Great Britain's Griffiths gets women's win

Round seven of the 4-Cross series of the Nissan UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano offered spectators the most exciting evening of racing of the entire year. Fionn Griffiths (Norco) took her second win of the season and moved into a tie for second in the overall standings behind leader Anneke Beerten (Suspension Center) after racing a tactically savvy Final.

“It was a hard course, with the corners being really square,” commented Griffiths. “Basically, whoever went into the first corner in first place had a problem, so I hung back a bit behind Jill and was then able to get out in front. After that, I just concentrated on riding down cleanly and not crashing.”

Bromont, Quebec in Canada was selected as the top 4-Cross World Cup of 2008, and organizers wisely decided not to mess around too much with the course.

The women’s race saw perennial rivals Beerten and Jill Kintner of the United States move through to the Final, with Griffiths and Joanna Petterson (South Africa) joining them. In the final Kintner and Beerten tangled in the first corner, while Griffiths sneaked through ahead of them to take the win. Beerten managed to recover for second, with Kintner third.

The result solidified Beerten’s lead in the overall standings at 480 points, but Griffiths has now moved up to join Kintner in second place, with both at 400 points.