In just its third year as a World Championship event, the team relay again brought together riders from each nation's XC programs for a four-lap event on Wednesday, making for a good show early in the week and giving the course a solid test run. Teams all consist of a senior man and woman, plus a U-23 and junior rider.

Canada has now won two of the three titles, this year powered by World Champion Roland Green (Trek-Volkswagen), 2001 U-23 silver medalist Ryder Hesjedal (Subaru Gary Fisher), multi-champ Alison Sydor (Trek-Volkswagen) and junior Maximilian Plaxton.

Canada beat Team France, silver, and Team Switzerland, bronze, in dry, warm conditions. After winning gold medals and rainbow jerseys last year in Vail, the Canadian team used the same strategy of a fast start to dominate 17 other teams.

"It was an all-out one hundred percent effort," said Green. "Going second I knew I had to get the best gap I could, then just wait until the end to see what happens. But we had Alison Sydor as our anchor, and she's so steady and reliable; the team was very confident in her."

The Canadians beat the strong French team by just 53 seconds after one hour, 44 minutes of racing. After beginning the 4th leg a minute up on Switzerland, the Canadians held off the surging French squad, which moved all the way up from 5th position in the beginning of the 4th leg to finish 2nd for the silver medal just ahead of the Swiss team.

"I began a bit slowly, but got faster during my lap," said France's first rider and U-23 world champion Julien Absalon, who put his team in the number-one position to begin the 2nd leg. But Absalon's lead over Canadian Hesjedal would not last, as the riders handed off their wristbands to the second leg riders.

"Julien was riding strong so I just wanted to stay with him to give Roland a good position going into the second leg," said Hesjedal. He did just that and Green soon took over the lead. "The Canadians were just too fast," said Absalon afterward.

The French put in their Junior rider at this point, losing time to the other leading teams' elite competitors and dropping to 6th place as the order up front changed to Canada, Switzerland and Great Britain.

During this third leg Green gave his Canadian team the lead and Thomas Frischknecht moved his team from 3rd place to 2nd. France moved up one position to 5th, while the British team held onto 3rd position and Team USA finished the leg in 4th place.

The 4th and final lap saw most of the teams put forth their female riders. Thus France, powered by the speed of its elite male member Cedric Ravanel, moved back into the medal standings. The team's anchor passed the female members of Great Britain, USA and Switzerland to capture 2nd place. But even Ravanel couldn't make up a 7:40 deficit to Sydor, who held onto her team's lead to secure the gold medal.

"I had a dramatic start to my leg so I thought I should have a dramatic finish," joked Sydor, who slipped on the loose gravel and fell to the ground just before the finishline after high-fiving her teammates. But she had plenty of time to get up and jog across the finishline for the win. "It's super-competitive and fantastic to win," she added.

Asked if racing this hard would affect his performance in the all-important cross-country race, 2001 World Champion Roland Green responded "The focus is on Sunday, but I feel good and its good practice to ride the course at a race pace. I'm over my jet-lag and this is a beautiful location." Green would go on to win his race Sunday, earning his 4th rainbow jersey in two years.

1996 World Champion Thomas Frischknecht, who would go on to win the men's XC bronze agreed, saying "For me I don't have a problem riding hard a couple days before the big race, and am proud to win a medal at the Worlds. I was happy to do it."

— Ari Cheren, MountainZone.com Correspondent