September 1, 2010 (Mont-Sainte-Anne, QC) – The XC Team Relay is the first event of the the UCI World MTB and Trials Championships with 19 teams entered and Canada featuring Max Plaxton (Elite), Francis Morin (U23), Antoine Caron (Junior) and Mical Dyck (Elite). Each rider will do 1 lap (4.6km) for a total distance of 18.4km. Only the first rider does a 600m start loop then the first laps begins… it’s a hot day at Mont Ste-Anne at 30 degrees.

Lap 1
Plaxton is the lead off rider for Canada as most countries are starting their elite team member first. After the start look it’s Switzerland leading followed by France, Germany, Italy, Holland – Canada is 11th.

Lap 2
Italy comes thru with a time of 15:28 followed closely by Germany at 0:01 with the Caech Republic in third at 0:06 then Switzerland is 4th at 0:09 with South Africa in 5th… Canada is 9th at 37s and Plaxton has handed off to Morin.

Lap 3
The Czech Republic is leading as they start the penultimate lap – time is 31:31. Switzerland and Germany are battling it out for second at 25s followed by Italy in fourth at 1:25… then it’s USA in 5th at 1:31, France is 6th at 1:34, the Netherlands is 7th at 1:34, Sweden is 8th at 1:58 and Canada is 9th just behind them at 1:59.

Caron is on course for Canada and he’ll hand off to Dyck as the anchor.

Lap 4 Final
France has taken over the lead – at 48:39 overall time. Germany is in second at 1:15 with the Czech Republic in third at 1:26 and Switzerland is 4th at 1:50 with Canada in 5th right with them – the USA is in 6th at 2:20 and Italy is 7th at 2:54.

Switzerland takes it…

Results

1. Switzerland (Thomas Litscher/MU, Roger Walder/MJ, Katrin Leumann/WE, Ralph Naef/ME) 1:06:00

2. Germany (Manuel Fumic/ME, Julian Schelb/MJ, Sabine Spitz/WE, Marcel Fleschhut/MU) 0:18

3. Czech Republic (Jaroslav Kulhavy/ME, Ondrej Cink/MU, Katerina Nash/WE, Tomas Paprstka/MJ) 0:41

4. France (Fabien Canal/MU, Julien Trarieux/MJ, Cédric Ravanel/ME, Cécile Ravanel/WE) 1:02

5. Italy (Marco Aurelio Fontana/ME, Maximilian Vieider/MJ, Eva Lechner/WE, Gerhard Kerschbaumer/MU) 1:55

6. Russian Federation (Irina Kalentieva/WE, Sergey Nikolaev/MU, Anton Stepanov/MJ, Evgeniy Pechenin/ME) 2:16

7. Netherlands (Marco Minnaard/MU, Rudi Van Houts/ME, Laura Turpijn/WE, Michiel Van Der Heijden/MJ) 2:43

8. Canada (Max Plaxton/ME, Francis Morin/MU, Antoine Caron/MJ, Mical Dyck/WE) 3:53

9. United States (Todd Wells/ME, Robbie Squire/MU, Seth Kemp/MJ, Katherine Compton/WE) 4:42

10. Spain (Jose Maria Sanchez Ruiz/MU, Antonio Santos Ridao/MJ, Anna Villar Argente/WE, José Antonio Hermida Ramos/ME) 4:58

11. South Africa (Burry Stander/ME, Yolande Speedy/WE, Philip Buys/MU, James Reid/MJ) 6:09

12. Australia (Lachlan Norris/ME, Trenton Day/MJ, Rowena Fry/WE, Cameron Ivory/MJ) 7:22

13. Austria (Christoph Soukup/ME, Gregor Raggl/MJ, Maria Osl/WE, Alexander Gehbauer/MU) 7:48

14. Japan (Kyosuke Takei/ME, Yu Takenouchi/MU, Rie Katayama/WE, Idomu Yamamoto/MJ) 8:12

15. Slovakia (Michal Lami/ME, Frantisek Lami/MJ, Janka Stevkova/WE, Jozef Bebcak/MJ) 8:16

16. New Zealand (Michael Northcott/ME, Brad Hudson/MJ, Nicola Leary/WE, Carl Jones/MU) 8:30

17. Israel (Rotem Ishai/ME, Shaked Frank/MJ, Noga Korem/WU, Shlomi Haimy/MU) 8:32

DNF Sweden (Magnus Darvell/ME, Tomas Kristoffersson/MJ, Alexandra Engen/WU, Mattias Wengelin/MU)

DNS Brazil (Sherman Paiva/MU, Roberta Kelly Stopa/WE, Luiz Cocuzzi/MJ, Ricardo Pscheidt/ME)