Mont Saint Anne Delivers the Drama

Kona's Fabian Barel took top honors in the men's DH race.

Ah, Mount Saint Anne! For those who follow the World Cup mountain biking scene, Mt Ste Anne has a pull unlike any other venue on the circuit; additionally, no other venue on North American soil has hosted a World Cup stop every year since the inception of the World Cup Mountain Bike circuit . With a history like this, if you are going to hit only one World Cup in a season, Mt Ste Anne is the THE place to go. And this year, Mt St. Anne offered up what few other venues are capable of: a return to “real” mountain biking Again and again, both the weight weenie XC racers and the inked up gravity set had nothing but praise for Mt St Anne/s tracks.

Tracey Mosely took first in the women's DH event, making it a double header for Kona.

DOWNHILL & 4X

On the gravity side, for the first time in three years, Mt Ste Anne returned to the fierce world championship course that snakes from the very top of the mountain, offering a serious test of both stamina and skill with both technical singletrack sections as well as fast, balls-to-the-wall, fall-line straights. Cedric Gracia was so excited to be away from the usual 2 to 3-minute pedaling frenzy that has been the norm of late, that he could hardly contain himself: “This is going to be soooooo much fun; I can hardly wait! Braaaaap!” Go Ride’s Chris Van Dine summed it up more exactly with a succinct “This is a real mountain biker’s course; it never lets up.”

A blown chain by Gracia and two crashes by VanDine eliminated their chances for a podium spot, with the top spot taken by a jubilant Fabian Barel (Kona Les Gets); Greg Minnaar, Marc Beaumont, Mickael Pascal, and Chris Kovarik rounded out the rest of the podium in descending order. It was nice to see a return to form by Kovarik; this was only his second world cup race since suffering a nasty broken leg that sidelined him all of 2004.

On the women’s side, Tracy Mosely made it a one-two combo for Kona Les gets by beating out overall series leader Sabrina Jonnier by .52 seconds. After her run, Mosely, too, praised the course, exuberantly stating, “The track was awesome. This is the way that downhilling should be. You really had to push it all the way down the mountain. It's a brilliant course. It's so nice to be back to the top of the mountain. Old school mountain biking. No sprinting stuff! This is where mountain biking should be. It's a long track down a mountain. I can feel I've only been racing 2 or 3 minute courses the past few years because today has taken a real toll on my body. I hope we get more tracks like this. It's what this bike is designed for. This course has everything. Really high speed plus slow speed in the woods. Nothing really crazy but you've got to hold it together the whole way." Rounding out the podium with Tracey and Sabrina were Mariel Saner, Celine Gros, and Scarlett Hagen.

On the 4x side of gravity racing, the spectator-lined course featured a short straight into a sweeping left turn—the hole shot for the course. Make that corner first and barring any mistakes, you win. But first you have to beat out the likes of Jill Kintner and Michal Prokop, not to mention a tough crowd of contenders like Brian Lopes, Guido Tschugg, Cedric Gracia, and Katrina Miller!

Both the men's and women's 4X racing were fiercely contested.

Holding on wasn’t always easy as that corner was followed by a series of step-ups and doubles, only to be punctuated by two huge sections of stutter bumps. Cedric Gracia took full advantage of this lower section with a bold move across the course during his semi that moved him from the back of the pack into second place and advancing from there to the finals.

The women’s race featured only seven racers, but was action packed as Jill Kintner (Yeti) took the top spot as well as recaptured the series’ overall lead with a strong performance. On the men’s side, constant attacks for the hole shot caused a number of crashes and made the upper section of the course the place to watch. Such was the case in the men’s final when Lopes (GT) went down in the final while battling for position with Prokop and was relegated to fourth behind the winner (Czech rider Prokop), Tschugg (Fusion), and Gracia (Siemens Cannondale).

CROSS COUNTRY

Though Dahle was in fine form, Rocky Mountain's Premont wasn't about to get beat on her home turf.

It was a boiling hot day. With a temperature of 88 degrees F (31 degrees C) and an added heat index from the humidity raising the temperature to a sweltering 104 degrees F (40 degrees C), it was not the kind of day anyone wanted to go out and race on as challenging a course as had been laid out: the 5 kilometer course included two major climbs that were punctuated by a number of technical singletrack sections featuring the kind of trail conditions that the east is famous for: slimy roots and technical tock gardens—not your typical Euro fire road race course!

Given the technicality of the course’s singletrack and the smothering heat, the race officials opted to reduce the lap count for both the men’s and women’s races by a lap on race day. On the women’s side, the pre-race favorite was the Norwegian racing valkerie Gunn-Rita Dahle , undefeated in every world cup XC race she has entered since 2002 except one; a loss to Canadian hometown heroine Marie-Helene Premont earlier this year in Madrid. Not only is Dahle an immensely talented racer with an amazing win record, but she had spent the previous few weeks living and training at altitude. Mt Ste Anne sits close to sea level.

However, Rocky Mountain’s Marie-Helene was not about to be beaten on her home course. In front of a very partisan crowd you could tell where she was at any point on the course due to the cheers. Marie Helene sat a safe striking distance to the rear of Dahle for most of the race, waiting to pounce. And pounce she did; on the second climb of the fourth lap of a five lap race, Dahle visibly wilted—a victim of the heat. Premont saw Dahle falter and attacked fiercely, seizing the lead, and putting an amazing 2:45 on Dahle in the final lap. With an ear-to-ear grin pasted on her face, Premont crossed the finish line and then raised her bike over her head and saluted the crowd gathered at the finish. Following Dahle into the finish was Specialized Bicycles’ Sabine Spitz and then Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher) and Mary McConneloug (Seven/Kenda). With the men, Siemens Cannondale was the force to be reckoned with; from the gun, Cristoph Sauser and team mate Frederick Kessiakof surged into the lead and never let go. By the mid-point of the race, with the two Cannondale riders safely ahead of the field, it was Giant’s Adam Craig in 3rd followed by Trek’s Jeremiah Bishop and then British sensation Liam Killeen (Specialized).

Siemens-Cannondale's Sauser was dominant in the Men's XC race, right from the start.

But this is racing, and anything can happen. While Sauser and Kessiakof played leapfrog in the front, the field behind them changed dramatically. A combination of the heat and two flats forced Bishop out of fourth—to his credit , rather than DNF, he gutted it out and finished a distant 28th. And a surging Kabush (Maxxis) clawed his way past first Killeen and then Adam Craig to finish 3rd. Craig held on for 4rth, and Killeen was forced to settle for the final podium spot. And between Sauser and Kessiakof, when push came to shove, Sauser gave it a bit more gas on the final lap and dropped Kessiakof into second place. One more interesting note on the men’s XC race was Roland Green’s return to both World Cup racing and World Cup form; he finished 9th in his first World Cup performance since last year’s brutal Calgary World Cup (July 2004). This race plus a second place in the Canadian Championships two weeks prior gives new life to Green’s stalled racing career; following two fantastic seasons, Green has been both injury plagued and ill for the past two seasons. His racing career last year also suffered a six month suspension for use of a banned substance; Green suffers from exercise induced asthma and normally has a medical clearance for use of prednisolone in his asthma inhaler. However, a mistake was made in 2004 in filing his medical paperwork and Green was placed on a six month suspension following the Calgary UCI race, a suspension that Green blames himself for. “I’m just looking forward to racing again,” stated Green after shaking out his legs this season at SRAM’s Sea Otter in Monterey. And as this world cup race proves, Green’s ready to roll again.