September 2, 2009 (Canberra, Australia) – Conditions are still sunny and mid teens for the start of the Women’s U23 XCO race soon underway in Canberra with Canada’s Emily Batty taking the number two starting spot. Batty is joined by Ontario’s Mikaela Kofman who recently won the gold at the Canada Summer Games. Also on the start line are top contenders 2008 MTB World Champ Tanja Zakelj (Slovenia), Aleksandra Dawidowicz (Poland) who recently won the Europen U23 Championships, Teresza Hurikova who was 17th at Mont Saint-Anne and sits 3rd in U23 UCI points, Alexandra Engen (Sweden) who was second at the European U23 Championships and Julie Bresset (France) who took the bronze at the U23 European Championships. The women will do 4 laps…they’re off.

Lap 1
Alexandra Engen from Sweden has jumped to the front followed by Poland’s Aleksandra Dawidowicz with Canada’s Batty in 3rd. Engen and Dawidowicz lead thru the lap finishing in 20:35.

Lap 2
Starting lap two it’s Engen in front followed closely by Dawidowicz with Julie Bresset (Fra) in 3rd and Annie Last (Great Britain) in 4th – Batty is in 12th at 1:47. She may have had a mechanical…

Lap 3
Engen continues to drive the pace as they come thru to start the 3rd lap with Dawidowicz close behind – Batty has dropped to 17th and Mikaela Kofman is in 21st.

Dawidowicz has passed Engen on the climb and has a 5-sec gap on her – Bresset is in 3rd at 1:30 and there’s a big gap to France’s Caroline Mani in 4th.

Reigning champ Zakelj who crashed on lap 1 was making her way back up thru the field and took an aggressive line on a downhill section and crashed again and is out of the race.

Lap 4 Final
Dawidowicz starts the final lap at 1:03:07 with Engen in second at 33 seconds. Bresset is in 3rd at 3:30 now and could be having mechanicals as well. Last and Barbara Benko are in 4th and 5th at 3:30. Andreeva, Gorycka, Meyer and Mani are together at 4:00… Batty is making a recovery in 13th.

CORRECTION – rider #21 Kathrin Stirnemann from Germany was missed in 4th pushing Last and Benko to 5th and 6th.

Dawidowicz faltered on a downhill section but recovered quickly and has extended her lead to 50 seconds over Engen while Bresset is trying to close the gap on Engen – we’re over 1/2 way thru the final lap.

Dawidowicz takes the win… Batty in a 3-rider sprint finish placed 11th.

Unofficial

1. Aleksandra Dawidowicz (Poland) 1:24:32
2. Alexandra Engen (Sweden) 1:13
3. Julie Bresset (France) 2:31
4. Kathrin Stirnemann (Germany) 4:03
5. Annie Last (Great Britain) 4:16
6. Barbara Benko (Hungary) 4:35

11. Emily Batty (Canada)
DNF Mikaela Kofman (Canada) crashed on the final lap