Swiss GT team rider Roger Rinderknecht dominated all his runs before the big finals of the World Cup tour stop in Slovenia last Saturday.
Maribor's technically challenging 4X track featured a thrilling final including head to head fights and a lot of passing maneuvers. In the end, Joost Wichman (NED) got first in front of Jared Graves (AUS), Roger Rinderknecht (SUI) and Romain Saladini (FRA).
Maribor’s 4X course featured a lot of big, open turns, nice berms, old school grassland sections and doubles, including a really big one at the very end. The seeding runs showed that Roger Rinderknecht is still in his best condition, placing again second behind Graves. But the night before the finals day completely mixed up the game: torrential rain and thunderstorms turned the 4X track into a muddy slide that needed spikes to be mounted on the riders' bikes. The track became very challenging, and the spectators saw a lot of carnage during the whole day. But Roger took the challenge easily, winning all his runs, including the semi finals against Romain Saladini (FRA/2nd), Tomas Slavic (CZE/3rd) and Matej Vitko (SVK/4th). Please take a look on:
www.freecaster.tv to see this semi final.
The competitors of the grand final were the Top 4 of the actual overall UCI 4X standings: Jared Graves, Roger Rinderknecht, Joost Wichman as well as Romain Saladini, and therefore promised to show thrilling battles. Right after the start, Roger mastered to get into second place, behind Graves. But in the first corner, Wichman, who was on the last position after the start, used his chance and passed all of his competitors on the inside. Saladini took the same line and placed himself in front of Rinderknecht, who fell back on fourth position. From this moment on, the battle was on: Saladini passed Graves for a moment, but Graves got his second place back within seconds, followed by Rinderknecht putting Saladini in last place. This riders constellation marked also the final result: Joost Wichman first, Jared Graves second, Roger Rinderknecht third and Romain Saladini fourth (
www.freecaster.tv).
Roger takes it pretty easy: “the mud battle was lots of fun – I love to drift. I felt quite well till the finals, winning all runs before. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the final start that well, was pretty restricted by Grave’s line in the first turn and had opened up the inside for Saladini and Wichman. But I got Saladini again in the last section, so at least I made the podium. I can’t wait for the European Championships here in Slovenia next weekend. I will stay in the country and have some easy going film and photo sessions with my friends from SR Suntour. That will be fun for sure!”
Top 8 UCI World Cup in Maribor
1 Joost WICHMAN - NED (Giant)
2 Jared GRAVES - AUS (Yeti)
3 Roger RINDERKNECHT - SUI (GT)
4 Romain SALADINI - FRA (Sunn)
5 Thomas SLAVIK - CZE (Giant)
6 Dan ATHERTON - GBR (Commencal)
7 Matej VITKO - SVK (Scott)
8 Michal PROKOP - CZE (Author)
The overall standings changed after this weekend: Graves is still leading, but Joost Wichman replaced Romain Saladini on Second position (Saladini is now 4th) and Roger Rinderknecht kept the third position. Only 16 points between Joost and Roger as well as 10 points between Roger and Romain will make the three upcoming 4X World Cups for sure more action packed.
Top 8 UCI World Cups overall ranking:
1 Jared GRAVES - AUS (Yeti)
2 Joost WICHMAN - NED (Giant)
3 Roger RINDERKNECHT - SUI (GT)
4 Romain SALADINI - FRA (Sunn)
5 Michal PROKOP - CZE (Author)
6 Dan ATHERTON - GBR (Commencal)
7 Rafael ALVAREZ DE LARA LUCAS - ESP (Specialized)
8 Luke MADILL - AUS (GT)
For more general information about Roger Rinderknecht, please visit the rasoulution website or Roger's homepage:
www.rasoulution.com and
www.rogerrinderknecht.com.
