus) 5.22.03 24 Tom Braithwaite (GBr) 5.22.66 25 Ivan Oulego Moreno (Spa) 5.23.32 26 Will Longden (GBr) 5.24.73 27 David Wardell (GBr) 5.24.75 28 Pierre Charles Georges (Fra) 5.24.97 29 Henry Odonnell (USA) 5.25.38 30 Charles-Alexandre Dube (Can) 5.27.55 31 Rich Houseman (USA) 5.27.91 32 Ayden Eves (Aus) 5.31.21 33 Herman Oelund (Swe) 5.31.51 34 Claudio Caluori (Swi) Ms-Racing Team Europe 5.31.74 35 Sven Martin (RSA) 5.32.23 36 Jamie Popham (Irl) 5.32.52 37 Robin Baloochi (USA) 5.32.98 38 Mathieu Laurin (Can) 5.33.13 39 Kyle Strait (USA) Specialized Factory Racing 5.34.45 40 Des Curry (NZl) 5.34.50 41 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) Kona Les Gets 5.34.58 42 Jonathan Cheetham (GBr) 5.35.23 43 Justin Brown (Can) 5.35.28 44 Thibaut Ruffin (Fra) American Products Factory 5.36.13 45 Chris Vandine (USA) 5.36.47 46 Louis-Philippe Leonard (Can) 5.36.57 47 Scott Beaumont (GBr) Team Kona Beaumont Racing 5.36.71 48 Geoff Pendrel (Can) 5.36.88 49 Daniel Critchlow (GBr) 5.37.22 50 Lars Peyer (Swi) 5.37.24 51 Lee Pincher (GBr) 5.37.29 52 Darren Pokoj (Aus) 5.40.26 53 Rowan Sorrell (GBr) 5.40.71 54 Mathieu Troquier (Fra) 5.42.63 55 John Lawlor (Irl) 5.44.02 56 Nick Dignard (Can) 5.44.51 57 Dominick Menard (Can) 5.45.12 58 Simon Carbonneau (Can) 5.45.93 59 Nicolas Gosselin (Can) 5.46.58 60 Luke Kitzanuk (Can) 5.46.76 61 David Ryce (Can) 5.48.00 62 Ben Reid (Irl) 5.49.43 63 Drew Pautler (Can) 5.50.53 64 Derick Chambers (Can) 5.50.60 65 Matthew Thompson (USA) 5.51.24 66 James Marples (GBr) 5.53.05 67 Marc Fontaine (Can) 5.54.58 68 Cameron Zink (USA) 5.55.17 69 Jonathan Pilon (Can) 5.59.73 70 Ross Roseingrave (Irl) 6.06.16 71 Andy Smith (Irl) 6.11.23 72 Frederic Belanger (Can) 6.21.79 73 Philippe Menard (Can) 6.38.43 74 Gee Atherton (GBr) 6.47.21 75 Craig Woodhead (Aus) 9.15.37 76 Jamie Biluk (Can) 12.12.21 77 David Vazquez Lopez (Spa) 15.51.41 DNF Christopher Herndon (USA) DNF Yannick Wende (Bol) DNS Glyn Obrien (Irl) World Cup standings after four rounds 1 Greg Minnaar (RSA) Team G-Cross Honda 805 pts 2 Samuel Hill (Aus) 545 3 Nathan Rennie (Aus) 542 4 Mickael Pascal (Fra) Maxxis-Msc 447 5 Christopher Kovarik (Aus) 415 6 Fabien Barel (Fra) Kona Les Gets 385 7 Marc Beaumont (GBr) 357 8 Daniel Atherton (GBr) 341 9 Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) Team G-Cross Honda 329 10 George Atherton (GBr) 327 11 Mick Hannah (Aus) 322 12 Cédric Gracia (Fra) Siemens Cannondale Mtb Ra 305 13 Julien Camellini (Fra) Commencal Oxbow 290 14 David Vazquez Lopez (Esp) Maxxis-Msc 269 15 Justin Leov (NZl) 256 16 Steve Peat (GBr) 250 17 Markolf Berchtold (Bra) Maxxis-Msc 190 18 Justin Havukainen (Aus) 181 19 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 180 20 Marcus Klausmann (Ger) Ghost International Racin 178 21 Damien Mermoud (Sui) 161 22 Andrew Neethling (RSA) 157 23 Will Longden (GBr) 139 24 Neil Donoghue (GBr) 136 25 Ivan Oulego Moreno (Esp) 114 26 Claudio Caluori (Sui) Ms-Racing Team Europe 114 27 Oscar Saiz Castane (Esp) Giant-Racing-Team 113 28 Nico Vink (Bel) Merlan Duo-Be One 108 29 Jared Graves (Aus) 103 30 Bernat Guardia Pascual (Esp) 95 31 Dave Wardell (GBr) 88 32 Kyle Strait (USA) Specialized Factory Racin 76 33 Brendan Fairclough (GBr) 75 34 Amiel Cavalier (Aus) 74 35 Pascual Canals Flix (Esp) 74 36 John Kirkcaldie (NZl) 71 37 Vlastimil Hyncica (Cze) 65 38 Frank Schneider (Ger) 62 39 Jared Rando (Aus) 55 40 Thomas Braithwaite (GBr) 54 41 Mickael Deldycke (Fra) 49 42 Maxime Remy (Fra) 47 43 Henry O Donnell (USA) 44 44 Filip Polc (Svk) 44 45 Joel Panozzo (Aus) 43 46 Cyrille Kurtz (Fra) 39 47 Gertje Tholen (Ned) 35 48 Dan Harper (GBr) 34 49 Adam Vagner (Cze) 34 50 Damien Spagnolo (Fra) Qbikes Les Sybelles 34 51 Liam Panozzo (Aus) 32 52 Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) Kona Les Gets 32 53 Romain Saladini (Fra) Commencal Oxbow 30 54 Himar Sanchez Salminen (Esp) 30 55 Herman Oelund (Swe) 27 56 Rob Warner (GBr) 25 57 Pierre Charles Georges (Fra) 23 58 Charles Georges Pierre (Fra) 23 59 Charles-Alexandre Dube (Can) 21 60 Rich Houseman (USA) 20 61 Thibaut Ruffin (Fra) American Products Factory 20 62 Ayden Eves (Aus) 19 63 Yoann Barelli (Fra) Lpi 19 64 Fabien Pedemanaud (Fra) American Products Factory 17 65 Sven Martin (RSA) 16 66 Chris Ball (GBr) 16 67 Jamie Popham (Irl) 15 68 Maty Charoat (Cze) 15 69 Samuel Zbinden (Sui) 15 70 Robin Baloochi (USA) 14 71 Richard Thomas (GBr) 14 72 Ben Cathro (GBr) 14 73 Vincent Saut (Fra) Lpi 14 74 Mathieu Laurin (Can) 13 75 Alan Beggin (Ita) 13 76 Lee Pincher (GBr) 12 77 Michal Marosi (Cze) 12 78 Mauricio Estrada Pulgarin (Col) 12 79 Des Curry (NZl) 11 80 Romain Lescure (Fra) 11 81 Duncan Riffle (USA) 10 82 Carlo Gambirasio (Ita) 10 83 Jon Cheetham (GBr) 9 84 Scott Beaumont (GBr) Team Kona Beaumont Racing 9 85 Florent Payet (Fra) 9 86 Justin Brown (Can) 8 87 Tom Holland (NZl) 8 88 Mathias Haas (Aut) Ms-Racing Team Europe 7 89 Thomas Vanderham (Can) 7 90 Chris Vandine (USA) 6 91 Richard Cheetham (GBr) 6 92 Louis-Philippe Leonard (Can) 5 93 Remy Charrier (Fra) 5 94 Ashley Mullane (GBr) 4 95 Geoff Pendrel (Can) 3 96 Ben Reid (Irl) 3 97 Dan Stanbridge (GBr) 3 98 Daniel Critchlow (GBr) 2 99 Salvador Gonzalez (Esp) 2 100 Lars Peyer (Sui) 1 101 Filip Matus (Cze) 1
