Absalon wins his fifth Offenburg World Cup

Julien Absalon (Orbea) came into Offenburg undefeated during the past four years, and he left in the same fashion, after a dominating performance that also put him into the World Cup leader's jersey. Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized), the World Cup leader coming into the race finished second, while Maxime Marotte (BH Suntour Peisey Vallandry) took third.

Absalon came into Offenburg with two second places for the season in the World Cup, but he had stated earlier that he was building for this race, which he calls "the best World Cup course in the world".

A group of 12 riders formed at the front of the race on the first lap of seven, and rode away from the rest of the field along with Absalon, Kulhavy and Marotte, Burry Stander (Specialized), Christoph Sauser (Specialized), world champion Jose Hermida (Multivan Merida), Nino Schurter (Scott-Swisspower), Marco Fontana (Cannondale), Thomas Litscher (Felt Oetztal X-Bionic), Nicolas Coloma (Wildwolf-Trek), Rudi van Houts and Ivan Alvarez Gutierrez (Giant Italia).

By lap three, Coloma, Alvarez Gutierrez and van Houts were gone, and then Hermida flatted. Sauser crashed while chasing Absalon and Kulhavy and later suffered a broken wheel afte getting a flat and riding his rim. Both had to run to the next tech zone on lap four.

Absalon launched his attack on the same lap, exploding the group. Kulhavy took off in solo pursuit, but couldn't close the gap, followed by Marotte just in front of Stander. They would finish in that order, with Coloma jumping back into the final podium spot after posting the fastest split for the sixth lap.

"I tried first to attack on the first lap," said Absalon, "but I saw six guys on my wheel, so I said, 'ok, I need to wait a little'. I sat in for two laps on wheels and I saw Kulhavy was very strong. I knew I needed to attack in the beginning of a long climb, like I have done each year, and so I did the same."

"In the third and fourth lap, I was waiting on the downhill and I attacked just at the first feed zone and I did the long climb at the front. After I took 15 sec on Kulhavy, I felt good. I made no mistakes. To win a World Cup you need to do a perfect race because the gaps are small. I planned the beginning of my season to peak for this race because I like it so much and it is only two hours from my home." He was greeted with hugs and kisses from his wife and baby.

Kulhavy was not surprised at Absalon's strong showing, saying, "Julien was way strong today and I did what I could to race for the finish. I knew Julien would be strong here and in fact, he was."

Absalon's win moved him 40 points ahead of Kulhavy for the lead in the World Cup, but he has stated that he will not attend the two North American race (Mont Ste. Anne), so he will lose the lead in the next round.

Additional reporting by Sue George

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