May 10, 2008 (Maribor, Slovenia) – The first race of the 2008 World Cup 4x season opened in Maribor, Slovenia on Saturday. Riders returned to the track where they ended the last season and where the overall champions were crowned in 2007.

In what could be viewed as déjà-vu, Anneke Beerten (Ned) MS Intense went round-for-round with her 16 competitors and never left first place. Beerten won the overall here last season beating out Jill Kintner, and is on form for another great season. She outsprinted Austria’s Anita Molcik, Fionn Griffiths (Gbr) Norco and Melissa Buhl (USA) KHS for the win, snapping every gate.

The men’s event was more like a rodeo than a mountain bike event. Crashes were the order of the day with many big name favorites going out early. World Champion Brian Lopes perhaps has the strangest crash. He clipped the gate in the second corner, spun halfway around, recovered and then pulled his rear wheel right out of the dropouts as he tried to catch up. Number 1 qualifier Dan Atherton (Gbr) Animal Commencal came back from 3rd place several times, but couldn’t make up the ground in the 1/4 finals and was knocked out of the competition.

For the men it was newcomer Alvarez de Lara Lu (Esp) taking the win in his first ever MTB World Cup main event. Lara Lu took the gate and was followed by Guido Tschugg (Ger), Johannes Fischbach (Ger) and Tomas Slavik (Cze). Slavik slipped off his pedal right out of the gate and was out of the competition.

Final

Men
1. Alvarez de Lara Lu (Esp)
2. Guido Tschugg (Ger)
3. Johannes Fischbach (Ger) Team Ghost International
4. Tomas Slavik (Cze)

Women
1. Anneke Beerten (Ned) MS-Intense Factory-Racing
2. Anita Molcik (Aut)
3. Fionn Griffiths (Gbr) Norco World Team
4. Melissa Buhl (USA) KHS

Qualifications

Women

1. Anneke Beerten (Ned) MS-Intense Factory-Racing 0:59.21
2. Fionn Griffiths (Gbr) Norco World Team 1.08
3. Melissa Buhl (USA) KHS 2.89
4. Mio Suemasa (Jpn) MS-Intense Factory-Racing 2.92
5. Lucia Oetjen (Sui) 4.07
6. Diana Marggraff (Ecu) 5.35
7. Kathleen Pruitt (USA) 6.45
8. Marielle Jonker (Ned) 6.68
9. Helene Fruhwirth (Aut) 6.95
10. Eva Castro Fernandez (Esp) 7.14
11. Elisa Canepa (Ita) 8.95
12. Anita Molcik (Aut) 9.43
13. Tereza Votavova (Cze) 10.07
14. Katarina Tothova (Cze) 15.10
15. Angelika Hohenwarter (Aut) 25.68
DNS Joanna Petterson (RSA)

Men

1. Dan Atherton (Gbr) Animal Commencal 0:52.35
2. Kamil Tatarkovic (Cze) Suzuki-Rb 1.05
3. Romain Saladini (Fra) Team Sunn 1.25
4. Ross Milan (USA) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Racing 1.34
5. Alvarez de Lara Lu (Esp) 1.84
6. Brian Lopes (USA) GT 1.85
6. Filip Polc (Svk) Kenda Tomac 1.85
8. Cedric Gracia (Fra) Commencal-Furious-Oak 1.89
9. Joost Wichman (Ned) Cannondale Factory Racing 1.91
10. Mickael Deldycke (Fra) 1.95
11. Tilen Frank (Slo) Team Scott Lactat 2.35
12. Guido Tschugg (Ger) 2.36
13. Matej Vitko (Svk) 2.52
14. Johannes Fischbach (Ger) Team Ghost International 2.55
15. Tomas Slavik (Cze) 2.68
16. Livio Zampieri (Ita) 2.85
17. Jurg Meijer (Ned) 2.88
18. Dominik Gspan (Sui) 3.00
19. Scott Beaumont (Gbr) Rocky Mountain Uk 3.09
20. Nathan Rennie (Aus) Santa Cruz Syndicate 3.13
21. Lewis Lacey (Gbr) 3.16
22. Tomas Haluza (Cze) 3.32
23. Radim Kvacek (Cze) 3.33
24. Matej Stapic (Slo) Team Enduro Mulisha 3.35
25. Mathieu Faury (Fra) 3.37
26. Alejandro Lozano (Esp) Motril-Sierra Nevada Bike 3.38
27. Will Longden (Gbr) Team Bike Radar 3.39
28. Michael Robert Haderer (USA) 3.4
29. Dave Wardell (Gbr) 3.42
30. Lukas Mechura (Cze) 3.61
31. Sascha Meyenborg (Ger) 3.62
32. Premek Tejchman (Cze) 3.63
33. Thomas Schefer (Ger) 3.76
34. Matthew Simmonds (Gbr) Chain Reaction Cycles 3.87
35. Rastislav Pirman (Svk) 4 Elements Yeti 3.97
36. Jakub Pytlik (Cze) 4.08
37. Markus Sedlak (Aut) 4.16
38. William Evans (Gbr) 4.23
39. Peter Prajczer (Hun) 4.26
40. Sidney Gerber (Sui) 4.33
41. Luka Novak (Slo) 4.36
42. Gabor Vigh-Kiss (Hun) 4.39
43. Adrian Kiener (Sui) 4.54
44. Patric Campbell-Jenner (Gbr) 4.56
45. Miroslav Jirka (Cze) 4.62
46. Marek Pesko (Svk) 4.67
47. Nicolas Siedl (Aut) 4.71
48. Thomas Warmuth (Aut) 4.72
49. Federico Mattia Gemme (Ita) 4.94
50. Joey Van Veghel (Ned) 4.95
51. Martin Frei (Sui) 4.98
52. Ales Rogozan (Cze) 5.03
53. Daniel Prijkel (Ned) 5.31
54. Peter Novacik (Svk) 5.38
55. Adrian Weiss (Sui) 5.43
56. Sascha Vetsch (Sui) 5.49
57. Zdenek Nasinec (Cze) 5.51
58. Bernard Kerr (Gbr) 5.56
59. Federico Ravizzini (Ita) 5.58
60. Hannes Slavik (Aut) 5.62
61. Frederic Lange (Bel) 5.69
62. Peter Fernbach (Aut) 5.83
63. Lukasz Baran (Pol) 6.13
64. Nicolas Gspan (Sui) 6.25
65. Robert Simecek (Cze) 6.38
66. Martin Buck (Sui) 6.44
66. Ziga Knez (Slo) 6.44
68. Attila Kovacs (Hun) 6.60
69. Walter Zeidler (Aut) 6.61
70. Ludovic Gadois (Fra) 6.66
71. Thomas Krainer (Aut) 6.81
72. Jakub Koutny (Cze) 6.86
73. Krisztian Meszaros (Hun) 7.01
74. Robert Kulesza (Pol) 7.25
75. Luka Strnad Peterca (Slo) 7.86
76. Adrian Hanko (Ger) 7.90
77. Quentin Derbier (Fra) 8.01
78. Mirco Weiss (Sui) 8.99
79. Reto Schmid (Sui) 9.24
80. Peter Roschner (Aut) 9.29
81. Thomas Tokarczyk (USA) 13.00
82. Mitchell Scarr (Aus) 17.20
83. Luka Verstovsek (Slo) 44.14
DNS Michal Marosi (Cze)
DNS Daniel Yeomans (Gbr)
DNS Thomas Bubla (Aut)
DNS Dario Zampieri (Ita)
DNS Lars Peyer (Sui)
DNS Kyle Strait (USA)