Cooper holds off Koretzky to claim U23 XC world title

New Zealand's Anton Cooper took the Under 23 men's Cross-country world title on Friday in Vallnord, Andorra, after a race-long battle with Victor Koretzky (France). Grant Ferguson (Great Britain) rode up through the field to take the bronze medal.

The men's race was shortened by a lap just before the start, after the earlier overtime women's race showed that course conditions from a week of rain were slowing lap times dramatically. While the men mostly missed the rain, the drying mud actually made the rocks and roots more treacherous.

Sam Gaze (New Zealand), the silver medalist in the Eliminator earlier in the week, shot off the front on the opening climb, but he was quickly joined by Cooper and Titouan Carod (France). Koretzky was moving up, but had stopped to let some air out of his tires to improve traction.

When Koretzky joined Cooper at the front it became a two man race to the finish. Cooper would attack on the climbs and Koretzky would pull him back and drop him in the technical descents. But neither could get more then ten seconds on the other.

Behind, Ferguson was moving up, first catching Gaze to move into third and then racing to within sight of the two leaders, but that was as close as he would get.

Cooper and Koretzky went into the final singletrack together and it wasn't until the last short climb 300 metres from the line that Cooper was able to open up a two second gap, which he held to the finish.

Full Results

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#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Anton Cooper (New Zealand)1:22:03
2Victor Koretzky (France)0:00:02
3Grant Ferguson (Great Britain)0:00:22
4Samuel Gaze (New Zealand)0:01:41
5Jens Schuermans (Belgium)0:02:12
6Gioele Bertolini (Italy)0:02:39
7Marcel Guerrini (Switzerland)0:02:46
8Jan Vastl (Czech Republic)0:03:02
9Didier Bats (Belgium)0:03:30
10Andri Frischknecht (Switzerland)0:03:33
11Sebastian Carstensen Fini (Denmark)0:03:52
12Keegan Swenson (United States Of America)0:04:10
13Milan Vader (Netherlands)0:04:25
14Stefano Valdrighi (Italy)0:04:31
15Raphael Gay (France)0:04:48
16Sasu Halme (Finland)0:05:02
17Howard Grotts (United States Of America)0:05:20
18Bartlomiej Wawak (Poland)0:05:27
19Titouan Carod (France)0:05:44
20Brandon Rivera (Colombia)0:05:54
21Romain Seigle (France)0:06:05
22Frantisek Lami (Slovakia)0:06:28
23Pablo Rodriguez Guede (Spain)0:06:39
24Florian Chenaux (Switzerland)0:06:41
25Max Foidl (Austria)0:06:58
26Andrey Fonseca (Costa Rica)Row 25 - Cell 2
27Alan Hatherly (South Africa)0:07:03
28Georg Egger (Germany)0:07:40
29Simon Vitzthum (Switzerland)0:08:05
30Stanislav Antonov (Russian Federation)0:08:24
31Peter Disera (Canada)0:08:28
32Arnis Petersons (Latvia)Row 31 - Cell 2
33Niels Rasmussen (Denmark)0:08:29
34Scott Bowden (Australia)0:09:07
35Jose Gerardo Ulloa (Mexico)0:09:28
36Martin Stosek (Czech Republic)0:09:35
37Alexandre Vialle (Canada)0:09:49
38Marc Andre Fortier (Canada)0:10:07
39Richard Cypress Gorry (United States Of America)0:10:21
40Jonathan Mejia (Venezuela)0:10:34
41Johannes Blasi (Germany)0:10:38
42Luiz Cocuzzi (Brazil)0:11:08
43Oleksiy Zavolokin (Ukraine)0:11:16
44Emil Linde (Sweden)0:11:20
45Piotr Konwa (Poland)0:11:37
46Marton Dina (Hungary)0:11:42
47Craig Oliver (New Zealand)0:11:58
48Sepp Kuss (United States Of America)0:12:20
49Iain Paton (Great Britain)0:12:34
50Lukas Baum (Germany)0:12:53
51Jose Pedro Dias (Portugal)0:13:19
52Peteris Janevics (Latvia)0:13:22
53Roberto Bou (Spain)0:13:26
54Ben Oliver (New Zealand)0:13:45
55Reece Tucknott (Australia)0:14:03
56Lorenzo Samparisi (Italy)Row 55 - Cell 2
57Alessandro Naspi (Italy)Row 56 - Cell 2
58Arsenty Vavilov (Russian Federation)Row 57 - Cell 2
59Gert Heyns (South Africa)Row 58 - Cell 2
60Guy Sessler (Israel)Row 59 - Cell 2
61Anders Bregnhoj (Denmark)Row 60 - Cell 2
62Marc-Antoine Nadon (Canada)Row 61 - Cell 2
63Goncalo Duarte Amado (Portugal)Row 62 - Cell 2
64Tymur Rusiia (Ukraine)Row 63 - Cell 2
65Christian Pfaffle (Germany)Row 64 - Cell 2
66Axel Lindh (Sweden)Row 65 - Cell 2
67Jack Compton (New Zealand)Row 66 - Cell 2
68Gregor Krajnc (Slovenia)Row 67 - Cell 2
69Toki Sawada (Japan)Row 68 - Cell 2
70Guy Niv (Israel)Row 69 - Cell 2
71Tomas Visnovsky (Slovakia)Row 70 - Cell 2
72Roman Vladykin (Russian Federation)Row 71 - Cell 2
73Shakir Adilov (Kazakhstan)Row 72 - Cell 2
74Alvaro Macias (Argentina)Row 73 - Cell 2
75Ben Bradley (Australia)Row 74 - Cell 2
76Sergey Kovalchuk (Kazakhstan)Row 75 - Cell 2
77Yunus Emre Yilmaz (Turkey)Row 76 - Cell 2
78Vladislav Maksimov (Russian Federation)Row 77 - Cell 2
DNFMartins Blums (Latvia)Row 78 - Cell 2
DNFBen Zwiehoff (Germany)Row 79 - Cell 2
DNFAdria Urcelay Tejedor (Andorra)Row 80 - Cell 2
DNFKevin Panhuyzen (Belgium)Row 81 - Cell 2
DNFLars Forster (Switzerland)Row 82 - Cell 2
DNFMartin Frey (Germany)Row 83 - Cell 2
DNSChris Hamilton (Australia)Row 84 - Cell 2

 

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