1998 World Cup Mountain Biking
Silves, Portugal
April 18-19, 1998

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Pezzo Victory

Cadel Evans (AUS, Volvo-Cannondale) and Paola Pezzo (ITA, Gary Fisher) - both of whom are experienced at winning world cup races - again showed their stuff in the hills of Portugal's Algarve region this weekend. On a cloudy weekend of chilly weather and rough riding, Evans and Pezzo rode exciting events which gave some early season hint as to whom the hot riders are bound to be.

Sydor attempts

Silves is a small town outside of Faro, Portugal on the southern area of this sunny coastal region. Weather was cool but sunny for the weekend on a course just outside this tourist town in Algarve. The 7km course is a dry rocky mix of singletrack and fireroad, with plenty of tough climbs and fast descents. With the whole circus staying at nearby Hotel Almansor, the little town of Silves was mostly empty, but had a great local flavor.

Evans Rules The Pack

Cioni Pushes

Evans and a group of three other riders; Rune Hoydahl (NOR, Giant), Jerome Chiotti (FRA, GT) and Dario Cioni (ITA, Mapei-Kona) rode off the front of the pack on Sunday to put time on the field and create their own mini race up front. Cioni rode extremely well today, staying up front for much of the time. Hoydahl stayed in second almost the entire day, while Evans went from fifth and worked his way up from there.

On the fifth lap the four were even further off the front as Evans plotted to make his move. He did so on the sixth lap where he bolted up the steep climbs and maintained enough speed on the descents to keep fast riders like Hoydahl off his back. With four seconds on Hoydahl going into the bell lap, Evans poured on the speed and wound up with his third world cup win. Hoydahl battled hard but couldn't match the skinny Aussie's speed this day. Chiotti finished a strong third while Cioni took fourth - watch out for this Italian rider.

Pezzo Back on Top

The View of Pezzo

In Saturday's event, last year's world champion Paola Pezzo (ITA, Gary Fisher) showed that she's still as strong as ever, solidly beating a field of top women which included last race's winner, Alison Sydor (CAN, Volvo-Cannondale).

America's top female finisher was again Alison Dunlap (USA, GT) who showed that she's now ready to play with the big girls and proved it with a third place finish. Laurence Leboucher (FRA, Peugeot LaPoste) and Margarita Fullana (ESP, Mt. Dew/Specialized) rounded out the top five in a five-lap endurance test lasting just over two hours. Women raced one parade lap plus five full laps for 36.4 km.

Dunlap descends

The women began at a slow pace as Dunlap, Pezzo, Fullana and Sydor lead the parade lap. For the first lap, Sydor and Dunlap lead Pezzo by several seconds. Losing Dunlap on the descents, Sydor looked to put some time on Pezzo and rode hard toward the end of the lap. On the final descent into the start/finish, however, she crashed and lost her lead as Pezzo passed Dunlap and began chasing Sydor hard.

Pezzo captured the lead in lap two after following Sydor, with Dunlap 30 seconds back. Pezzo powered past Sydor while Fullana and Chantal Daucourt (SUI, Trek Volkswagen) lead a group 2 minutes back. The third lap saw Pezzo increase her lead over Sydor to 25 seconds with Dunlap one minute back. By the fifth and final lap Pezzo's return to strength was solidified as she crossed the finish 1:22 ahead of Sydor and 3:02 ahead of Dunlap.

Dunlap and Pezzo

Fiction and Fact: The Mountain Zone Almanac
This is Evan's first victory for his new Volvo-Cannondale team and his manager Charlie Livermore was a bundle of nerves before the finish. World Champion Hubert Pallhuber (ITA, Diamondback) was riding in 7th place until a late-race flat dropped him to 18th. Alison Dunlap says she's studying Alison Sydor much like Sydor studied Juli Furtado a few years back.

Paola Pezzo's English is getting much better and a relaxed golden girl finally looks like she's past that whole drug thing. Trek's studs Michael Rasmussen and Kirk Molday were absent from the race. Caroline Alexander (GBR, Ritchey) worked her way up from dead last after a flat tire to a strong finish. Dario Cioni (ITA, Mapei-Kona) is hot now, but has a tendency to do well early on. Watch out if he and Roland Green hook up.