The French town of Saint François Longchamp welcomed this weekend the third round of the MTB and Biketrials World Cup. This is the circuit’s first appearance in France since Buthiers in 2006 and Praloup in 2003. Some 200 competitors will gather on the Saint-François Longchamp site, situated in Maurienne (Savoie), 1650m above sea level. Organisation is being taken care of by Jean Falmbard and the Event-Performance team, who are sport events specialists and have organised national and international trials events as well as other extreme sports events of all kinds. The sections were composed of imported rocks (nearly 100 tonnes), tree trunks and concrete obstacles like those at the recent French Cup Round in Serre Chevalier. They were very technical and difficult, with some very tricky parts that could change the course of the competition in a moment!
This third round promises to be eventful in both the 26" and 20" competitions. 26" World Champion Gilles Coustellier will be doing everything in his power to retake the lead in the series, which he currently shares with Kenny Belaey following the Belgian’s victory in Heubach. He will also have to contend with Vincent Hermance, motivated by his new coach and who is preparing himself well for this competition. In 20" we can expect a merciless duel between the two Spaniards Benito Ros and Dani Comas, who are just five points apart in the series. Benito retook the lead after the second round but Dani is determined to take it from him, spurred on by his recent title of Spanisg Champion.
Tribal Zine will be bringing you the results and images of this third round as and when they become available as well as the usual wealth of photos from our partner Sergio
Men’s 1/4 Final Result:
The Elite 20" qualifiers took place on Saturday morning between 9.00 and 13.00, while the 26" qualifiers took place this afternoon between 14.00 and 19.00. Following each of these qualifiers the top ten riders went through to the semi-finals, alongside the top ten UCI ranked riders. Here is the list of riders who made it through. Dani Comas, logically, took the lead in 20" and in 26" it was an Atomz 1-2-3 with Aurélien Fontenoy, Marc Caisso and Ben Slinger taking the top spots!
Elite 20" 1/4 Finals:
- Qualified Riders:
- Full Results:
- WC#3 - Elite 20" - ¼ Final
Elite 26" 1/4 Finals:
- Full results:
- WC#3 - Elite 26" - ¼ Final
Women’s Final Results
Following thee Women’s Final, which took place on Saturday morning at the same time as the 20" qualifiers, Swiss rider Karin Moor kept her hand on the Cup, despite Spaniard Gemma Abant Condal’s victory in Saint François Longchamp. Karin has 375 Cup points following this thrid round, compared with Gemma’s 335. Her sister Mireia took third place, both in this round and in the Cup (with 320 Cup points). French rider ulie Pesenti came in fourth here and in the Cup (305 points).
Full results:
Men’s semi-final results:
The semi-final competitions took place on Sunday morning. The 20" semis took place in the morning, between 09.00 and 10.30. Benito Ros is on greta form: "La Bestia" flew round his first lap with just six points, while the others got round with double that on their cards. He managed a second lap of just four and only Dani Comas was able to match the rhythm imposed by the World Champion and stay in the competition, with European Champion Rafal Kumorowski hot on his heels. The 26" semis took place at the end of the morning, with Vincent Hermance putting in an incredible performance: the Vice World Champion almost managed a perfect trial, conceding just one point on his first lap! Kenny Belaey had six points on his card after his first lap and managed a second lap of zero, qualifying in second place ahead of Gilles Coustellier in third with 12. The final promises to be very eventful indeed! Gilles is determined to keep the lead and Vincent and Kenny are both on great form!
Here’s the list of the eight 20" and 26" finalists, who will do battle in the afternoon during the finals! our partner Sergio is there and we spoke to him on the phone in mid-morning: He was very impressed by Benito’s ride and tells us that the weather is clement, even if the clouds are gathering and could very well threaten the finals.
Elite 20" Semi-Final:
- Qualified Riders:
Elite 26" Semi-Final:
- Qualified riders:
Men’s Finals Results:
Elite 20" Final:
The 20" final rook place this afternoon between 15.00 and 16.30. the first lap was very difficult for all of the riders, amd Benito had a mere three point lead on Dutch rider Rick Koekoek and five on Dani Comas at the midway point. The two Spaniards put in clean second laps and Benito took the win ahead of Dani. Eurpoean Champion Rafal Kumorowski took third place ahead of a very promising Rick Koekoek.
- Results of the Final:
- Full Results:
- WC#3 - Elite 20" - Final
Elite 26" Final:
Ben Slinger was the first to set of in the 26" final. He took a five on his first section and only managed to get through the next two sections on his first lap. Giacomo Coustellier was next off and imposed a punishing rhythm, conceding just two points and setting the bench mark for the competition. After that only his brother Gilles and Vincent Hermance manged to follow him, both managing to complete the sections on zero! Belgian Kenny Belaey took 11 points, followed cloesly by an on-form Aurélien Fontenoy (12). The second lap would be between Gilles and Vincent! Sergio recounts this battle of the titans... "There was a lot of suspense following the first lap. Gilles and Vince are both on zero and were continuing that way in the second lap. And then the rain came! The final section was like something out of Genesis! They had to get onto the roof of a cabin, but it had become super-slipery in the rain. Gilles got a four, giving him five in total having already put one foot down in the first section. Vincent rolled up with one point on his card too, he hops up on the first rock and sned the enormous gap to the cabin roof, but the bike washes out underneath himand he falls violently. It was a real shame for Vince, he’d been riding really well today, but still, so had Gilles. Despite the storm, there was a great atmosphere during the final, with the best riders in the world riding as though it was dry! Giaco had a slight advantage, finishing earlier, but he still racked up a fair few points thanks to the rain, and the afternoon drew to a close under torrential conditions."
- Results of the Final:
- Full results:
- WC#3 - Elite 26" - Final
Cup standings:
Following this third round, Gilles Coustellier retakes the lead in the 26" World Cup and Benito reinforces his in 20".
The top three 26" riders following this third round:
| Rank | Rider | Nation | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | COUSTELLIER Gilles | FRA | 360 |
| 2 | BELAEY Kenny | BEL | 330 |
| 3 | HERMANCE Vincent | FRA | 320 |
and the top three 20" riders:
| Rank | Rider | Nation | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ROS CHARAL Benito | ESP | 360 |
| 2 | COMAS RIERA Dani | ESP | 340 |
| 3 | KUMOROWSKI Rafal | POL | 320 |
Photos by Sergio:
Our partner Sergio, the master of trials photograhy, has sent us his first photos of the events direct from Saint-François Longchamp - what an honour! Click on a photo below to see the rest. More to come over the following hours on www.photobysergio.fr...
The Semi-Finals:
The Finals:
The Sections:
Our partner Ozonys gave you a premiere of the Saint-François Longchamp sections, with the large amount of imported rocks, very similar to those of Serre-Chevalier which were also set out by Event-Performance. Click on a photo to visit the Ozonys photo galleries and see more images of the sections from this third round of the World Cup!
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