Under 23 racer Stander wins elite men's Champéry World Cup

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Burry Stander (Specialized Factory Racing) has had what he considers to be the best week of his career, after following up his Under 23 cross country world championship title last weekend with his first World Cup win. Taking what was also the first South African cross country World Cup win, Stander beat series leader Julien Absalon (Orbea) in a thrilling come from behind victory at round seven in Champéry, Switzerland.

Absalon's second place locked up the overall title for the French rider with one race remaining, while Stander did the same for the Under 23 title. Ralph Näf (Multivan Merida) took third. Adam Craig (Giant) was the top North American, finishing sixth, with Sam Schultz (Subaru-Gary Fisher) 16th and Canadian champion Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) fading to 21st after riding in the front group for the first few laps.

Alexis Vuillermoz (Lapierre International) led the field of 144 out of the start loop for the first of six laps. He continued to ride at the front on lap two, but Absalon was reeling him in, and took the lead on lap three, attacking on the main climb. As Absalon extended his lead to over one minute by the fourth lap, it appeared that the race was unfolding as expected.

However, on lap five, the first indication that this might be a historic day occurred when Stander began to slowly pull back the Olympic champion, knocking 20 seconds off the lead. An interesting and unprecedented situation was happening: Absalon was fading while Stander was getting stronger.

Going into the final, long climb before the technical descent to the finish, Absalon still had a lead of 25 seconds, but while he was struggling, Stander was powering up the climb, and he caught his rival at the top shortly before entering the singletrack. Stander swept by Absalon, who could only watch him go, and the recently crowned Under 23 world champion rolled into the finishing straight 15 seconds ahead of Absalon, punching the air in victory. Absalon rolled across the line and collapsed at the side of the track, utterly shattered after his ride, and only holding off Näf by nine seconds. The Flückiger brothers - Lukas and Mathias - both for Trek World Racing, completed the podium at 28 and 41 seconds respectively.

Stander and Absalon had taken two different approaches to their long trip back to Europe from Canberra. Stander went home to South Africa for two days (same time zone as Europe) and then flew up to Switzerland. Absalon, by contrast, stayed in Sydney for two days, then went to Singapore for two days before flying to Europe. Absalon's wife said her husband was "exhausted" before the race began.

"For sure, this is a huge victory for me, my first World Cup win. I had a good week, resting up from Australia, so I think I came into the race well prepared. The start was pretty fast, so I lost a few spots, but I was able to move up on the first lap, and by lap two, I was in a good spot. For the last two laps, I was hearing that I was getting closer to Julien, so it gave me lots of motivation, especially when I could see him on the climb. When I caught up to him, I could see that he had nothing left, so I just went."

Craig moved up from the low 20s in the first lap to top-ten by mid-race, and then to sixth in the final lap, after posting some of the fastest lap times for the second half of the race. "I had, for me, a pretty good start, not dropping back too far. Then I was able to start moving up, because I think I maybe had more in the tank than some of those guys that dug so deep last week [at the Worlds]. For me, this is a sweet, sweet course, with the good climb, some nice singletrack, that was still rideable even after the rain last night."

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