- Welcome to this week's race show,
where we're gonna be talking about Red Bull Hardline,
the Swiss Epic, and the XCM World Championships.
We have not a moment to waste.
(electronic noise)
- Red Bull Hardline is like
an epic end of season race downhill.
It's an invite only, some of the world's best
and most daring racers head to North Wales,
where they face one of the most difficult downhill
courses on the planet.
I guess that's why we call it Hardline.
Simple, really.
From the original 29 rider start list,
only 10 riders made it to the final.
Epic crashes from the likes of Reece Wilson
in his practice run looks like
he won't be riding for a while,
but at least it's the end of the season.
As track conditions worsened over the course of practice,
some riders like Josh Bryceland pulled out
to avoid potential injury, it was that difficult.
On race day though, Greg Minnaar was in the commentary box,
with Rob Warner, of course,
creating a nice mix between entertaining nonsense
from Warner of course,
and technical track insight from Minnaar.
Finals were loose and pretty sketchy in some areas,
especially on those slick rocks,
but it was Gee Atherton who finally took the win.
I mean, it only took four years to win
on his own brother's track.
Given his performance at La Bresse and now Hardline,
could Gee Atherton be an underdog for 2019?
And I never thought I'd say
Gee Atherton would be an underdog.
Anton Cooper took the win at the Three Nations Cup Final,
held at Watersley Park, Sittard-Geleen in the Netherlands.
The dry and dusty track was primed for some good racing,
and proved that the Netherlands are well equipped
to offer some challenging XC riding.
Anything but flat at this race.
From the outset Trick Factory Racing's Anton Cooper
was forcing the issue,
and that pressure meant he was able to control
the situation from the front all the way to the flag,
for a well deserved Cat 1 Race win.
A great team result followed in the second and third,
with the duo of Milan Vader and Kevin Panhuyzen
both riding for the Habitat Mountain Bike Team,
taking the remainder of the podium places.
In the women's race, it was a really strong ride for
22 year old Sophie Von Berswordt,
who managed to generate a commanding winning
margin by the finish,
over a minute ahead of Fabienne Schaus,
and nearly three minutes ahead of UK's Isla Short,
who incidentally was grabbing another podium position
for Team Habitat.
Sophie took this win on home soil off the back of a
promising sixth place at World Champs in Lenzerheide
last week.
Definitely a rider to watch in the 2019 season.
Now, to the Perskindol Swiss Epic,
I'm gonna give you some stats first.
It's two man or woman teams, five stages,
331 kilometers of racing and 12,500 meters of climbing.
The beautiful scenery of the Swiss Epic
is a perfect setting for such an extraordinary event,
Like the Cape Epic at the start of the season,
this stage race takes some serious commitment to finish,
and any team that did can be well proud of themselves.
To contend for the win takes a level of fitness and tactics
that are uncommon to most of us,
but that cannot be said for Matthias Stirnemann and
Andri Frischknecht of Scott-Sram.
In 2017 Stirnemann was part of the winning duo
at the Cape Epic, alongside world champ Nino Schurter.
Frischknecht was also a double stage winner at that event.
However, winning this event would be significant
for Stirnemann in more than normal ways.
The 2018 Cape Epic was the start of a fight back to fitness
for him, his body completely failing him in the race and
resulting in retirement for him and his teammate, Schurter.
The duo of Frischknecht and Stirnemann battled through this
epic with superiority,
and on the final stage could watch Team USA Red
take the win on stage, but know that in doing so,
Christopher Blevins and Keegan Swanson were only fighting
for second, because the Scott boys were controlling
the lead they'd built up.
They rolled in at the finish in second place on the day,
and first overall.
Team USA Red may have pushed hard on the last stage,
but they were unable to overhaul BiXS pro team of
Hans Stauffer and Konny Looser,
who held on to a well deserved second position overall.
Supreme effort racing from these three teams
Haley Smith and Catharine Pendrel of Team Canada
were in utter control of the women's field
throughout this event,
winning three of the five stages,
including the final stage of the race.
They built a combined lead of nearly 40 minutes by the end,
and took the title in style.
The battle for second was a much closer affair,
Thömus / RN racing duo of Kathrin Stirnemann
and Alessandra Keller went into the final stage in second,
but were to be overhauled by Ghost Factory Racing Team
of Barbara Benko and Anne Terpstra,
who capitalized on Thömus struggling in the latter stages
of the day.
Overall, another great epic,
and huge congratulations to the winners, and in fact,
to any teams that took it on.
An amazing effort.
To the incredible Italian Dolomites,
where the UCI Mountain Bike World Champs Cross Country
Marathon got underway.
There were familiar faces from the cross country
Olympic world champs, including the World Champ herself,
Kate Courtney, newly crowned.
The women's race consisted of around 1500 meters of climbing
over a 97 kilometer distance,
with a mix of challenging and demanding terrains.
This weekend's win went to Annika Langvad,
who no doubt was seeking the gold medal after a
disappointing second place in the World Champs in
Lenzerheide.
Langvad put in a strong performance,
and won five minutes ahead of silver medal winner
Christina Kollmann-Forstner.
Third place went to Maja Włoszczowska,
while the XCO World Champ Kate Courtney
finished in 9th place.
In the men's race category it was an incredibly close race,
ending in a sprint finish between Brazil's
Henrique Avancini and Daniel Geismayr.
After an epic 110 kilometer race,
the head to head battling saw Avancini relentlessly
trying to shake Geismayr off his tail.
Like Langvad, he too was trying to redeem himself
after a fourth place at World Champs in
Lenzerheide last week.
His efforts certainly paid off,
as Avancini crossed the line just two seconds ahead
of Geismayr, taking the World Championship win.
Héctor Leonardo Páez León sailed over the line in third
place, just seven seconds after the new world champion
Avancini.
Can you imagine, a two second gap after all that racing?
Incredible.
It was the penultimate round of the MTB League
Cross Country Series at the weekend.
The race course was five kilometers in length,
with 175 meters of climbing,
and hundreds of riders took to the hills of Alberg.
In the elite women's field, Caroline Bowe won,
with a time of one hour 27 minutes,
followed by Anne Dorth Lisbid, 3.5 minutes behind her.
Over to the men's field, and an outstanding performance
from Jonas Limberg, who took the win just 5 seconds
ahead of Simon Andreassen in a blinding sprint finish.
Thanks for watching the race show this week,
remember stay with us this week,
we've got the Dirt Shed Show on Friday,
we've got some great stuff coming from Blake Sampson,
who was at Audi Nines, an amazing event.
You can click there to see one of his videos all about it.
Click the globe to subscribe, and give us a thumbs up like.
I will see you next week.