|  July 3, 2007 (St-Felicien, Que.) – It wasn’t the best Canada Day for several of the country’s top XC mountain bikers on Sunday, July 1, at the Nissan UCI World Cup MTB XC #5 in St-Felicien, Que about 4.5 hours north of Quebec City. The big exception was the belle province’s darling, Marie-Hélène Prémont (Can) Rocky Mountain-Haywood, who logged the fastest women’s lap of the day, ripping up the singletrack-rich 6.3-kilometres in a time of 23:03. Prémont finished second in the 33.6-kilometre race, only one minute behind the winner and World Cup MTB leader Irina Kalentyeva (Rus) Topeak-Ergon. Prémont now holds second spot in the overall ranking with only one event left.
In the men’s race, the top finisher was Seamus McGrath (Can) Rocky Mountain-Haywood in 18th place. He was tailed closely by National Champ Geoff Kabush (Can) Maxxis, who finished 20th – a little disappointing for Kabush as he rode onto the podium last weekend in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Que. winning the bronze medal. France’s Julien Absalon (Fra) Orbea won the St-Felicien race, taking over the lead from Jose Antonio Hermida (Esp) Multivan-Merida when the Spaniard broke his chain, making it his fourth consecutive World Cup win. Absalon has a death grip on the series lead and will look to take the World Cup trophy home after the final event in Maribor, Slovenia September 15.
Meanwhile, the fight for third was an epic battle between Willow Koerber (USA) Subaru-Gary Fisher, Georgia Gould (USA) Luna Women’s Team and Sabine Spitz (Ger) Ghost International Racing, with Spitz coming out on top. Koerber and Gould finished fourth and fifth, respectively, making it two Americans on the podium.
Many spectators ran for cover when it began to pour at 2:00 p.m. EST just in time for the start of the six-lap men’s race. It was very much a battle of two riders – Absalon vs. Hermida. Both were evenly matched and it looked like it would come down to a sprint finish until Hermida broke his chain. Hermida was forced to seek technical help, losing him precious time and a few spots, which he regained again. He would eventually finish second, 1:18 back from the leader. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Swe) Cannondale-Vredestein rounded out the top three.
Results
Elite Women
1. Irina Kalentyeva (Rus) Topeak 2:02:02
2. Marie-Hélène Prémont (Can) Rocky Mountain-Haywood 1:00
3. Sabine Spitz (Ger) Ghost International Racing 3:15
4. Willow Koerber (USA) Subaru-Gary Fisher 3:24
5. Georgia Gould (USA) Luna Women's MTB Team 3:33
6. Ren Chengyuan* (Chn) China 4:42
7. Katerina Nash (Cze) Luna Women's MTB Team 5:49
8. Lene Byberg (Nor) Specialized 6:15
9. Mary McConneloug (USA) Kenda Seven 6:45
10. Cécile Rode Ravanel (Fra) Team Lapierre International 7 :19 
Elite Men
1. Julien Absalon (Fra) Orbea 2:07:56
2. José Antonio Hermida Ramos (Esp) Multivan/Merida Biking Team 1:18
3. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Swe) Cannondale-Vredestein 1:55
4. Ralph Näf (Sui) Multivan/Merida Biking Team 2:50
5. Jakob Fuglsang* (Den) Cannondale-Vredestein 3:00
6. Nino Schurter* (Sui) Swisspower MTB Team 4:37
7. Balz Weber (Sui) Bikepark.Ch Tui 4:41
8. Wolfram Kurschat (Ger) MBC Bochum 4:53
9. Lado Fumic (Ger) Fumic.Brothers.International Course Map Course Profile |
