Beerten bests full women's field

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A brand new World Cup four cross track at Mont Sainte Anne yielded a victory and the World Cup lead for Anneke Beerten (Suspension Center) on Saturday evening during the sixth round of the World Cup series.

In an event that is often hampered by a lack of participants, it was great to see 12 women racers and three full rounds of racing. The main contenders were Beerten, former World Champion and World Cup leader Jill Kintner, and current World Champion Melissa Buhl (KHS). However, a number of crashes ultimately had an effect on the outcome.

Buhl was one of the victims of a crash in the semi-finals. She came back to win the small final for the evening securing a fifth place overall. This set up a final of Beerten, Kintner, Fionn Griffiths (Norco World Team) and Joanna Petterson. Early in the final, Kintner crashed about halfway down and got up quickly only to crash again lower on the course. Griffiths followed Beerten in for second place, with Petterson in third as Kintner limped in for fourth, losing her World Cup lead.

Beerten assumed the World Cup lead with her win. "This course is really technical and quite difficult. It has a lot of mountain bike features in it, especially with the little bit of rain we had today which made it slippery. It was a really fun course to ride. I like the more downhill style courses, so this was maybe a little better for me. I love riding this track."

"Gates have been so important for me to improve on and I was so focused on the final," said Beerten. "I was surprised and happy with this one. I'm back in the lead, but the points are so close its all going to come down to the final."

Kintner was clearly disappointed. "We came out of the gate pretty even. We banged bars on the first straight and she got a little ahead. So I decided to hang back a little bit and wait until I could get by. Then my front wheel just washed out in one of the corners and that was it. I couldn't get my foot clipped back in and I crashed again. I can't catch a break here. I either win or I crash."

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