October 15, 2005 – Alison Sydor led start to finish at Roc D’Azur in the World Cup Marathon Final. The 87km Marathon was held on Friday before the weekends usual mass of racing at Roc D’Azur in Frejus France.

This is the 23rd year of the Roc d”Azur Marathon. The mass participation event will be held Sunday, and the organizers expect 14,000 participants. Friday, October 14th the World Cup event was the final in the 2005 Marathon Series.

Rocky Mountain Business Objects’ Alison Sydor finished the gruelling event in 4hrs 20min and said she was very happy to finish the long season with a World Cup win.The closest challenge came from Petra Henzi of Switzerland who was the Bronze Medal winner at the XC World Championships in Livigno, Italy. The two were followed by Anna Enocsson of Sweden, Blaza Klemencic of Slovenia and Daniela Louis of Switzerland.

The men’s race was taken by Roel Paulissen of Belgium. Bart Brentjens of the Netherlands was second in spite of a flat tire. Mauro Bettin of Italy was third, Marzio Deho of Italy fourth and Michael Weiss of Austria fifth. On Saturday there was a non World Cup womens elite race. This is the standard Roc distance of 40km. Kiara Bisaro of Gears Racing finished 3rd. The Roc D’Azur Festival is even larger than Sea Otter. Almost 20,000 riders will participate in the races on the weekend. There is a full indoor bike show, as well as Dirt Jump, 4X and BMX displays.