Mountain Biking

Nissan UCI World Cup: First Triple Round Goes Down In Andorra

E365> MTB - Wednesday June 04 2008

E365 -- The first triple round of the Nissan UCI World Cup Series was held in the mountain town of Valnord, Andorra where the Santa Cruz Syndicate took two of the five podium spots with Greg Minnaar scooping up third and Steve Peat just 3/4 of a second behind him in fourth.

The big news from this event, though, was the Atherton family each winning an event with Dan winning the 4X, Rachel winning the women’s downhill and Gee winning the men’s downhill - truly a history making weekend.

Racers were treated to a continuous view of the spectacular snow capped mountains in this affluent hometown of Cedric Gracia. The venue was a gondola lift up the mountain where the event was staged - scenic, but not convenient with the downhill finish line quite a distance from the pits, which made things challenging.

After a heavy nights rain racers took to the sticky track this morning for the qualification race. Peat was the fastest Syndicate racer coming in fourth. After a previous days practice wrought with mechanicals Minnaar got things rolling and came eighth. Rennie had three perfect practice runs and felt good going into the qualifier, but things didn’t go as well as practice had and he placed 21st.

“I just couldn’t get it going. I was confident going into it but I tried to throw down and it was a mistake. Not much of a birthday present. I’ve got nothing to loose now.” Peat said. "It was muddy. It didn’t go good for me. I didn’t carry speed well, but I’m happy that I got fourth with that effort. The track was stickier than in practice and I think everyone felt they didn’t do good.”

Minnaar had an average run saying: “I just made crucial mistakes and I thought it would be okay. I didn’t want to go too hard to conserve some energy for the final."

Minnaar went into the hot seat when he came across the line, but the worried expression on his face indicated he didn’t think his time would hold for a win. He said, “I got to the bottom and I knew I didn’t have enough to win. At the speeds we were going in the final I came up on sections faster and hesitated a bit, and I made a couple of mistakes. I am excited that my riding is coming back. It’s moving up in the right direction.”

“If only I hadn’t slipped a pedal I would’ve smoked Greg,” laughs Peat, “But I am happy to finish on the podium. It’s been a mixed bag this week with the weather. I rode decent, made a couple of mistakes in the woods and couldn’t clip in for three corners where I really needed to be pedaling out of. I’m happy to get points for the Syndicate.”