6-12-07 // Online Exclusive: Champery WC 4X Report

Jill Kintner won the 4X on the challenging Champery course. Colin Meagher

The 4-cross was a bit of a fiasco. The soil in the area has a good load of clay in it. When it’s wet, it’s as slick as ice. In an effort to combat this, course builders had mixed concrete into the surface layer, and lower down, had used unconsolidated paving material (think asphalt without a lot of tar to keep it stuck together) to create some generously sized step-ups and berms, with sections of real pavement between the features. But it was still slippery when wet.

The top section of the course had no opening straight—whoever got choice gate got the holeshot. Usually that means that person wins, but this course was long enough, and had a couple more straights that permitted passing—provided the passer had the legs to seize the lead from whomever was in front of them. So fitness, as well as gate skills became the key to the win.

But there’s always a glitch. In this case, it was weather. Every afternoon around 4 pm, rain showers would sweep the area and give us a bit of a soaking. Shortly after 4X racing began, the usual rain shower hit, but with a bit of an attitude. No, make that a LOT of attitude. Everyone scattered for cover, and racing was postponed until the rain let up, some 20-30 minutes later.

With fitness being so key, it was no surprise to see Jill Kintner take the win in the women’s race despite getting hung up on the gate during her final; in a furious show of power, she came from behind to pass Rachel Seydoux, Fionn Griffiths, and Mio Suemasa. Anneke Beerteen settled for 5th to round out the podium.

During the men’s final—Michal Prokop, Brian Lopes, Filip Polc, and Gee Atherton—it was Prokop first out of the gate, but a bit too hot into the first corner, and consequently, a bit wide. This allowed Lopes to sneak by on the inside, and with his fitness, he easily held on for the win despite a hard charge from Prokop in the final two straights. Filip Polc managed to edge out Gee for 3rd. Yeti’s Jared Graves took the 5th spot.

The women's podium Colin Meagher

The men's podium Colin Meagher