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Andorra World Cup: Christoph Sauser is on top....

posted by id* at 03:17 PM on June 02, 2008

Here is a report from Benno our team manager for the mountain bike team. It's great to see Christoph on top of a World Cup podium again!

We were a greatly reduced team here in Andorra with Lene Byberg opting not to race, given a heavy race schedule to come, while Liam Killeen was stuck down with the flu in the latter stages of this week, thus forcing his withdrawal. With Kyle Strait in downhill action tomorrow, the only person left to fly the flag on today’s start line was Christoph Sauser, who certainly did not fail to impress.

When we arrived in Andorra on Tuesday the heavens were pouring down on us, but thankfully the weather picked up through to Friday. The forecasters were not wrong though and dark clouds filled the skies on Saturday morning and race day. In the women’s race there was a fair amount of rain, but things did dry up for the men’s start. Tire options are always a topic of discussion in such changeable conditions, but Christoph seemed to make the right choice!

I asked Christoph I think the night before the race, when the last world cup at altitude was held. We could not work out a specific date, but in my third season with Specialized there have been none until today. Racing at 2000m metres was going to affect some riders for sure, but Susi’s diesel engine, finely tuned in the Swiss Alps was ready to go into turbo mode.

A good start by Susi found him in fourth position about one kilometre into the first lap of seven, but by the end of the first lap, Susi had already broken clear of the entire field. A small group did form about 25 seconds back, with Burry Stander (Susi’s South African compatriot in The Cape Epic) pushing the pace at the front. It was great to see Burry commanding things in this position. Susi continued to show his dominance as the laps progressed, albeit for a young South African who was fighting hard! The twenty year old South Africa started to eat into Christoph’s 45 second lead, which naturally started to worry us all! The lead eventually settled at 10 seconds, until on lap six Susi suffered a rear wheel puncture – Burry also had a crash on this lap, but it did not deter him! I got a shock when over the radio, Benno sent the message Burry leading, Susi in second 30 seconds adrift! Alarm bells beckoned! Susi had one and half laps to prove his worth, while the young South African was riding on fire. It took Susi one lap to show why this could be his 13th World Cup win in his career. He caught Burry with half a lap to go and showed his experience to win by about 8 seconds. Burry was very pleased with second and deservingly so, with a fast finishing Geoff Kabush placing third. The World Cup Overall leader Julien Absalon finished 11th and maintained his overall hold on the standings.

Christoph’s bike:

Bike:    Specialized Epic Carbon
Tires:   Specialized LK 2.0 - Prototype Version (Front)
Specialized LK 2.0 - Prototype Version (Rear)
Tire Pressures:  28 PSI (Front and Rear)
Fork Pressure:  20+ / 55- PSI
Rear Shock Pressure: 95 PSI
Weight:   9.5 Kilos

Note - Chainrings: 40/28

Men’s Results:

1. Christoph Sauser  Specialized Factory Racing  2 hours 2’ 16’’
2. Burry Stander   GT Bicycles    + 8’’
3. Geoff Kabush   Team Maxxis    + 17’’
4. Lukas Fluckigerq  Athleticum-MTB-Team   + 1’08’’
5. Cedric Ravanel   Team Lapierre International  + 1’41’’
6. Todd Wells   GT Bicycles    + 2’16’’
7. Tony Longo   Full Dynamics IT    + 2’27’’
8. Sergio Mantecon Gutierrez Celemorca-Segurosio.com   + 2’51’’
9. Inaki Lejarreta Errasti  Orbea     + 3’01’’
10. Fredrik Kessiakoff  Full Dynamics IT    + 3’13’’

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