Well it is raining here, but all the same the XC seems to be going well. The under 23s womens race today was won by the seemingly unstopable duo of Liu Ying taking the gold, with Chengyuan Ren coming in second nearly 4 minutes later. Unusual... normally the other way around. It was quite damp today, so I didn't go right up on the course. Tomorrow perhap. Third place was Elisabeth Osl.

The Austrian Osl is riding really well at the moment.



In terms of the Chinese girls, well their lead was large. Osl came in 5mins 30 after Ying and 2 mins after Chengyuan.

The Podium



Amy Hunt was the first team GB rider.



It will be interesting to see how their lap times compare to Saturdays event with Spitz, Kalentieva and co.

Kurschat was also there, practicing on the course in the damp conditions by the looks of it.



His cleaned bike



Later I went to see the German national team mechanics. They had a long night ahead of them, Peter and Martin still managed a smile though. (Lado's Canyon in pic)



Again his Canyon with Sabine Spitz's bike in the background.



Now there was A LOT of material lying around.... and Sabine Spitz's bike is very light.... under 9kg for sure.





Nice pair of Stans on Tunes there.

Start numbers....



Kalentieva's bike was also there, but she wasn't. This is Wolfy in the pic here. That frame is TINY.



Finally... I think we would all like to be able to get away with riding this bike!



More to come tomorrow.

RTW

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http://worksrider.wordpress.com/

Good pics RTW.

Gutted I'm missing this as its my best mate's (non-cycling mate) 21st night out on Saturday so I'll be too hungover for the drive up

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my canyon

great stuff. Keep it coming!


PS: AUT rules

RTW - please tell Irina that I send my love - that's sure to make her go faster, right?

Oh ya, more pics - more pics!!!

Damn, I move away from Scotland, and now it gets Singlespeed and UCI MTB Worlds in the same year! I lived within about 30 miles from Fort Bill until 2003. Sheeit... I see it still rains there

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http://www.mikezagorski.com

Still rains in Hawaii too, but it's a little warmer there, no?

How cool would it be to see World MTB go to Hawaii - really freakin' cool!

they did have MTB World Cup races here in the past... Kualoa Ranch - where they filmed some of Jurassic Park. I did a 24hr MTB race there a few years back and it was awesome.

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http://www.mikezagorski.com

Okay.... more pics.

Kalentieva's Terry proto...





More team bikes....



Nina Gohl



Hermidas...





I am guessing from the seatbag and the rusty chain (yes dude, you're famous!) this is the training machine.

The tension on the start line.



One very happy Russian....



The cult figure himself....



Press interviewing Kalentieva backstage.



That's all I got I am afraid. Phone battery ran out!

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http://worksrider.wordpress.com/