1998 World Cup Mountain Biking
Kaprun, Austria
August 14-15, 1998

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Zell am See

After a hot weekend of racing in southern Spain, the Zone world cup team of reporters hopped in their tiny Opel at midnight Sunday and drove toward this weekend’s racing half a continent away. A few days at Tour VTT and we continued our jaunt across Europe for stop seven of the UCI downhill tour. Two weeks, two European downhills with a cross-country stage race between - like a mtb dream come true as the season winds down and simultaneously heats up.

The cool mountain air, rushing Kapruner Ache river and high glacial walls of Austria stands in green contrast to the desert-like conditions of Espana and Provence. Weather was perfect for Saturday afternoon’s Dual, but rained the night before Sunday’s downhill runs. The course got a bit muddy, but not too slippery as the sun came out and the crowds returned for the spectacle of it all.

The hoards of crowds in town for the dorffest were an added bonus as huge numbers took a break from beer drinking to watch the downhill action up the road. Kaprun is a beautiful village nestled in this mountain valley, looking like a live fairy tale. We kept expecting Hansel and Gretel to hop out of the woods.

The course here is on the un-challenging side, a throwback to the old-school days before super-long travel bikes. The riders want more technical challenges, believing this track too easy with too much pedaling. Organizers did improve the course this season, with promises of more challenges in the future. Another point of contention is the lack of ski lift, forcing the use of shuttle vans to transport riders to the start.

That said, the course is 4km long, dropping 600 meters and composed mostly of grassy open riding and a couple rough bits. With practice over and bikes dialed in, it was time for the weekend’s two big races, the Dual and Downhill. Here’s how it went down.

Dual Slalom
Carter upsets Lopes

Carter wins this time

Last week in Spain, Brian Lopes (USA, Mongoose) and David Cullinan (USA, Schwinn Toyota) went at each other in the season’s best men’s final of the season. Like that round, this week’s final involved a crash, but this time Lopes lost out as a result. He went down on one of the first turns and Eric Carter took advantage for the weekend’s win.

Lopes was bummed, as he was looking to overtake Cully in the points race. No such luck - Cully took third for the day and still leads Lopes by 10 points with Mike King and Eric Carter a hundred points back. Arai City will no doubt be an exciting dual for the championship.

Katrina Miller (AUS, Jamis) won the women’s event again as she schooled Sari Jorgenson (SUI, Yeti) in the finals. We were missing the sport’s other great dualist in Sabrina Jonnier (FRA, Sintesi Verlicchi) who crashed last week.

So Miller remains in the Swatch leader’s jersey, well on her way to the first Dual world cup title. She’s 80 points ahead of Jonnier and, with her two low scores thrown out, has a perfect record in the sport.

Women's Downhill
It's Chausson by 14 Seconds

The Missile Takes 3rd

Missy Giove (USA, Volvo-Cannondale) took an early lead after she had a lousy qualifying run to come down early in the finals. She knew her final run wouldn’t stand, bummed that she scrubbed so much speed at one point, and nearly crashed several other times. Chausson thinks she’s trying too hard right now, and we agree.

Nolvenn in 2

Chausson must know what’s up because she came down so fast it made our fishin’ hats spin. She was all smiles after her run, and can now relax a bit going into the series finals. So long as she gets a top-20, she’s got the series, so Giove will probably end her streak this season.

Nolvenn LeCaer (FRA, GT) has one world cup win under her belt; three years ago in Mont Ste-Anne (remember that). She got second today - an awesome result as she gears up for the end of the season and her second World’s as a senior racer.

Men's Downhill
De Bever by .24 Seconds
After the morning’s racing we awaited the big boys, racing on the ever- quickening racecourse as the sun warmed up the track and crowd. An estimated 15,000 fans packed the venue to see Nicolas Vouilloz (FRA, Sunn-Un) school the other men for the second week running.

Nico schooled

Kirt Voreis (USA, Mt. Dew/Specialized) went first after a crash-filled quali run, and sat for awhile until Michael Ronning (AUS, Gary Fisher) took the lead. Two riders later his teammate Scott Sharples (AUS, Trek Volkswagen) came down and bounced Ronning out of the hot seat, besting his buddy’s time by 9 seconds. Sharpie then sat watching TV for an hour as 41 more guys took their shot at him.

David Vazquez (ESP, Volvo-Cannondale) finally succeeded with only eleven riders left, the number-two rider stoked to have a mechanical-free run. Other tried, but no one unseated Vazquez... until Nico came flying down the hill six seconds faster still.

Sharpie nailed it

Bas DeBever (NED, Be-One) had qualified fastest, but flatted half way down the course on live TV and Nico tuned in to see his day end happily. A big hug to his gorgeous girlfriend and it was time for a couple playings of the French national anthem at awards.

After a quick BBQ at Swatch and some beers, everyone heads either for a break until Japan or to the US for next week’s NORBA finals in Mt. Snow, Vermont. Mountain Zone will be in full effect, doing the live cybercast thang... so don’t miss it.

—Rich Neare, Shopping for Lederhosen in The Mountain Zone.