Dahle-Flesjå wins World Cup in Lenzerheide

Swiss hopes of victory on home soil were dashed on Sunday, at Round 3 of the Cross-country series of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano in Lenzerheide, when Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Multivan Merida) won a record 29th World Cup. Jolanda Neff (Stoeckli) continues to lead the women's overall standings, tied on points with Dahle Flesjaa.

The hot weather that has blanketed Lenzerheide all week continued for the cross-country, surpassing 30 degrees Celsius and making for dry, dusty conditions. Combined with the 1500 metre altitude and the technical track, riders faced some of the toughest conditions of the season.

Neff, who uses Lenzerheide as a training base, was the favourite for the women after two consecutive wins in the opening rounds, and she did not disappoint the thousands of Swiss fans, by attacking on the first climb and opening a gap on newly crowned Marathon world champion Dahle Flesjaa and world champion Catharine Pendrel (Luna).

However, within half a lap the two chasers had caught and dropped her, with Neff dropping back out of the top-10 and clearly struggling with the conditions. The European Games champion admitted afterwards that she may have gone out too hard and paid the price.

At the front, Dahle Flesjaa and Pendrel rode together until the fourth lap of the six lap race, when Pendrel slid out in a loose corner, enabling the Norwegian to open a gap. Dahle Flesjaa rode away to win her 29th World Cup; a record number for women and moving her ahead of American star of the 1990's Juliana Furtado.

Behind, Pendrel never seemed to regain her rhythm after her slip and was eventually overtaken for second by American champion Lea Davison (Specialized). Neff managed to recover to take fourth behind Pendrel.

"This win means a lot," revealed Dahle Flesjaa. "I dedicate this 29th victory to my coach, my best friend and my husband, Kenneth. Today we both had an amazing day, we knew I was in good shape after a tough week recovering from the [Marathon] Worlds. This is just an unbelievable day for both of us."

"Normally, I'm not too much affected by the heat and I tried to drink as much as possible, but today it was not so much my legs as my lungs that had the pain. So I had to watch my pace and not overdo it, because the legs wanted more then the head and the lungs could give."

Neff and Dahle Flesjaa are tied atop the overall standings with 650 points each, but Neff retains the jersey by virtue of more wins. Pendrel remains in third with 470 points, followed by Davison, who jumps to fourth from eighth with 420 points.

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