Category: Race Reports
Specialized rider Burry Stander wins his first UCI World Cup
Lukas Flückiger, Julien Absalon, Burry Stander, Ralf Naf, Mathias Flückiger. Champery World Cup podium.
A week after winning the under 23 World Championships in Australia, 22 year old South African Burry beat two time Olympic champion and 4 time World Champion Julien Absalon to win his 1st UCI World Cup victory. (Burry is currently 2nd the the World Cup series behind Julien)
I read on Specialized team mate, Todd Wells’ website that last week Burry’s best lap at Worlds was 40 seconds faster than anyone elses. Granted, the u23 race was shorter and probably had less traffic, but still, it was a sign of things to come. Todd had the 3rd fastest lap and finished 8th on his Specialized S-works 29er.
We are really stoked for Burry.
Follow his blog on i-am-specialized.com
Sprint finish with Seth Wealing for 2nd…
Sprint finish with Seth Wealing for 2nd… Pic by Nori’s iPhone
This is the race report from Trey Garman at XTERRA. For press, email trey@xterraplanet.com. The XTERRA home page is www.xterraplanet.com
(I will write my own report after breakfast)
Sugarbush Resort – Warren, VT (July 12, 2009) – The two reigning XTERRA European Tour Champions, Frenchman Nicolas Lebrun and Swiss sensation Renata Bucher, won the inaugural XTERRA Northeast Cup on a muddy yet magnificent course at Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vermont today.
XTERRA Richmond. PG 13- B&G- Blood and Gore
The black stuff in there is rotting steel girder and James River mud. They breed us tough in Africa…
3 minutes before the start I moved a stray swim buoy to where it should be and kicked an old, rusty steel girder lodged in the mud under water. The gash was huge and completely black with rusty steel slime. I hobbled to the waters edge and the athletes parted way in a “whooooa!”
The race was about to start any moment and I had no idea how bad the injury was. One of the age group athletes (Kristen I think) is a doctor and came over for help. She said “those are tendons”, but they dont seems damaged as I could move my toes.
I somehow thrive on hardship and said: “I’m racing” A 1st aid crew quickly put gauze over it (to keep the dirt in?) and wound Ceran wrap around it.
A fellow pro yelled at me- “Race starts in 1 minute”. Fortunately there wasnt any time to think- the gun went and within a few minutes minutes so did the ceran wrap. Thats when it started hurting. Skin flapping around and I could visualize the flithy funk of the James River in flood irrigating the rusty steel girder out of the wound. I didnt care about keeping up or reading the tricky currents- I just flailed arms and tried to keep my left foot still.
XTERRA Midwest. Battle Creek, Michigan
Winning smile & story time. During a week like this, so many things happen, its impossible to keep track of it all. I’ll try to give some perspective here.
My new race kit is officially here. It arrived from Hong Kong on Friday. My mate Gary Mandy hooked me up sweet with LUMA kit. I have a white kit, a black one and a red one (pictured) to chose from. And cycling gear
X mas came early!
TOP PRO MEN
1 ) Conrad Stoltz 2:03:16
2 ) Mike Vine 2:04:13
3 ) Josiah Middaugh 2:04:27
4 ) Dan Hugo 2:05:27
5 ) Nico Lebrun 2:06:00
6 ) Seth Wealing 2:06:31
7 ) Brian Smith 2:08:20
8 ) Branden Rakita 2:10:10
9 ) Craig Evans 2:10:20
10 ) Ryan Decook 2:13:09
