July 1, 2007 (St-Felicien, Que.) — The rain has stopped and the sun is now out again for the start of the Elite Men’s Nissan UCI MTB World Cup XC #5. The huge festive crowds have not been affected by the rain as 97 men are about to begin the men’s race which consists of one start loop and then six (6) laps of the 6.4km course. Canada has 15 riders with Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) the top contender coming off his third place finish at Mont Ste-Anne last weekend.

Start Loop
As the end of the start loop and starting into Lap 1 it’s Roel Paulissen (Bel) Cannondale-Vredestein in 1st, Balz Weber (Sui) Bikepark.Ch Tui in 2nd, Julien Absalon (Fra) Orbea in 3rd, José Antonio Hermida Ramos (Esp) Multivan/Merida Biking Team in 4th, Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Cannondale-Vredestein in 5th, Ralph Näf (Sui) Multivan/Merida Biking Team in 6th, Nino Schurter (Sui) Swisspower MTB Team in 7th, Lado Fumic (Ger) Fumic.Brothers.International in 8th, Geoff Kabush (Can) Maxxis in 9th and Florian Vogel (Sui) Swisspower MTB Team in 10th.

Lap 1
As the riders progress thru Lap 1 the skies are getting dark again and threatening more rain. Paulissen is leading followed by Absalon in 2nd, Hermida in 3rd, Weber in 4th and Fuglsang in 5th.

Canada’s Kabush has moved up into 6th.

Lap 2
As the riders finish lap 1 and begin lap 2 it’s Hermida now leading with Weber in 2nd and Absalon in 3rd. Following in 4th at 5 seconds is Paulissen, then at 5 more seconds it’s Kabush now in 5th, Schurter in 6th and Fuglsang in 7th.

Canada’s Seamus McGrath (Rocky/Mountain Haywood) is in 19th.

Lap 3
As the riders begin lap 3 it’s Absalon in 1st with Hermida right on his wheel. At 40 seconds its Paulissen followed by Schurter at two more seconds in 4th and Weber in 5th another two seconds behind.

There have been intermittent rain showers making the course very slippery and Canada’s Kabush has dropped back into 16th at 2 min. while McGrath is now in 21st.

Lap 4
The pace has quickened as the riders have completed lap 3 about 3 minutes faster than lap 2. As they begin lap 4 it’s Hermida leading with Absalon with him followed by a group of three including Näf now in 3rd, Paulissen in 4th and Sweden’s Fredrik Kessiakoff (Cannondale-Vredestein) who has moved up into 5th.

Kabush is riding in 18th and McGrath is in 19th.

Lap 5
Starting the penultimate lap it’s Hermida still leading with Absalon right on his wheel. At 2 minutes back it’s Näf in third with Kessiakoff in 4th. Another 40 seconds behind are Fuglsang in 5th and Schurter in 6th, followed by Paulissen in 7th and Weber in 8th.

Canada’s McGrath is in 21st, Kabush is 23rd, Ricky Federau (Trek) is in 30th, and Max Plaxton (Rocky/Mountain Haywood) is in 40th.

Absalon has now taken over the lead and is pulling away as Hermida has a broken chain.

Lap 6 Final
Absalon has a commanding lead of 2:18 over Hermida in 2nd. Kessiakoff has taken over 3rd, Näf is 4th and Fuglsang is 5th. In 6th is Schurter, Paulissen is 7th, Lado Fumic is 8th, Weber is 9th and Adam Craig (USA) Giant is in 10th.

McGrath has moved into 15th and Kabush is in the 20s.

Results

1. Julien Absalon (Fra) Orbea 2:07:56
2. José Antonio Hermida Ramos (Esp) Multivan/Merida Biking Team 1:18
3. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Swe) Cannondale-Vredestein 1:55
4. Ralph Näf (Sui) Multivan/Merida Biking Team 2:50
5. Jakob Fuglsang* (Den) Cannondale-Vredestein 3:00
6. Nino Schurter* (Sui) Swisspower MTB Team 4:37
7. Balz Weber (Sui) Bikepark.Ch Tui 4:41
8. Wolfram Kurschat (Ger) MBC Bochum 4:53
9. Lado Fumic (Ger) Fumic.Brothers.International 5:15
10. Adam Craig (USA) Giant Mountain Bike Team 5:39
11. Roel Paulissen (Bel) Cannondale-Vredestein 5:55
12. Florian Vogel (Sui) Swisspower MTB Team 6:03
13. Filip Meirhaeghe (Bel) Versluys-Landbouwkrediet 6:06
14. Cédric Ravanel (Fra) Team Lapierre Internation 6:16
15. Christoph Sauser (Sui) Specialized 6:32
16. Ruben Ruzafa Cueto (Esp) Orbea 6:41
17. Christoph Soukup (Aut) Fuji 6:52
18. Seamus McGrath (Can) Rocky Mountain-Haywood 7:04
19. Jader Zoli (Ita) Asd Ktm International Tea 7:07
20. Geoff Kabush (Can) Maxxis 7:26
21. Ricky Federau (Can) Trek 7:40
22. Bas Peters (Ned) 7:53
23. Inaki Lejarreta Errasti (Esp) Orbea 7:53
24. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (USA) Subaru-Gary Fisher 8:16
25. Milan Spesny (Cze) Merida Biking Team 8:33
26. Valeriano Rubens Donizeti (Bra) 8:34
27. Karl Platt (Ger) Team Bulls 8:48
28. Stefan Sahm (Ger) Team Bulls 8:48
29. Emil Lindgren* (Swe) Gewiss Bianchi 9:01
30. Manuel Fumic (Ger) Fumic.Brothers.International 9:14
31. Marco Aurelio Fontana (Ita) 9:50
32. Jochen Kass (Ger) Team Alb-Gold Mountainbike 9:55
33. Ricardo Pscheidt (Bra) 10:12
34. Nicolas Bazin (Fra) Bh-Sr. Suntour 10:46
35. Rudi Van Houts (Ned) Dolphin Bike Team 10:57
36. Peter Riis Andersen (Den) Team Alb-Gold Mountain Bike 11:02
37. Robin Seymour (Irl) 11:16
38. Kashi Leuchs (NZl) Cannondale-Vredestein 11:20
39. Moritz Milatz (Ger) Multivan/Merida Biking Team 11:28
40. Max Plaxton* (Can) Rocky Mountain-Haywood 11:41
41. Jiri Friedl* (Cze) Merida Biking Team 11:52
42. Carlos Coloma Nicolas (Esp) Spiuk-Tau Ceramica 12:07
43. Burry Stander* (RSA) GT 12:13
44. Hannes Metzler (Aut) 12:36
45. Klaus Nielsen (Den) Team Alb-Gold Mountainbike 12:59
46. Derek Zandstra (Can) 3 Rox Racing/Scott 13:04
47. Carl Decker (USA) Giant Mountain Bike Team 13:16
48. Michael Broderick (USA) Kenda Seven 13:17
49. Neal Kindree* (Can) Kona/Les Gets 13:18
50. Marti Gispert Labarta (Esp) Spiuk-Tau Ceramica 13:27
51. Olivier Maignan (Fra) Bh-Sr. Suntour 13:30
52. Miha Solar (Slo) 13:44
53. Edivando Cruz (Bra) 13:53
54. Tim Heemskerk (Ned) 14:02
55. Kris Sneddon (Can) Kona/Les Gets 14:09
56. Filip Eberl (Cze) 14:16
57. Oleksandr Yakymenko* (Ukr) 14:17
58. Kenji Takeya (Jpn) 14:57
59. Chris Jongewaard (Aus) Dolphin Bike Team 14:57
60. Todd Wells (USA) GT 16:00
61. Andrew Watson (Can) TEAM R.A.C.E. 16:49
62. Sid Taberlay (Aus) Dolphin Bike Team 17:22
63. Christof Bischof (Sui) Bikin’cyprus Int’l MTB Team 17:38
64. Cristobal Silva (Chi) 17:51
65. Sergiy Rysenko (Ukr) 18:03
66. Michael Weiss (Aut) Bikin’cyprus Int’l MTB Team 18:12
67. Raphael Gagne* (Can) Rocky Mountain-Haywood 18:49
68. Niall Davis* (Irl) 19:21
69. Jelmer Pietersma (Ned) Beone Mountainbiketeam 20:35
70. Lee Williams (GBr) 21:42
71. Andreas Kugler (Sui) Fischer-Bmc 31:58

One Lap Down

72. Samuel Schultz* (USA) Subaru-Gary Fisher
73. Benoit Simard (Can) Specialized Canada
74. Maxim Gogolev (Rus)
75. Frederic Bussieres (Can)
76. Roddi Lega (Can) United Cycle
77. Stuart Houltham (NZl)
78. Colin Cares* (USA)
79. Martin Lazarski (Can) Rocky Mountain-Haywood

Two Laps Down

80. Pierre Lebreton (Fra) Bh-Sr. Suntour

Three Laps Down

81. Dror Pekatch (Isr) Subaru-Gary Fisher
82. Justin Price (NZl)

Four Laps Down

83. Sam Jurekovic* (USA)

DNF Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Orbea
DNF Torsten Marx (Ger) Team Alb-Gold Mountainbike
DNF Jan Skarnitzl* (Cze)
DNF Mathieu Toulouse (Can) Maxxis
DNF Conor Mcconvey* (Irl)
DNF Jeff Hall (USA)
DNF Alexandre Moos (Sui) Bmc Racing
DNF Eric Drower (NZl)
DNF Giuseppe Lamastra (Ita)
DNF Matthew Hadley (Can) Rocky Mountain-Haywood

*U23