September 3, 2009 (Canberra, Australia) – A total of 71 Junior riders lined up under the cold morning sky looking for glory and when the dust settled Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Italy) took home his second gold medal of the 2009 UCI MTB and Trails Championships at Stromlo Park in Canberra, Australia. Kerschbaumer who stated that his “legs were perfect today” took command of the race from the first climb creating a gap along with Swiss riders Matthias Stirnemann and Reto Indegand, Dutch rider Michiel Van der Heijden and Ricardo Paulo Reis Marinheiro from Portugal.

The top five would come through the first lap 20 seconds ahead of the chase group of five riders. The racing was extremely tight on the first lap with the top 20 riders coming through within a minute of each other. Canada’s top hope, Evan Guthrie from BC, crashed about 1/3 of the way through the lap breaking his handle bars. He was forced to run to the tech zone where they were changed and he continued. This incident put Guthrie in 68th at more than 6 minutes behind the leaders.

Kerschbaumer continued to set the pace through the 2nd and 3rd laps with the group dropping Van der Heijden by the middle of the third lap as the leaders would soon start to catch the back of the pack causing some trouble in the technical section. Mitch Bailey (Canada) had battled his way through the field into 24th by the 3rd lap and Guthrie, who recovered from his crash, had worked his way through the field up to 43rd place.

Kerschbaumer put a hold on the race riding away on the cardiac climb of the 4th lap. Opening up a gap of 20 seconds within the first half of the lap he was followed by Indegand, Marinheiro and Stirneman who were each about 10 seconds apart.

Coming into the final lap Kerchbaumer maintained his lead as Indegand, who experienced intense cramping, had to dismount his bike and stretch before continuing. Marinheiro took advantage to take over second place and put a twenty second lead on Indegand and Stirneman. By this time Kerschbaumer had stretched his lead to a minute and was in complete control.

The sun came out for the riders on the fifth and final lap with Kerschbaumer easily taking win with Portugal’s Ricardo Marinheiro claiming the silver medal with Reis Indergard from Switzerland in third at 1:34. Bailey was the top Canadian in 28th.

Results

1. Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Italy) 1:31:01
2. Ricardo Paulo Reis Marinheiro (Portugal) 1:19
3. Reto Indergand (Switzerland) 1:34
4. Matthias Stirnemann (Switzerland) 1:38
5. Tobias Ludvigsson (Sweden) 3:19
6. Hugo Drechou (France) 3:32
7. Julian Schelb (Germany) 3:38
8. Luca Braidot (Italy) 3:38
9. Tomas Paprstka (Czech Republic) 4:57
10. David Miguel Costa Rodrigues (Portugal) 5:26
11. Ruben Scheire (Belgium) 5:55
12. Dirk Peters (New-Zealand) 6:01
13. Michiel Van Der Heijden (Netherlands) 6:09
14. Richard Anderson (New-Zealand) 6:13
15. Lukas Loretz (Switzerland) 6:18
16. Wenzel Böhm-Gräber (Germany) 6:18
17. Mitchell Codner (Australia) 6:48
18. Daniele Braidot (Italy) 7:06
19. Rourke Croeser (South Africa) 7:12
20. Jeff Luyten (Belgium) 7:17
21. Martin Gluth (Germany) 7:29
22. Michael Baker (Australia) 7:29
23. Roger Walder (Switzerland) 8:15
24. Bart De Vocht (Belgium) 8:40
25. Maciej Adamczyk (Poland) 8:45
26. Gregor Raggl (Austria) 8:58
27. Jonas Pedersen (Denmark) 9:03
28. Mitchell Bailey (Canada) 9:04
29. Nicholas Pettina (Italy) 9:43
30. Evan Guthrie (Canada) 9:45
31. Vid Tancer (Slovenia) 9:45
32. Kenta Gallagher (Great Britain) 10:24
33. Mauricio Foronda (Colombia) 10:47
34. Marcus Schulte-Luenzum (Germany) 10:48
35. Urban Ferencak (Slovenia) 11:09
36. Cameron Ivory (Australia) 11:13
37. Patrick Avery (New-Zealand) 11:15
38. Emilien Barben (Switzerland) 11:38
39. Daniel Vesely (Czech Republic) 12:27
40. Carlos Enrique Moran Manzo (Mexico) 13:14
41. Russell Finsterwald (United States Of America) 13:15
42. Amotz Nehoray (Israel) 13:15
43. Eric Emsky (United States Of America) 13:52
44. Daniel Hula (Slovakia) 13:56
45. James Reid (South Africa) 14:01
46. Ignacio Espinoza (Chile) 14:01
47. Frederico Mariano (Brazil) 14:17
48. Steven James (Great Britain) 15:09
49. Attila Bela (Hungary) 15:28
50. Brendan Johnston (Australia) 16:12
51. James Peacock (Australia) 16:18
52. Antoine Caron (Canada) 16:46
53. Kevin Santana (Argentina) 16:51
54. Michalis Kittis (Cyprus) 17:08
55. Tyler Allison (Canada) 19:32
56. Ivan Smirnov (Russian Federation) 20:27
57. Locky Mcarthur (New-Zealand) -1 lap
58. Mario Luis Miranda Costa (Portugal) -1 lap
59. Logan Horn (New-Zealand) -1 lap
60. Kieran Hambrook (New-Zealand) -1 lap
61. Nikolay Zaitsev (Kazakhstan) -1 lap
62. Kyriakos Sketos (Cyprus) -1 lap
63. Almaz Almabayev (Kazakhstan) -2 laps
64. Idomu Yamamoto (Japan) -2 laps
65. Brenton Jones (Australia) -2 laps
66. Vadim Galeyev (Kazakhstan) -3 laps
67. Adrian Retief (New-Zealand) – laps
DNF Jordan Sarrou (France)
DNF Jan Nesvadba (Czech Republic)
DNF Zach Mcdonald (United States Of America)
DNF Javier Etcheto (Argentina)