Cooper cruises to junior men's cross country title

Anton Cooper won a gold medal for New Zealand in the junior men's cross country race at the mountain bike world championships in Saalfelden, Austria on Saturday morning. The Kiwi rider upset defending champion Victor Koretzky (France) and Titouan Carod (France).

"One of my goals I set for this year was to win the world championships," said Cooper. "It's been a dream as a kid to win this thing. I'm finally satisfied. I felt relaxed. Everything just fell into place."

Cooper set the pace from the start and only Koretzky could hang at first; however, the French maintained a strong presence at the front of the field. On the first lap, Cooper was chased by three French riders in a row: Koretzky, Carod and Antoine Bouqueret (France) and Romain Seigle (France) was not far behind them.

"The pace was hot. I knew going up the first climb because I could listen to the other riders breathing," said Cooper. "I got first into the singletrack. I wasn't quite on to it and I let a couple of the riders pass me, but I managed to get them back not long after and took the lead again. I played my cards well. I felt comfortable with my race and how it was going."

Carod bridged up to Cooper and Koretzky on lap two, but by the end of that lap, Cooper had dropped them both and would ride the rest of the start-loop-plus-four-lap race on his own off the front.

Koretzky and Carod were left to battle for silver and they remained close throughout the race, but the defending champion triumphed in the end.

"I felt good today, but Anton was stronger," said Koretzky. "For me, it was difficult on the uphill road sections. After he dropped me, I ended up in a race with Titouan. I went into the last singletrack first to keep my second place on that final lap.

"The French junior team is so good. It's a good achievement for us French juniors."

Carod said, "I feel very good. In the start, I had a bobble, and on the second lap, my legs were good, and I got on the wheel of Anton. We French are very strong. Anton and Victor got clear of me, but in the finish, Victor and I were very tight."

Seigle was fourth ahead of Keegan Swenson (United States) in fifth.

"I had a little problem at the start and missed my pedal. I had to catch up, but I felt good," said Swenson. "The race was fast - consistently fast."

Swenson, who will move up to the U23 ranks along with all of the top nine finishers on the day, is looking forward to the transition and was delighted to make his goal of finishing in the top five. "It was a great season. I had a bunch of top 10s and World Cup finishes and a national title. I'm excited for the U23s. It will be fun."

Full Results

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Junior men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Anton Cooper (New-Zealand)1:06:53
2Victor Koretzky (France)0:02:17
3Titouan Carod (France)0:02:34
4Romain Seigle (France)0:04:06
5Keegan Swenson (United States Of America)0:04:35
6Antoine Bouqueret (France)0:04:54
7Enea Vetsch (Switzerland)0:04:57
8Kevin Panhuyzen (Belgium)0:05:06
9Beltain Schmid (Italy)Row 8 - Cell 2
10Manuel Fasnacht (Switzerland)0:05:07
11Nicolas Sessler (Brazil)0:05:34
12Eirik Sverdrup Augdal (Norway)0:05:40
13Georg Egger (Germany)0:05:52
14Ben Zwiehoff (Germany)0:06:01
15Martin Frey (Germany)0:06:05
16Dominic Zumstein (Switzerland)0:06:06
17Piotr Konwa (Poland)0:06:18
18Andri Frischknecht (Switzerland)0:06:26
19Artem Shevtsov (Ukraine)Row 18 - Cell 2
20Lukas Baum (Germany)0:06:35
21Oleksii Zavolokin (Ukraine)0:06:42
22Boris Cara (Belgium)0:07:07
23Martin Stosek (Czech Republic)0:07:21
24Sebastian Carstensen Fini (Denmark)0:07:24
25Jesper Slik (Netherlands)0:07:30
26Emil Linde (Sweden)0:07:35
27Toki Sawada (Japan)0:07:44
28Ben Bradley (Australia)0:07:46
29Nigel Mcdowell (New-Zealand)0:08:13
30Raphael Gay (France)Row 29 - Cell 2
31Peteris Janevics (Latvia)0:08:14
32Jan Vastl (Czech Republic)0:08:48
33Marc-Antoine Nadon (Canada)0:08:50
34Daniel Voitl (Germany)0:08:51
35Luis Camacho (Costa Rica)0:09:04
36Philipp Bertsch (Germany)0:09:13
37Edvard Vea Iversen (Norway)0:09:21
38Ruslan Boredskiy (Russian Federation)0:09:25
39Massimo Rosa (Italy)0:09:26
40Elias Hagspiel (Austria)Row 39 - Cell 2
41Michael Mayer (Austria)0:09:40
42Patrick Belton (South Africa)0:09:43
43Niels Rasmussen (Denmark)0:09:47
44Omer Shubi (Israel)0:09:49
45Javier Cerdeno (Spain)0:10:02
46Sam Gaze (New-Zealand)0:10:31
47Denis Fumarola (Italy)0:10:42
48Samuel Stean (Great Britain)0:10:46
49Amado Goncalco Duarte Basilio (Portugal)0:10:55
50Casey Williams (United States Of America)0:11:07
51José Pedro Silva Dias (Portugal)0:11:28
52Alberto Rossi (Italy)0:12:01
53Max Foidl (Austria)Row 52 - Cell 2
-1lapPaul Rodenbach (South Africa)Row 53 - Cell 2
-1lapAlexandre Vialle (Canada)Row 54 - Cell 2
-1lapKohei Maeda (Japan)Row 55 - Cell 2
-1lapMathieu Dehaeze (Belgium)Row 56 - Cell 2
-1lapMichael Thompson (Great Britain)Row 57 - Cell 2
-1lapFelipe Rodrigo Garry Rojas (Chile)Row 58 - Cell 2
-1lapLouis Bendixen (Denmark)Row 59 - Cell 2
-1lapFranco Nicolas Adaos Alvarez (Chile)Row 60 - Cell 2
-1lapIain Paton (Great Britain)Row 61 - Cell 2
-1lapDiego Gonzalez Calderon (Spain)Row 62 - Cell 2
-1lapKarl Henrik Nordbakken (Norway)Row 63 - Cell 2
-1lapMartin Fusek (Czech Republic)Row 64 - Cell 2
-1lapSylwester Seweryn (Poland)Row 65 - Cell 2
-1lapGregor Krajnc (Slovenia)Row 66 - Cell 2
-1lapPhilipp Wetzelberger (Austria)Row 67 - Cell 2
-1lapRoman Vladykin (Russian Federation)Row 68 - Cell 2
-1lapChristopher Aitken (Australia)Row 69 - Cell 2
-1lapLukasz Szymczuk (Poland)Row 70 - Cell 2
-1lapGuy Niv (Israel)Row 71 - Cell 2
-1lapPeter Disera (Canada)Row 72 - Cell 2
-2lapsFabian Costa (Austria)Row 73 - Cell 2
-2lapsAmit Krispil (Israel)Row 74 - Cell 2
-2lapsMaksymilian Jedrzejczyk (Poland)Row 75 - Cell 2
-2lapsAndrea Maccagli (San Marino)Row 76 - Cell 2
-2lapsCristian Losonczi (Romania)Row 77 - Cell 2
-2lapsGregor Dimic (Slovenia)Row 78 - Cell 2
-2lapsBen Comfort (Australia)Row 79 - Cell 2
-2lapsKyle Dorkin (South Africa)Row 80 - Cell 2
-2lapsConnor Bell (United States Of America)Row 81 - Cell 2
-2lapsBlaz Kadivec (Slovenia)Row 82 - Cell 2
-2lapsJihun Lim (Republic Of Korea)Row 83 - Cell 2
-2lapsJose Antonio Barroso Roque (Spain)Row 84 - Cell 2
-2lapsLeandro Baez (Argentina)Row 85 - Cell 2
-2lapsNikita Fedorov (Russian Federation)Row 86 - Cell 2
-2lapsRicardo Pelegrina (Argentina)Row 87 - Cell 2
-2lapsSimon Vozar (Slovakia)Row 88 - Cell 2
-2lapsAndreas Mündle (Liechtenstein)Row 89 - Cell 2
-2lapsAdam Horvath (Hungary)Row 90 - Cell 2
-2lapsMatej Fackovec (Slovakia)Row 91 - Cell 2
-2lapsDominik Banyai (Hungary)Row 92 - Cell 2
-2lapsLuka Pussnik (Slovenia)Row 93 - Cell 2
-2lapsDylan Hattingh (South Africa)Row 94 - Cell 2
-2lapsPaolo Rigo (Croatia)Row 95 - Cell 2
-3lapsLukas Kaufmann (Austria)Row 96 - Cell 2
-3lapsPawel Kawalec (Poland)Row 97 - Cell 2
-3lapsSlobodan Stankovic (Serbia)Row 98 - Cell 2
DNFOndrej Glajza (Slovakia)Row 99 - Cell 2
DNFRomain Bannwart (Switzerland)Row 100 - Cell 2
DNFFredrik Fang Liland (Norway)Row 101 - Cell 2
DNSLucas Newcomb (United States Of America)Row 102 - Cell 2
DNSJohan Widen (Sweden)Row 103 - Cell 2
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Rankings by nation
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResultHeader Cell - Column 3
1France300pts
2Switzerland276Row 1 - Cell 3
3Germany267Row 2 - Cell 3
4New-Zealand233Row 3 - Cell 3
5Belgium222Row 4 - Cell 3
6Italy214Row 5 - Cell 3
7Norway196Row 6 - Cell 3
8Czech Republic189Row 7 - Cell 3
9Denmark182Row 8 - Cell 3
10Austria175Row 9 - Cell 3
11United States Of America172Row 10 - Cell 3
12Ukraine166Row 11 - Cell 3
13Poland155Row 12 - Cell 3
14Canada148Row 13 - Cell 3
15Great Britain141Row 14 - Cell 3
16South Africa132Row 15 - Cell 3
17Australia131Row 16 - Cell 3
18Japan123Row 17 - Cell 3
19Israel118Row 18 - Cell 3
20Spain116Row 19 - Cell 3
21Russian Federation115Row 20 - Cell 3
22Portugal106Row 21 - Cell 3
23Brazil92Row 22 - Cell 3
24Chile86Row 23 - Cell 3
25Slovenia80Row 24 - Cell 3
26Netherlands78Row 25 - Cell 3
27Sweden77Row 26 - Cell 3
28Latvia72Row 27 - Cell 3
29Costa Rica68Row 28 - Cell 3
30Argentina32Row 29 - Cell 3
31San Marino26Row 30 - Cell 3
32Romania25Row 31 - Cell 3
33Slovakia25Row 32 - Cell 3
34Hungary22Row 33 - Cell 3
35Republic Of Korea19Row 34 - Cell 3
36Liechtenstein13Row 35 - Cell 3
37Croatia7Row 36 - Cell 3
38Serbia4Row 37 - Cell 3

 

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Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews.  She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.

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