1999 World Cup Mountain Biking
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Chausson and Vouilloz Dominate...Again Nevegal, Italy: DH/DL #3 They're French, they're fit and they can ride a bicycle... really fast. So it was no big surprise this weekend when two athletes with nothing in common except their nationality (i.e. Chausson and Vouilloz) won yet another world cup downhill. At least this third round of world cup action held a couple surprises namely from mother nature.
Miller was speaking just after she and Brian Lopes (USA, Volvo-Cannondale) won the Dual on Saturday afternoon. They're both the defending champions of the new discipline, and beat two other great riders in some classic albeit staid racing. Tara Llanes (USA, Mountain Dew / Specialized) took second for the women after a string of solid runs, while David Cullinan (USA, Schwinn) was runner-up for the men.
'Ladies first' is the UCI's motto, and Missy Giove (USA, Foes/Azonic) was first in qualifying when Chausson's rear disc brake seized up in the semi's, forcing her to run for a 10th place seed. Naturally Chausson later took the lead when she came down in the finals, producing a very rare sight of her sitting at the finish waiting for other (faster) qualifiers to just try and unseat her. Fat chance, eh?
Giove had the best chance, but simply couldn't do it after several small mistakes caused her to come to a dead stop in one section and lose precious time. You have to race a perfect run to beat A-C, and Giove hit a tree not conducive to winning. Gal-pals Leigh Donovan (USA, Intense) and Mercedes Gonzalez (ESP, Team GT) followed Marielle Saner (SUI, Hot Chili) to round out the podium for the women, as Chausson's grip on the overall lead tightened like a boa. Time for lunch and a standing-up espresso, then back to the course for men's action… Nevegal's course is actually quite tame when dry if you ride it slow. Crank the bikes up to more than 62 kph, however, and it becomes a bone-jarring roller-coaster ridden on the ragged edge of adrenaline which is exactly where guys like Vouilloz had to ride to win this weekend.
Mickael Pascal (FRA, Sunn) did the honors when he came down third from last with a time that was over six seconds faster than eventual 4th-place Gerwin Peters (NED, Be-One). That's a huge margin considering most leaders were scraping fractions of a second to overtake the lead. Next up was Nico, who topped Pascal by you guessed it a fraction of a second. Nico took his seat at the monitor at the finish line and waited to see if Peat would arrive in the last few turns fast enough to unseat him. No such luck for the Brit who wound up third. Vouilloz smiled and let out a sigh of relief knowing he had again mustered a run better than Peat.
World Cup action continues in two weeks with the season's only DH/XC double-event in Big Bear Lake, Ca. Steal a car, buy a bus ticket, sell the house but make sure you make this race... and we'll see you in the pits. MountainZone.com reporters, searching bags for their return ticket [World Cup Home]
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