News: Offenburg World Cup XC Results

Kalentieva crosses the finish line Photo courtesy of Union Cycliste Internationale

Many of the same questions can be asked about the women's field plus add in some extra mystery being provided by the Chinese team; who began storming onto the World Cup race scene just over a year ago. Last week's Houffalize event was won by China's Ren Chengyaun so all eyes were watching to see if she could repeat the effort, but it would not happen. With a crash knocking Chengyaun out of top-spot contention, Russia's Irina Kalentieva (Topeak Ergon) celebrated a double success by winning the second stage of the World Cup and taking the overall series lead. Rocky Mountain's Marie Helene Premont finished second and Ren Chenguyan, took third place with a bloody but determined effort.

More than 17,000 spectators watched on at the Offenburg, Germany race. Early on four riders took the lead including the Canadian Premont, the Russian Kalentieva, the Spanish Margarita Fullana (Massi) and the Chinese Liu Ying. World Champion Irina Kalentieva was first to spring into action; followed by Premont. The duo battled it out until the last lap when Kalentieva made her move for the win. Other notable performance include Luna's Catherine Pendrel finishing in 8th place, the second place Canadian women behind Premont, ahead of her teammate—13th place Georgia Gould—the first place American.

The World Cup is now on its way to Madrid for the third round of cross-country racing next week.

Men's World Cup Result - Offenburg, Germany
1 Julien Absalon, France, 1:58:42
2 Christoph Sauser, Swiss, +0:00:51
3 Florian Vogel, Swiss, +0:00:54
4 Nino Schurter, Swiss, +0:01:06
5 Jean-Christophe Peraud, France, +0:01:53

8 Adam Craig, USA, +0:02:22
23 Todd Wells, USA, +0:04:42
61 Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, USA, +0:09:58

Women's World Cup Result - Offenburg, Germany
1 Irina Kalentieva, Russia, 2:00:19
2 Marie-Helene Premont, Canada, +0:00:33
3 Ren Chengyuan, China, +0:01:21
4 Margarita Fullana, Spain, +0:01:39
5 Ying Liu, China, +0:01:59

13 Georgia Gould, USA, +0:05:25
16 Mary Mc Conneloug, USA, +0:06:26
31 Susan Haywood, USA, +0:11:38

China's Ren Chengyuan crashed hard but still managed a 3rd place finish Photo courtesy of Union Cycliste Internationale