Trek World Racing Takes 4 Podium Places Including One Title At World Cup Finals
In the Cross Country World Cup, Mathias Flueckiger (SUI) received official recognition as the World Cup Champion in the Men's Under 23 Category having unofficially secured the win at the penultimate race in Val di Sole, Italy. Despite having an unusually disappointing race here at Windham finishing 18th overall, Mathias still finished 1st in the U23 category thus making it a clean sweep of all 6 rounds and demonstrating the outstanding ability of this young Swiss rider. The official World Cup trophy represents a huge achievement and is the first in his collection. Mathias now focuses on battling it out for the top spot on the podium in the U23 Category at the World Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, next week.
In the Cross Country World Cup, Mathias Flueckiger (SUI) received official recognition as the World Cup Champion in the Men's Under 23 Category having unofficially secured the win at the penultimate race in Val di Sole, Italy. Despite having an unusually disappointing race here at Windham finishing 18th overall, Mathias still finished 1st in the U23 category thus making it a clean sweep of all 6 rounds and demonstrating the outstanding ability of this young Swiss rider. The official World Cup trophy represents a huge achievement and is the first in his collection. Mathias now focuses on battling it out for the top spot on the podium in the U23 Category at the World Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, next week.
Older brother Lukas Flueckieger (SUI) scored his first World Cup podium of the year after an outstanding last race here in Windham. Riding his brand new Swiss-liveried light weight Top Fuel, he fought hard from the start, giving everything he had, to move from his start position of 13 to join the leader pack on lap 4 of 6. He battled it out with Nino Schurter (SUI), Florian Vogel (SUI), Christoph Sauser (SUI) and eventual race winner Jaroslav Kulhavy (CZE) as they entered the last lap, but the climbing on lap 6 got the better of him. Holding off a late charge by multiple World Cup champion Julian Absalon (FRA) Luk hung on to take the 5th place on the podium to make it a memorable weekend for the two Swiss brothers.
In the finals of the Downhill World Cup on Sunday, Tracy Moseley (GBR) once again performed brilliantly to finish 2nd on the podium in the Women's Final race. After a super fast run in qualifying which saw Tracy finish fastest by more than 5 seconds, she was disappointed not to secure 1st place this weekend but her sights are now firmly set on the World Championship title in Canada next week. In the finals of the Men's Downhill race, New Zealand's Justin Leov continued his good form taking 10th place in the final after a his successful podium wins at Crankworx earlier this month.
Unfortunately, teammate Andrew Neethling (RSA) had a frustrating race after a flat tire hindered what started as a spectacular run that had could have seen another potential podium place. In 2nd place at the 2nd split Andrew suffered a rear puncture in the final sector of the race.
Finally, in the Cross Country's Women Elite race, it was a disappointing end to the season for Canadian rider, Emily Batty. Recovering from an unexpected virus which hit a couple of days earlier, Emily had to sit the race out and is now focused on preparing for next weeks World Championship race in Canada.
On Monday the full team including Neko Mulally travel to Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec for the prestigious UCI Mountain Bike World Championships taking place from September 1st to 5th.
Mathias said: "It's fantastic to win the Overall but the race today was not good for me. I could not fight and from the first lap to the last it was really hard. It wasn't a good day today but I'm really happy with my World Cup season and look forward to the World Championships next week". Lukas said: "After my training camp in St Moritz I felt very comfortable. My new Top Fuel is amazing I rode it yesterday and felt very motivated for the race today. It was really hard to stick with the lead group and I worked hard the whole race but wasn't fresh enough for the finish and dropped a few places. I'm really happy to be on the podium though, especially with the World Championships in Canada next week on a track that suits me much more".
Tracy said: "It's a tough one. After qualifying first obviously I wanted to win and felt like I was riding good enough. My run was pretty good and I knew I had to push hard because it's a short track and any little mistakes were going to be costly. I had a bit of a bobble out the start and hit the gate before I'd really gone which was frustrating and in about 3 more spots I can probably pick out the bits I didn't get perfect like in the training run so I can account for the time I lost. I take a lot of confidence from this weekend though it's the best World Cup of the year for me and a lot of people have commented on how well I was riding in practice and Mont-Saint-Anne suits me and that's the goal for the year the one thing I've never won".
Justin said: "I'm pretty happy with the day. I finished 10th which is good it's a short track compared to Mont-Sainte-Anne and my splits got faster and faster so combined with a bit more length at Mont-Sainte-Anne it should work well for me. I'm looking forward to it and aim for a place on the podium." Andrew said: "I had an average qualifier, and didn't get up to pace early enough but had really good practice yesterday. Coming in I knew it was a good track. I'd lost some confidence in Whistler but I got over that and I think I was putting a really good run together and was good to take the hot-seat over but then I flatted I don't know what I hit and I haven't flatted all year. It kind of sums up my luck on the World Cup series I haven't been able to put an overall series of points together. Next week's not a World Cup so it should be good!"
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XC WORLD CUP FINAL RESULTS: Men's Results XC Elite Final: 1: Jaroslav Kulhavy (CZE) 1hr 39:28secs 2: Nino Schurter (SUI) + 00:14secs 3: Florian Vogel (SUI) +00:15secs 4: Christophe Sauser (SUI) +00:17secs 5: Lukas Flueckiger (Trek World Racing) +00:44secs 18: Mathias Flueckiger (Trek World Racing) +04:58secs
Men's Results XC Under 23 World Cup Final: 1: Mathias Flueckiger (Trek World Racing) +04:58secs 2: Patrik Gallati (SUI) +06:34secs 3: Alexis Vuillermoz (FRA) +07:33secs
Men's Results XC World Cup Overall: 1: Nino Schurter (SUI) 11365pts 2: Julien Absalon (FRA) 1040pts 3: Jaroslav Kulhavy (CZE) 1040pts 4: Florian Vogel (SUI) 795pts 5: Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos (ESP) 795pts 6: Mathias Flueckiger (Trek World Racing) 710pts 11: Lukas Flueckiger (Trek World Racing) 489pts
Women's Results XC Overall: 1: Catherine Pendrel (CAN) 1044pts 2: Willow Koerber (USA) 865pts 3: Eva Lechner (ITA) 810pts 28: Emily Batty (Trek World Racing) 267pts
DH WORLD CUP FINAL RESULTS
Men's Results DH Final: 1: Gee Atherton (GBR) 2min 28:28secs 2: Greg Minnaar (RSA) +00:37secs 3: Sam Blenkinsop (NZL) +01:91secs 10: Justin Leov (Trek World Racing) +05:39secs 68: Andrew Neethling (Trek World Racing) +16:44secs
Womens Results DH Final: 1: Rachel Atherton (GBR) 2mins 49:85secs 2: Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing) +01:36secs 3: Emmeline Ragot (FRA) +02:72secs 4: Mio Suemasa (JPN) +07:64secs 5: Floriane Pugin (FRA) +09:91secs
Men's Results DH Overall: 1: Gee Atherton (GBR) 1229pts 2: Greg Minnaar (RSA) 1185pts 3: Sam Blenkinsop (NZL) 864pts 14: Justin Leov (Trek World Racing) 410pts 16: Andrew Neethling (Trek World Racing) 378pts
Womens Results DH Overall: 1: Sabrina Jonnier (FRA) 1130pts 2: Emmeline Ragot (FRA) 1045pts 3: Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing) 909pts 4: Floriane Pugin (FRA) 906pts 5: Myriam Nicole (FRA) 810pts
