Chris Kovarik podiums at Canberra World Cup
Chris Kovarik got a great podium result at the penultimate World Cup round in his home country today in Stromolo park, Canberra. Chris placed 5th on the in a very strong field. The course was pretty good considering the size of the hill which was a lot smaller than we have been used to riding on the world cup circuit so far. From the man made start ramp the course was reasonably fast and flowing with a few cool jumps and rock gardens with flowing sections but the riders had to really carry their speed and not make any mistakes as the course was short. But then the bottom section was a killer as it went flat then up a hill and remained flat all the way to the finish area and over a big jump that not even all the top guys could clear as it rained over night and all day which made it really slow and sticky. On the big screen Chris had a great run at the top section and pedaled hard at the bottom and was only 2 seconds off fellow countryman Nathan Rennie in 2nd. The highlight of the race was definitly the Aussie crowd going wild for all the riders not just the Aussie ones. Also the organisors here were super helpful to us all week and went out of there way to make us feel welcome and help us out when we needed which was great. Chris' result puts him in 6th place overall just behind Fabien Barel of France so its going to go down to the wire in a couple of weeks in Schladming Austria for the last overall podium position. Matt Simmonds had a good solid ride and looked great on the track to place 23rd and Ruaridh Cunningham placing 33rd giving it his all and entertaining the crowd with some huge whips on the jumps. Unfortunately Julien couldn't start in the race as he had a huge crash yesterday in practice and banged his head pretty hard and just above his hip. We spent the afternoon in hospital getting him checked out but he was too sore to race today. So that was really dissapointing for him and the team as dropped down to 10th in the overall standings but hopefully he will be ok for Schladming. Congtratulations to Greg Minnaar for his brilliant ride today and all the other riders that made the podium. Mens Downhill Results Nissan UCI Mountain Bike World Cup - CANBERRA 1st GREG MINNAAR Santa Cruz Syndicate 2.41.34 2nd NATHAN RENNIE Santa Cruz Syndicate 2.46.02 3rd GEE ATHERTON Animal Commencal 2.47.00 4th FABIEN BAREL Subaru Mountain Bike Pro 2.47.64 5th CHRIS KOVARIK Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense 2.48.38 6th ANDREW NEETHLING Mongoose 2.48.67 7th STEVE PEAT Santa Cruz Syndicate 2.48.78 8th JARED RANDO Giant 2.49.19 9th BRYN ATKINSON GT Bicycles 2.49.39 10th SAM BLENKINSOP Yeti/Fox 2.50.01 23rd MATT SIMMONDS Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense 2.56.09 33rd RUARIDH CUNNINGHAM Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense 2.59.38 Photos courtesy of Kathy Sessler - Ruaridh whipping it up for the Aussie crowd and CK on the Podium Nigel Page www.crcintense.comLatest news
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