September 11, 2004 (Les Gets, France) – Eric Carter (Temecula, Calif.) capped off a successful day in Les Gets for American gravity riders this evening with a world title in the men’s 4-cross event. The only American to advance to the final, Carter bested Mickael Deldycke (FRA), defending world champion, Michal Prokop (CZE), and Roger Rinderknecht (SUI) in the final to claim his first-ever rainbow jersey, the only major accomplishment he had left to attain.

Carter’s win came shortly after Americans Jill Kintner (San Jose, Calif.) and Tara Llanes (Newport Beach, Calif.) each breached the podium in the elite women’s final. Kintner improved upon her third place finish in 2003 taking silver this time around while Llanes earned the bronze.

In the men’s final, Carter used a slower than usual start by Prokop, an early run crash by Rinderknecht and a decisive inside move to his advantage on his way to earning the title of World Champion. “For three years I’ve been chasing this,” commented Carter who placed third in 2002 in Kaprun, Austria and second last season in Lugano, Switzerland.

After Carter made the decisive move, contact between Deldycke and Prokop took away any chance either of them had at recapturing Carter as he sailed away towards the finish. “I don’t think I was the fastest, but I rode smarter,” explained Carter of his winning ride.

In the women’s final, relatively unknown rider, Jana Horakova (CZE), rode away with the world title in just her fifth-ever international caliber event ahead of Kintner and Llanes.

After two-time defending 4-cross world champion and overwhelming pre-race favorite Anne-Caroline Chausson dropped out of the event with a fractured collarbone suffered in training, the field was left wide open providing a ripe opportunity for a talented crop of Americans, but it was the Czech rider with an impressive BMX resume that took advantage of the situation. A clean run from start to finish propelled Horakova to the gold medal as Kintner and Llanes both finished ahead of Sari Jorgensen (SUI) to give the American mountain bike contingent their second and third medals of the day.

“I came into it knowing that Anne-Caroline was the one to beat, so once we heard that she was not racing, we could all start to think about winning,” said Kintner. “Then Jana came out of nowhere.”

The strongest discipline of U.S. mountain bike athletes in recent years, the 4-cross competition rounded out a day that netted four medals for the American team after Kyle Strait (Redlands, Calif.) kicked off the day with a bronze in the junior men’s downhill event.

A strong showing didn’t stop there as Mike King (San Diego, Calif.), Chris Powell (Atherton, Calif.), Ross Milan (Lakewood, Colo.), and Melissa Buhl (Chandler, Ariz.) all posted top-10 finishes.

For complete results, visit http://www.lesgets2004.com/resultat.htm <http://www.lesgets2004.com/resultat.htm>