Jared Graves Has Won the World Cup Four-Cross
Val di Sole hosted the first triple-event of the 2010 Mountain Bike World Cup this weekend, after hosting the World Cup Championships in 2008. This year, the Italian region hosted the fifth of six events in cross-country, downhill, and four-cross. The previous World Cup four-cross event was held in Leogang, Austria in June, the last event of the first half of the World Cup, followed by a break of more than a month.
After the four-cross #4, the women’s competition was in a tight rivalry, with only 20 points separating the three leaders. Anneke Beerten won the race and widened the gap, but remains in a precarious position.
The men’s competition is a different story, with Jared Graves leading 175 points ahead of Tomas Slavic after the 4th event. Graves finished fourth in Val di Sole, the event won by Roger Rinderknecht ahead of Tomas Slavik and Michal Prokop. 64 men qualified for the race, which followed the same track through the Italian Dolomite Mountains as it did during the 2008 World Cup Championships.
Graves took the lead from right out of the gate, but fell quickly to fourth place after clashing with Rinderknecht at the second corner. The eventual winner was shown on video to have elbowed Graves in the throat, but officials could not say whether it was a foul or an accident, and Graves offered no formal protest, despite voicing his anger about it.
"He stepped over the line, I think,” said Graves. “It's all part of racing, but that was pretty dodgy."
After the fourth event, Slavik was the only potential contender for Graves’ title. The gap between the two shortened from 175 to 135 points in the 5th event, but with a maximum of 125 points for a race win, Graves has already won the men’s title.
Women’s Race
The women’s race was a tighter fight. Anneke Beerten won her second consecutive round to increase the gap against her rival, Anita Molcik, from 20 points to 45, but it’s not too late for Molcik to take over. The runner-up couldn’t keep up in the jumps, but her speed kept her in second place ahead of Katy Curd and Joanna Petterson.
"I really like this course," said Beerten. "Even at the beginning of the week when I first rode it, I felt comfortable here. I knew that it was important to be able to do all the jumps, so I have been practicing on them, and it really made a difference."
After a three weekend break, the sixth World Cup four-cross event be will be held in Windham, New York, with the sixth of the downhill and cross-country competitions. The World Cup Championships will be held from August 31st to September 5th in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada.
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