Four Cross finals: Andorra - km
Upset wins in four cross finals
Women: Griffiths claims upset victory
Fionn Griffiths (Norco World Team) took the women's win after the three other riders crashed in the second corner. Until the final things were unfolding pretty much as expected, with Griffiths, World Cup leader Anneke Beerten (Suspension Center), round two winner Jill Kintner (Red Bull/Intense) and Jana Horakova (Czech Republic) advancing to the medal round.
"I've been getting terrible gates all day," said Griffiths. "So I figured I'd be off the back a bit at the start. I was planning on going inside but I saw the line that Horakova had and Jill still wasn't turned yet. I knew she was going to drift and I saw it before it happened, so I just braked, went outside and just rode past everybody. It was cool."
After the gate and the first set of jumps in the medal race, Kintner and Horakova came into the first left hand corner pretty much neck and neck, with Kintner on the inside. Horakova went wide and then cut across to squeeze Kintner as they set up for the second corner, a right hander, taking both of them down, with Beerten caught behind. Griffiths had a clear shot through to the finish.
Beerten finished second, with Horakova beating Kintner for third. Beerten holds onto her World Cup lead, while Horakova moves into second ahead of Kintner.
Men: Upsets continue as Wichman wins final
Dutch rider Joost Wichman slipped past World Cup leader Jared Graves (Yeti Fox Shox) in the final to claim the round win. Coming off two consecutive wins Graves and Wichman were joined by Australian Luke Madill (GT Bicycles) and Roger Rinderknecht (GT Bicycles) in the final.
Graves had easily won all of his heats up to the final and was in control from the start of the medal race. However he drifted wide after carrying too much speed into the first corner, giving Wichman and Rinderknecht the chance to get through in a tight squeeze at the second corner.
Rinderknecht also made a mistake near the end, opening the door for Madill to get by and then crashing with Graves. Graves managed to outrun Rinderknecht to the line for third.
"I think that was aggressive enough, wasn't it," said a very excited Wichman. "I think it was a clean move, because I didn't hit him. It was awesome, man! I'm really happy. It was close but a clean move."
Graves was philosophical about his winning streak being broken. "It was getting pretty loose in the corners," he said. "If I can take something positive from the final, I was still third, and Roger fourth, so my points lead grows a bit. But I kind of feel I threw away a gold opportunity a bit, I just drifted in a straight line coming into that first corner, and didn't even get close to recovering my line.
"It was just one of those things," he added. "I'm a disappointed with that, but my lead grows, so that's the main thing."
The men's racing saw world champion Rafael Alvarez de Lara Lucas (Specialized) once again become a victim of a crash, this time in the 1/8 final round. Another favourite Guido Tschugg (Ghost ATG) went out in the quarter finals.
Visit Cyclingnews.com for full results, report and photos of the men and women.
FOUR CROSS FINALS RESULTS
| Men | ||
| 1 Joost Wichman (Ned) | ||
| 2 Luke Madill (Aus|GT Bicycles) | ||
| 3 Jared Graves (Aus|Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team) | ||
| 4 Roger Rinderknecht (Swi|GT Bicycles) | ||
| 5 Tomas Slavik (Cze) | ||
| 6 Romain Saladini (Fra|Team Sunn) | ||
| 7 Filip Polc (Svk|MS Evil Racing) | ||
| 8 Jurg Meijer (Ned) | ||
| 9 David Graf (Swi) | ||
| 10 Michal Prokop (Cze) | ||
| Women | ||
| 1 Fionn Griffiths (GBr|Norco World Team) | ||
| 2 Anneke Beerten (Ned|Suspension Center) | ||
| 3 Jana Horakova (Cze) | ||
| 4 Jill Kintner (USA) | ||
| 5 Emmeline Ragot (Fra|Suspension Center) | ||
| 6 Melissa Buhl (USA) | ||
| 7 Caroline Buchanan (Aus) | ||
| 8 Rachel Seydoux (Swi) |
