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2011-5-8 15:34 |
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Race 2 - September 15: Elite Women Cross Country
Liu wins final cross country in Slovenia
By Rob Jones in Maribor
In the elite women's event, Lui Ying became only the second Chinese woman to win a World Cup, while there were no surprises in the overall standings with recently crowned world champion Irina Kalentyeva (Topeak-Ergon) winning the overall title.
Georgia Gould (Luna) took an aggressive lead on the opening climb, looking to get into the singletrack descent first. She was successful, and was followed by Sabine Spitz (Ghost), Marie-Helene Premont (Rocky Mountain-Haywood) and Kalentyeva. Lui had been caught behind a crash at the start, and made an impressive surge up to the front group on the second lap; recording the fastest lap of the race in the process.
A lap later, and the lead group was down to four - Premont, Kalentyeva, Spitz and Lui, with Gould slowly going backwards. Premont took the lead early in the lap, but by the end it was Lui attacking, with the others unable to match her pace. This was an echo of the world championships a week earlier, when the Chinese rider also put in a massive attack, only to fade in the final lap and finish with the bronze medal.
This time, there was no fading, as she steadily extended her lead over Kalentyeva and Spitz, with Premont riding the climb a little slower than the other two. However, Premont was just conserving her energy, and on the fourth lap she went by Spitz, and then on the fifth surged again, passing Kalentyeva in the final half lap to take second.
"I wanted to save something for the last lap, because I knew that would be important," explained Premont. "I started to go harder on the first climb and then caught Irina before the second technical climb. After that I gave it everything in the final descent and the flat part to the finish."
Both Premont and Kalentyeva were collapsed over their handlebars for minutes after the race, while Lui still looked fresh enough for another lap. Her team mate Ren Chengyuan, who won the U23 title, also had a remarkable race; finishing fifth after a poor start which put her back in the high teens on lap two.
Lui was slightly more animated with her win than usual, cracking a smile as she crossed the line (but no arms in the air, much to the chagrin of photographers). "The crash at the start made it hard for me, because there were too many riders to be able to pass quickly. Maybe I could have been better without the crash."
The question is: How much better than first do you need to be?
In the women's final overall rankings, Premont took second behind Kalentyeva, followed by Ren, Spitz and Marga Fullana (Spiuk) - the latter absent in Maribor after receiving a 15 day suspension for high haematocrit at the world championships.
Race notes
- Kalentyeva was happy to win the World Cup title, but the rainbow stripes she took last week "that means much more, because it was always my dream to win. But the World Cup is very tough to win, because you always have to be in the top-three. This year was quite different, with Gunn-Rita (Dahle-Flesjaa - Multivan-Merida) and Marga (Fullana) missing; I think next year will be more interesting!"
- While many of the top riders head off to Beijing for the test event next weekend, neither Kalentyeva or Premont will attend. For Kalentyeva it is because Russia is not ranked high enough to receive an invite ("It is finished for me this year, now I fly home to visit my parents," she explained.). For Premont it was by choice: "I am too busy with school (she is a graduate student in pharmaceutical studies) and it is a very long trip for two days. There is lots of time next year to see the course; I think I will go by myself maybe in March to see the course." |
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