World Cup Series Finals provide a cliffhanger finish in the downhill
Results: World Cup Finals Schladming Austria
Gary Perkin
www.flipper.co.za
Twas a dark and stormy night ... Dan Atherton leads his 4X heat
Gary Perkin www.flipper.co.za
The final rounds of the UCI World Cup series in Austria, couldn't have been further removed from the previous rounds in Australia … despite there only being two letters different ... they are worlds apart. The weather, however, was the common bond between Schladming and Canberra. Rain, rain and more rain. They even predicted snow for Sunday's XC finals, but thankfully that never materialized.
Going into the final World Cup race weekend of the season, three of the possible six overall titles had already been decided: Julien Absalon Men's XCO; Marie-Helene Premont Women's XCO; Anneke Beerten Women's 4X. The DH and 4X titles that remained provided some truly fitting drama for the Finals.
4X
First up was 4X on Friday night, on a much shorter track than previous editions held here. The funicular that ferried the riders to the top is out of commission while a new ski station and car park is built. The end result being a course roughly a third of the length of last year's and taking just over 30 seconds for the men. Oh yes, and it rained constantly during finals with two massive downpours just when you thought it couldn't get any worse.
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Reigning World Champion Rafa Alvarez de Lara (Specialized) had his work cut out for him as he crashed in practice before the Canberra edition and had a hairline fracture of his scaphoid. Luck, however, would appear to be on Rafa's side with Guido Tschugg (Fusion) not only missing out on points in Australia but he also went out in the same round as Rafa here to effectively give the Spaniard his first World Cup overall title. Romain Saladini (Team Sunn) won the men's race after officials disallowed a protest by Roger Rinderknecht (GT).
In the women's race, Romana Labounkova of the Czech Republic beat the new overall World Cup Champion Anneke Beerten in the middle of one of the heaviest downpours of the evening.
4X Men
1. Rafa Alvarez de Lara
2. Dan Atherton
3. Joost Wichman
4. Jakub Hnidak
5. Roger Rinderknecht
4X Women
1. Romana Labounkova
2. Anneke Beerten
3. Jana Horakova
4. Angelika Hohenwarter
5. Fionn Griffiths
Rafa Alvarez de Lara checks his World Cup overall trophy
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