On a day otherwise marred by crashes and mechanical failures, Jeremiah Bishop of Harrisonburg, Va., became the first American since Tinker Juarez in 1995 to finish among the top 10 in an elite men’s world championship cross country mountain bike race. Bishop finished eighth Sunday at the 2006 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Rotorua, New Zealand.
Local favorite Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski of Boulder, the top-ranked American and 10th in the world entering the event, broke a chain on the opening lap of the five-lap race and was forced to drop out after falling too far back. Todd Wells of Durango also fell victim to a broken chain, on the second lap of the 3.6-mile circuit, and was pulled from the race.
Julien Absalon of France rode to his third consecutive world title, beating Christophe Sauser of Switzerland by 43 seconds in the 25.2-mile race.
Bishop, who won the final race of the NORBA National Series in Snowmass two weeks ago, was joined in the top 20 by Adam Craig of Bend, Ore., the victim of a broken seat post on the race’s second lap. The performance gave Team USA two additional top-20 finishes after the women’s side placed four cross country riders in the top 20 earlier in the day.
Mary McConneloug of Chilmark, Mass. led the women with a career-best sixth-place finish, followed into the top 20 by Willow Koerber of Horseshoe, N.C., in 17th place, Dara Marks-Marino of Flagstaff, Ariz., in 18th place and Georgia Gould of Ketchum, Idaho, in 20th.
Local riders Heather Irmiger of Boulder and Shonny Vanlandingham of Durango finished 23rd and 33rd, respectively, in the race won by heavy favorite Gunn-Rita Dahle-Fleesia of Norway.
Jessica Vogt of Boulder failed to advance from her semifinal heat, finishing eighth in the final standings.
Australian Sam Hill bested South African Greg Minnaar by 4.22 seconds in the men’s elite downhill. Cole Bangert of Twin Lakes placed 34th in his first world championship start.
Other local results include Sam Jurekovic of Colorado Springs placing 45th in the men’s U23 cross country race, followed by Colin Cares of Boulder in 60th.
ACTION SPORTS
Rider flips way to Vans title
With two events remaining (San Jose from Sept. 7-10 and Orlando from Oct. 12-15), overall standings in the 2006 Dew Action Sports Tour are beginning to take shape after last weekend’s Vans Invitational event in Portland, Ore.
Travis Pastrana rocked the freestyle motocross (FMX) world when he landed the first double-backflip in competition history at the X Games two weeks ago, and he rocked Nate Adams in what seemed like a personal grudge match in Portland. At less than a week off of knee surgery, Pastrana used huge tricks like the “superman backflip,” “Lazyboy backflip,” “backflip nac-nac” and a “backflip saran wrap to one-hander-lander” to post the top score.
Pastrana one-upped himself by scoring a 97.50 by pulling off a gigantic “superman Indian air backflip.”
Vert skater Sandro Dias of Brazil also managed to keep his X Games streak alive by claiming his first Dew Tour win in Portland. Only 2005 Dew Tour champ Bucky Lasek came close, finishing second. Denver tour stop winner Shaun White finished sixth with 81.75, leaving him in fifth place overall (158 points) behind Lasek (213), Dias (189), Bob Burnquist (164) and Andy McDonald (161).
With his second consecutive Dew Tour win, Jamie Bestwick took control of the BMX version of the vert world, topping Chad Kagy’s second-place score of 92.25 with a 94.25. Local rider Jay Eggleston moved to seventh in the overall standings.
In other BMX competition, Ryan Nyquist won his first event of the season, finishing ahead of Scotty Cranmer and Daniel Dhers in Park competition to move into second place overall, 18 points behind Dhers. Cameron White was the surprise winner in the Dirt event, topping Luke Parslow and overall points leader Anthony Napolitan after finishing 15th in Denver.
Skateboard Park specialist Ryan Sheckler overtook the overall lead from Jerome Rogers after besting his score in Portland. After three events, the defending Dew Tour champion has 255 points to Rogers’ 238.
