Van Der Ploeg wins Dalby Eliminator

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Women's race

The new eliminator series in the UCI mountain bike World Cup had a highly successful debut at the Dalby World Cup on Friday evening. Twenty six women and 42 men took part in the qualifying time trial, with all of the women and the top 32 men moving on to the heats competition. Nathalie Schneitter (Colnago Arreghini Sudtirol) took the women's victory and Paul van der Ploeg (Felt Oetztal X - Bionic) won the men's.

After later afternoon rain showers threatened to impact the event, the skies cleared up and the roads dried out just before the start. Held in the north Yorkshire town of Pickering, the course took riders on a winding up-and-down course, through a church cemetery and down a set of stairs. The key was a strong start in the top two positions, since passing was difficult. Thousands of spectators came out to watch, lining the finishing uphill straightaway.

British rider Annie Last qualified first for the women, Sweden's Alexandra Engen. Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing), the reigning downhill world champion qualified fourth, and four cross World Cup leader Anneke Beerten (Milka Trek) was ninth.

In the four rider heats, Moseley, her British teammate Annie Last and Katerina Nash (Luna) looked to be the strongest, but Schneitter was more consistent. Moseley rode to set up her teammate Last in the semi-final ride, but knocked herself out of the final in the process. Last and Schneitter were joined by Katrin Leumann (Ghost Factory) and Engen made up the other members of the final. Schneitter went to the front on the first short climb, and easily held off Last for the victory, with Leumann taking third.

Men's race

In the men's race, defending champion Thomas Litscher (Felt Oetztal X - Bionic) appear to be well on his way to another win, as he qualified first and won his intermediate heats easily. Also riding well were Marco Fontana (Cannondale) and Sepp Freiburghas, which made up the final foursome.

Surprisingly, pre-race favourite Brian Lopes went out in the first round, with Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) the only North American to make it out of the first round. Also going out early were cross country World Cup leader Nino Schurter (Scott-Swisspower) and his teammate Florian Vogel.

In the final, Litscher got an uncharacteristically slow start, allowing his teammate to take the lead. Van der Ploeg led from start to finish, with Litscher striving to overtake him on the final climb to the finish, but just falling short.

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