September 4, 2009 (Canberra, Australia) – Burry Stander (RSA) didn’t crumble under the pressure of being the big favourite and rode away from the field to claim the rainbow jersey and the Under 23 XCO World Championship title. From the start it was Stander who set the early pace along with Thomas Litscher (Switzerland) as they established a gap on the chase pack. The chase pack at the end of the first lap included Alexis Vuillermoz (France), last year’s Junior Worlds champ Peter Sagan (Slovakia), and Fabian Giger (Switzerland). Canadian Raphael Gagne was sitting in 26th.

Stander and Litscher would continue to ride together until the mid-way point of Lap 2 when Stander attacked and made a break on his own that he would continue to extend throughout the remainder of the race. As Litscher faltered Vuillermoz was able to gain ground and eventually overtook him at the half way point in the race. On the Hammerhead section of the second lap another rider crashed into Gagne and his rear tire was damaged resulting in a flat, forcing him to fall back into the mid 50s.

The three leaders continued to build their lead with Stander putting in almost identical lap times throughout the race as he proved to be the class of the field on the day. Vuillermoz finished extremely strong and his final lap was faster than Stander – the only lap the victor didn’t win on the day. A clearly happy Litscher walked his bike across the finish line to celebrate his third place, taking home the bronze for Switzerland.

Sagan was the surprise of the day with a strong finish holding down 4th and will surely be a force to be watched for in 2010. Gagne was able to recover with each lap and continued to move up placing 38th on the day with a finish strong finish, his fastest lap of the day.

Canada’s Gagne shared his thoughts with us by email. “Today was my last race as a U23 rider at the MTB Worlds. I ended up in 38th place. I’m pretty disappointed and should have finished in the top five. On the first lap I was a respectable 22nd. But later while passing a rider who was running beside his bike at a stony uphill we collided and he stepped on my wheel breaking the valve and I flatted. I had to take my bike to the repair zone about seven minutes away and lost a lot of time. Apart from the mechanical, I was not at my best and might have finished in the top 15 without the flat,” wrote Gagne.

Stander commented after the race, “The overnight rain made the course quite a bit better I think. The course was getting really loose out there and for the first couple of laps it was really compacted and fast, but towards the end it started getting pretty loose again. I think the rain did it a bit of good.”

Results

1. Burry Stander (Rsa) 1:47
2. Alexis Vuillermoz (Fra) 1:21
3. Thomas Litscher (Sui) 2:46
4. Peter Sagan (Svk) 4:15
5. Marek Konwa (Pol) 4:45
6. Guillaume Vinit (Fra) 4:59
7. Mattias Wengelin (Swe) 5:14
8. Fabian Giger (Sui) 5:32
9. Lukas Kaufmann (Sui) 5:57
10. Catriel Andres Soto (Arg) 6:31
11. Lachlan Norris (Aus) 7:33
12. Anders Hovdenes (Nor) 7:54
13. Tom Meeusen (Bel) 8:11
14. Mathias Flückiger (Sui) 8:15
15. Henk Jaap Moorlag (Ned) 8:28
16. Paul Van Der Ploeg (Aus) 8:31
17. Sepp Freiburghaus (Sui) 8:57
18. Markus Bauer (Ger) 9:01
19. Cal Britten (Aus) 9:03
20. Dario Alejandro Gasco (Arg) 9:05
21. Simon Scheiber (Aut) 9:16
22. Irjan Luttenberg (Ned) 9:36
23. Johannes Schweiggl (Ita) 9:42
24. Robert Gehbauer (Aut) 9:50
25. Marco Minnaard (Ned) 9:54
26. Piotr Brzozka (Pol) 10:08
27. Luka Mezgec (Slo) 10:19
28. Sebastien Carabin (Bel) 10:30
29. David Fletcher (Gbr) 10:46
30. Niels Wubben (Ned) 11:01
31. Sergey Nikolaev (Rus) 11:19
32. Robbie Squire (Usa) 11:25
33. Marcel Fleschhut (Ger) 11:36
34. Charlton Durie (Aus) 11:37
35. Lukas Sablik (Cze) 11:46
36. Tad Elliott (Usa) 11:47
37. Pascal Meyer (Sui) 12:45
38. Raphael Gagne (Can) 12:55
39. Erik Groen (Ned) 13:01
40. Cristian Cominelli (Ita) 13:19
41. Fabian Strecker (Ger) 13:22
42. Evgeniy Nikolaev (Rus) 14:16
43. Roman Orlov (Rus) 14:31
-1 lap Manfred Reis (Ger)
-1 lap Sebastian Szraucner (Ger)
-1 lap Carl Jones (Nzl)
-1 lap Colin Cares (Usa)
-1 lap Nathan Haas (Aus)
-1 lap Vasilis Adamou (Cyp)
-1 lap Tim Wynants (Bel)
-1 lap Ashley Hough (Nzl)
-1 lap Seiya Hirano (Jpn)
-2 laps Scott Green (Nzl)
-2 laps Yu Takenouchi (Jpn)
-2 laps Keisuke Goda (Jpn)
-3 laps Scott Thwaites (Gbr)
DNF Connor Mcconvey (Irl)
DNF Martin Fanger (Sui)
DNF Dries Govaerts (Bel)
DNF Andy Eyring (Ger)
DNF Daniel Vivanco (Chi)
DNF Sherman Paiva (Bra)
DNS Henrique Avancini (Bra)
DNS Shlomi Haimy (Isr)
DNS Martin Loo (Est)