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Credits: Pierre Teyssot
VERMIGLIO (VAL DI SOLE – TRENTINO), 30 August 2016 – France won the team race of the UCI Mountain bike&Trials World Championships Val di Sole 2016 held on the brand new Trials park built at the San Leonardo lake area in Vermiglio, in Western Trentino. French athletes managed to defend the gold conquered last year in the debut of this competition at the UCI Mtb World Championships. With 660 points overall, the French team finished ahead of Spain (630 points), who climbed up from last year’s 4th place, and Germany (570), who confirmed the bronze with a regular performance.
The gold was gained thanks to a mistake in the first section of the last race by World champion, Spain’s Abel Mustieles. He finished with 0 points, and a final score of 160 against French Nicolas Vallee 180, jr. World Champion. German did a smooth performance.
Switzerland’s five athletes did not make it on the podium (460), unable to repeat the second place in Andorra.
Italy’s performance was positive, finishing fifth with a thunderous applause from the large public. Despite being in 4 – a girl was missing – the team of Angelo Rocchetti did a good job finishing 10 points behind Switzerland. “Mission accomplished – commented Italian team manager – of course with a slightly bitter taste. Last year the fifth place came with a gap of 190 points from Spain and 250 from the podium – added Rocchetti – here in Vermiglio in val di Sole, we have battled it out till the very end. The guys did an excellent job, congratulations. We are 10 points far from Switzerland’s 4th place and 120 from Germany’s bronze medal. Conclusions are easily made: with our girl racing we could have made it to the 4th place and a medal no longer a dream. We have to grow”.
At the end of the 4th round Italy was clearly 4th and only thanks to World vice Champion’s performance Lucien Leiser (40 points), Switzerland regained the 4th place.
The team manager expressed his compliments to the organization and is very happy about this race formula. ”We raced on a very technical and interesting course with good new passages. There are some sections that require a lot of power and athletes with better technical skills were favoured. I must confess that the I like the formula very much and also the large public in Vermiglio appreciated it”.
The team race section features the negotiation of five blocks, each with four different difficulty levels worth 10 to 40 points. Errors must be avoided. If a competitor touches the ground, he is eliminated and cannot finish the section, maintaining the score he had until that moment. In case of a penalty the score of that difficulty is zero. Exactly what happened to the Spanish World Champion.
Tomorrow the men’s semi-finals 20”, Elite and juniors will be held. In the afternoon there will be the Cross-country Masters event.
Alberto Penasa - Azienda Turismo Val di Sole
Viale Marconi, 7 - 3827 - Malè - (TN)
Tel. +39.0463.900863 - Fax +39.0463.901563
www.valdisole.net - penasa.a@valdisole.net
