World Championships
CHECK OUT |
Country Takes Its First Elite Event Wednesday, September 15, 1999
Cross-Country: Rainbows to Denmark and Spain The World Championships got underway this afternoon beneath wet skies and with sparse crowds, as the Spanish team beat out 18 other four-person teams to win the first rainbow jerseys of this year's event, as well as the country's first elite championship. As was envisioned by the developers of this brand-new Worlds discipline, the race was close and exciting two men and two women racing against each other on the same course, in the same race for the first time ever in the sport.
Team USA was leading the two-hour race going into the final lap, with anchor rider Alison Dunlap taking off on her leg with four other riders within four minutes. One of those four was the other Alison, Sydor, who chased just under one minute later, with the the two of them then chased by a pair of men.
"When I got into the lead I said to myself 'nobody comes close to me,'" commented Hermida after winning the race and being dog-piled by Spanish teammates and managers. "The last lap was so exciting." As the two men raced at full tilt up front, Sydor passed Dunlap, erasing a 45-second deficit on the final climb of the lap to take 3rd, as Dunlap went backward, but held on to 4th for the day, one position away from the medals.
The teams, 19 in all, consisted of one woman and three men: an elite, junior and U-23 rider. Conditions were cloudy and cool at the start, developing into a cold drizzle by race's end which made for some muddy conditions on the steep course.
MountainZone.com reporters, livin' large as official Worlds sponsors, for the first time ever [World Cup Home]
|