May 26, 2003 (St.-Wendel, Germany) – Last year's World Champion, Norway's Gunn-Rita Dahle, (Merida Intern'l) and Switzerland's Christoph Sauser (MOBIL) each claimed a victory in yesterday's season opener UCI World Cup cross-country race in St.-Wendel, Germany.
This weekend saw the return of the world's best riders ready to test the outcome of their winter training. According to Kashi Leuchs' (NZL, Maxxis-Trek) race report, a lot of the riders were nervous about their early season form. Leuchs finished 14th in Sunday's race. Being the first World Cup of the season, and a Pre-Olympic year, it could have been anybody's race. Leuchs commented on the first race jitters. “Speaking to all the other riders, it was funny to hear everyone trying to be confident, yet full of anxious nerves.”
Leuchs also commented on the racecourse. “The St.-Wendel course is pretty interesting, because it has two quite different sections. There are the forest sections, which contains a lot of short steep climbs, and some really fun drops and rooty sections. Then there is the open “roady” section, which really kept the race together in big packs.”
The first event of the day was the ladies' race. The women got off to a fast start when Dahle opened up a gap >from the very first lap. Last year's World Champion led a very aggressive race opening up her final gap to two and a half minutes over second placed finisher, teammate, Sabine Spitz (GER, Merida Intern'l). Another teammate of Spitz and Dahle was Russia's Irina Kalentieva, roundng out the podium in third spot.
Strangely enough, the Canadian women (usually top ten finishers) finished over six minutes down. Trek/Volkswagen's Alison Sydor was Canada's top ranked rider, crossing the line in 15th spot. Gary Fisher/Subaru's Chrissy Redden was 20th, and Oryx's Marie Helene Premont was 22nd. Martina Feldman finished one lap down in 74th.
Last year's World Cup winner Alison Dunlap, (USA, Luna) finished in 12th place, which is unusual for the talented rider. Of the 91 women that started the race, only 73 finished on the same lap as Dahle, with six DNFs.
The men's race was very different than the women's in that the top three men were separated by less than a minute. However, there were only eleven seconds between first place winner Sauser, and Poland's' Marek Galinski (Orbea) in second place. One of last year's top espoirs, France's Julien Absalon (Motorex-Bianchi) claimed third spot.
Canada's riders had somewhat uncharacteristic races, however so did a few other normally top ranking riders. Team T-Mobile's Bart Brentjens (third overall last year) was 20th and France's Christophe Dupouey (eight overall last year) DNF'd. World Champion Canadian Roland Green (Trek/Volkswagen) finished in 19th spot almost six minutes behind. Haro Lee Dungaree's Seamus McGrath (CAN) was seven and a half minutes down from the leaders in 29th spot after finishing 12th overall last year.
Of the 182 starters, thirty-eight DNF'd, including Canada's Ryder Hesjedal (Gary Fisher/Subaru) who was sixth overall last year. Of those that finished, only ninety-three did so on the same lap as Sauser.
The UCI World Cup continues next weekend in Fort Williams, GBR where the second race of the cross country series takes place and the first race of the downhill series will commence.