The president of the UCI, Pat McQuaid said “We will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and will recognise the sanction that USADA gave. The UCI will ban Lance Armstrong from cycling and strip him of his 7 Tour de France titles. Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling.”

While the USADA verdict showed “beyond reasonable doubt” that Lance Armstrong engaged in doping and coverups, Armstrong retained his titles awaiting the UCI response.

This bring closure to the ordeal but by no means an end to the mess as this has further tainted cycling and sponsors are dropping out. It does however send a powerful sign to would-be cheats that even the most untouchable cyclist can eventually be brought down.

Is this the dawn of a new era where competitive cyclists put their trust in in sportsmanship? Speculation is loud that the Pro Cycling is now cleaner than it has been for years. There is plenty of room for improvement, faster testing and convictions are necessary along with improved testing so that the next generation aren’t tempted. This goes along with more clarity in the jurisdiction of different sporting bodies and courts.

Photo © Eugene

Australia’s sprint Queen, Anna Meares, says the Cyclones relish the opportunity to race in front of a home crowd and look forward to again being the top team of the round.

“We’re getting set to take on all comers and as the first World Cup round to offer qualifying points for the 2012 Olympic Games we’ll be extra keen to impress,” said 27-year-old Meares who is currently burning up the boards at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi where she is on track for a gold medal clean sweep of the women’s track sprint events.

“If you think the action’s hot in Delhi just wait until Melbourne,” she said.

Tickets are now on sale for the event which will see a host of World, Olympic and Commonwealth Champions in action. The events being contested include all those on the new Olympic Games program plus two host country selected events.

In Melbourne the organising committee has opted for the 500m time trial, in which Meares is the reigning World Champion, and the Madison won by Cameron Meyer and Leigh Howard at the 2010 World Championships. Australia is also the reigning World Champions in three other events on the schedule being the women’s and men’s teams pursuit and the women’s team sprint.

The 2010/2011 UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics is a four round series which kicks off in Melbourne before heading to Colombia (Cali 16 to 18 December), China ( Beijing 21 to 23 January) and England (Manchester 18 to 20 February).

The Classics act as a qualifying series for the 2011 UCI Track World Championships being staged in the Netherlands from 23 to 27 March.

Melbourne, which successfully staged the 2004 World Championships, will also host the 2012 UCI Track World Championships which are the final qualifying event for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Event Website: www.trackworldcup.com.au
Tickets from Ticketek (starting at $15)

Small business owners that I spoke to in Geelong had mixed emotions about the 5 day program, those who where selling food, snacks and meals considered the event to be a success for their business’ but still continued to feel that the 5 day event was too long for some of the other business’ around them.

One business owner saying, “at least they’ll all stop moaning now the event is over.”

The final day of the event, Sunday 3rd of October saw 150,000 spectators verge on Geelong to watch the elite men race. Australian’s can be proud of their cyclists; we took gold, silver and bronze, leading the medal tally for the rest of the world.

Reactions have been coming in thick and fast from the organizers, indicating that Australia could in fact hold an event like this in the future, UCI President Pat McQuaid said, “It has been a decision which was an absolutely correct decision. I can tell you that the teams that are here and the team managers that are here and that have many, many years experience of cycling, world championships and major events, have said they’re absolutely happy with everything that has been laid on from here. They’re happy with the atmosphere, happy with the course, happy with the security, happy with everything.”

Although the lead up to the event was marred with negativity, Steve Bracks is overall pleased with the result and the people of Geelong, he said the following, “so many people from Geelong feel great pride, they keep yelling out that they’re so proud of Geelong. There’s a great sense of achievement here, an achievement this community can easily build on.”

Cadel Evens who defended the Rainbow Jersey with great pride said the following on Twitter, ‘THANK YOU EVERYONE! Thanks for all the support-quite the day. Pleasure and honour to race with/as Aussies today.’

Evan’s team mate Simon Gerrans confirmed the feeling on Twitter saying, ‘The crowd at the race yesterday was absolutely amazing. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen. Thanks to everyone who was there cheering us on!’

The next UCI World Championships will be held in Denmark, www.copenhagen2011.dk, we hope to see you there.

Photo : Sirotti

A field of 172 riders began the Elite Men’s Road World Championships at Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne and the official race begin on the Westgate Bridge. A break away made the 84.7km journey to Geelong with 11 rounds of the 15.9km circuit to complete the 257,2km race. The breakaway group lead by 22 minutes and were only caught in the last round with a sprint finish.

The Australians were strong with Cadel Evans well position in the final lap, Thor Hushovd of Norway was was set up perfect in the final stretch to take the victory ahead of Matti Breschel of Denmark and Australian Allan Davis. From a field of 172 rider, 99 completed the circuit.

RC and Niel were on site on Geelong circuit to capture the action.

A big thankyou from BNA goes to Neil who spent time with us, taking photographs and getting us around the course to the best vantage points.

Photos : Neil  for BNA

The 178 strong peloton travel from Melbourne 84.7kms before they join course circuit of 15.9kms and will race 11 laps around.

The peloton took it very easy through the neutral zone often looking at the sights and the Australian banners on the sidelines, and at the start on the Westgate bridge, Matthew Brammeier (Ireland) attacked straight as the start flag was dropped. Incidentally this year’s Worlds is the first time in history the red flag wasn’t used, an Australian flag was used. Brammeier was followed by Jackson Rodriguez (Venezuela), Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukraine) and Mohammed Said Elammoury (Morocco) forming a five man breakaway working together and putting time into the peloton with the gap extending out to over 5 minutes. The peloton was happy to see them go clear with none of the four being contenders.

The Spaniards took the lead of the peloton and the Australians were tucked into the middle of the peloton.

Esad Hasanovic (Serbia) attacked the peloton trying to bridge the gap to the breakaway, but the breakaways time gap jumped out to 16 minutes, his team car came up next to him and the conversation was quite animated, perhaps he was told to sit up and wait, though he didn’t do this, instead put his head down and drove towards the lead group.

The peloton has let the breakaway slip out to 20 minutes there is currently a lap time of around 23 minutes when they hit Geelong, which means they could lap the peloton, and the big names of the race wouldn’t be able to pull that lap back. Without any race radios, was the peloton aware of the lead?

The lead group has entered Geelong streets, the chasing rider Esad Hasanovic hasn’t reached the outskirts of Geelong yet still yoyoing in between the groups. The peloton still hasn’t responded with the gap still being 23 minutes.

As the lead group came over the first climb the gap was down to 22 minutes which will keep the peloton on the same lap, but not by much, by the time the leaders crested the second climb, with Rodriguez putting a few meters into the rest of the group, the peloton were 2kms into the circuit. So they are chasing but haven’t started reeling them back in.

As the peloton came over the first climb with a massive cheer from the crowd for our Aussie team the time was down to 20 minutes, so they have brought them back 2 minutes within a lap.

Mohammed Said Elammoury (Morocco) became a crowd favorite of the day, he was dropped over the last climb but is still hanging on, the next lap I thought he had retired but he was still there. Elammoury was getting a lot of encouragement from the crowd!

The Belgians were working together on the climbs and splitting the main group with a group of 25 riders going clear, as they went over the second climb they slowed their pace to allow the peloton to get back together but the Belgians showed their strength and cracks were forming the main peloton.

The chasing group was steadily closing the gap to the lead group, around 3 minutes a lap. The Belgians, Spaniards and Italians were organized on the front and are well drilled in keeping a hard and fast pace so no-one can attack and dropping riders until the main contenders are left. The main peloton has fractured a lot of the big names haven’t made the chasing group including Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) and Thor Hushovd (Norway) along with Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland).

It started to look like the peloton and chasing groups wouldn’t catch the breakaway with three laps down they still had a lead of 13 minutes but they were now suffering and the Italians and Spanish are driving the pace and now Australians were at the front. Stuart O’Grady (Australia) the team captain is again pulling the chasing group along much like he does at the Tour.

A select group of riders which contained Australia’s Cadel Evans, Simon Gerrans and Stuart O’Grady, Philippe Gilbert (Belgium), Filippo Pozzato, Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) and Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia) has broken away from the peloton and has brought the lead group back to 6 minutes down.

Oleksandr Kvachuk (Ukraine), has attacked and only Diego Alejandro Tamayo Martinez responded and now Kvachuk has a 3 minute gap to Martinez and the chasing group is 4 minutes down. Mark Cavendish (Great Britain) has dropped out of the race; it’s turning into a classic race more than a sprint. Does Cadel Evans really have a chance? Next year’s course in Copenhagen certainly will suit him but our own Michael Matthews who won the U23 World Road Racing rainbow jersey will be on his wheel.

Gerrans and Goss have worked hard for Cadel today, covering moves and looking after him, Goss has been dropped this lap and has pulled out of the race.

Vincenzo Nibali (Italy) has attacked and caught Cadel off guard, Cadel has reacted, Cadel has fought to get back on and Nibali has attacked him again and pulled out a small margin over the elite group.

The lead group containing Nibali has Chris S?rensen (Denmark), Jose Rodolfo Serpa Perez (Colombia), Giovanni Visconti (Italy), Koos Moerenhout (Netherlands). And the chasing group 22 seconds behind Nibali including, Filippo Pozzato (Italy), Philippe Gilbert (Belgium), Tejay Van Garderen (United States of America), and Cadel Evans (Australia), have been joined by the groupetto of 32 riders. Thor Hushovd (Norway) has also joined this group.

Both groups have come back together at the base of the second climb, and Bj?rn Leukemans (Belgium) has attacked with Philippe Gilbert (Belgium) and Pozzato getting his wheel and Cadel bridges the gap not working together by the bell lap they are all back together all the big names are in it, Gilbert, Hushovd, Nibali, Pozzato, Evans, Schleck and S?rensen. There’s 15.9kms of racing left in this year’s World Road Racing Championships. Someone has to attack.

Cadel was sitting in the pack, not where he wants to be, Gilbert has attacked on the steepest section of the climb and Cadel was slow to respond, no-one has gone with him and he has a small break. Gilbert has extended his lead on the descent while Cadel, Schleck and Kolobnev have gone over the crest together. The gap has pushed out to 20 seconds on the second climb but Evans, Kolobnev, S?rensen, Schleck and Bj?rn Leukemans (Belgium) are working to reel him in.

Now with 5kms to go and slightly downhill, Evans has gone out on his own with Schleck on his wheel time trialing burying themselves and drawing Gilbert back in.  The peloton has reeled them in, this is going to turn into a bunch sprint!

There’s a flurry of attacks to no avail the peloton are charging now, and with 1 km to go it’s a bunch sprint, this is now what I predicted.
Around the last corner, Hushovd has come from the peloton and started his sprint down the left hand side, the finish line kicks up, and Hushovd comes across the line and wins the 2010 World Road Racing Championship.

Matti Breschel (DEN) for silver and Australia’s Allan Davis (AUS) bronze.

“It is hard to understand that now I won at the worlds. It’s a dream and sometimes I feel it’s an unreal dream and now I’ve won it here in Geelong, Australia, so that was amazing, I’m speechless,” Hushovd said."I think it was still a perfect race."

Davis held off a late lunge from Italy’s Filippo Pozzato for the bronze medal.

“I’m the only one up on the podium but for sure it was a huge team effort, I thought we rode tactically brilliantly today. We had three guys in that main split there. Myself, I was just playing my cards on a small group finish, which it came down to. I knew [Oscar] Freire (ESP) was there, Thor [Hushovd] (NOR) was there so, like Thor said, there was Spain and Russia at the end controlled it,” Davis said.

“The bronze medal is something special definitely, here in Australia as well, it’s something that I’ll never forget and I’d like to thank all my teammates and all the staff as well, it’s been a huge success for us as an Australian team and for cycling in Australia.”

2010 UCI World Championships Elite Mens Road Race

1      Thor Hushovd (Norway)      6:21:49       
2     Matti Breschel (Denmark)            
3     Allan Davis (Australia)            
4     Filippo Pozzato (Italy)            
5     Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium)            
6     Oscar Freire Gomez (Spain)            
7     Alexandr Kolobnev (Russian Federation)            
8     Assan Bazayev (Kazakhstan)            
9     Yukiya Arashiro (Japan)            
10     Romain Feillu (France)            
11     Grega Bole (Slovenia)            
12     Dmitriy Fofonov (Kazakhstan)            
13     Koos Moerenhout (Netherlands)            
14     Fabian Wegmann (Germany)            
15     Andre Fernando S. Martins Cardoso (Portugal)            
16     Frank Schleck (Luxembourg)            
17     Cadel Evans (Australia)            
18     Philippe Gilbert (Belgium)            
19     Niki Terpstra (Netherlands)     + 0:00:07      
20     Bj?rn Leukemans (Belgium)

99 from 172 riders completed the course

A big thankyou from BNA goes to Neil who spent time with us, taking photographs and getting us around the course to the best vantage points.

Photos ? Sirotti

The race was marked by an early breakaway of five riders that gained an advantage of more than 20 minutes on the bunch. After 175 km of racing, a group of 32 riders gained about a minute on the peloton behind, where Hushovd was. “For a while, of course, I thought it was over for the peloton at that moment,” said Hushovd.

But the Hushovd group reduced the gap, and in the last lap the favorites tried to break away. Philippe Gilbert (BEL) made the best move. He got a small margin but not enough to hold it to the finish. In the finale three riders tried it again, but they where caught in the final kilometer and everything came back together just before the finish line.

Source: Cervélo TestTeam
Photo : Sirotti

The 123 strong peloton afforded itself only 76 finishes, Belen Lopez Morales (ESP) managed to scrape in with a time of +19:35 behind the winner Italian Giorgia Bronzini, Bronzini was riding with her heart and she said at the press conference after the race, “first I race with my heart and secondly for Ballerini.”

Bronzini continued to say that she “waited and thought about the finish….was hard to finish in the small group….”

Marianne Vos of the Netherlands was a clear favourite to win today’s race, she has now placed second four times and it made sense to see her up there on the podium again, although there is no doubt that she would have preferred gold. She said that she thought the race would be harder, “the climb is hard? but after the descent, there’s a long way to go for the final.”

Sweden’s Emma Johansson was knocked slightly by Vos coming in for the final sprint as they crossed the finish line, but the UCI officials have looked at the footage and the medals will stay the same, Johansson said the following on her bronze medal “it was very frustrating… I’m happy to have my first World Championship medal, but you always want more.”

45 of the 123 women who started did not finish the race, they worked hard for their teams, being offered up as a sacrifice to try and keep the strongest rider at the front and out of harm’s way.

Results of the 2010 UCI World Championships Elite Women’s Road Race

1 Giorgia Bronzini (Italy)
2 Marianne Vos (Netherlands)
3 Emma Johansson (Sweden)
4 Nicole Cooke (Great Britain)
5 Judith Arndt (Germany)
6 Grace Verbeke (Belgium)
7 Trixi Worrack (Germany)
8 Rasa Leleivyte (Lithuania)
9 Elizabeth Armitstead (Great Britain)
10 Carla Swart (South Africa)

Photos ? Sirotti

Ruth Corset (AUS) made the choice to change her bike at the beginning of the second lap after being involved in a crash on the first lap. Bridie O’Donnell (AUS) was sitting at the back of the peloton with legend Jeannie Longo (FRA); O’Donnell looked to be struggling throughout the second lap which wasn’t good news for the Australian women.

Three laps in and rider Dinah Chan (SIN) pulled out of the course, Cromwell was doing her job as expected leading the peloton, Cromwell is an excellent domestique and can climb, making her the perfect team mate for this course. Two breakaways where attempted early on the first climb, but the peloton chased them down easily, the breakaways weren’t overly strong, nor had they been 100% committed in their breakaway, the peloton easily bought the riders back together on Pakington Street as predicted.

As the women headed onto Moorabool St to finish the third lap, they did so very fast, with Italian Eleonara Patuzzo out in front; the peloton changed very quickly with Katheryn Curi Mattis (USA) who went for the breakaway the minute the peloton was over the top of Moorabool St. Two Swiss riders pulled out at the beginning of the fourth lap as the riders made it to the top of Moorabool St.

On the fifth lap the Curi-Mattis is still out in front, she had a gap of 2:25 from the peloton, the women at the back of the peloton where seriously struggling, women still coming through the gates 5minutes after the main peloton. Emma Pooley (GBR) seemed to be in her element on all the climbs as did Cromwell, Ryan and Vicki Whitelaw (AUS). The peloton had been setting a strong pace as the peloton headed towards lap six and the pace was too much for Serene Lee (SIN) and rider Kathryn Bertine (SKN), any more time on the course and Lee and Bertine would have easily been swallowed by the peloton on the sixth lap.

Curi-Mattis looks lean on the course as she headed into the 6th lap, but began to suffer on the first climb. Amanda Spratt (AUS) and Bridie O’Donnell (AUS) where suffering as they came into the 6th lap they were over 7minutes behind the main group and pulled out in the team area on Moorabool St. Cromwell was setting the pace at the front as they headed into the first climb on Challambra Crescent.

Lap seven saw the Australian’s and the British fall back through the peloton, the Australian and the British teams did what many teams would have done today which was to use as many riders as possible to push the pace at the front and to bring back breakaways. On the 7th lap Curie Mattis got over taken by the pint sized Pooley, the world Time Trial Champion as of Wednesday’s race, the Peloton caught up to Pooley on the first climb of Challambra Crescent.

On lap eight the women pushed the pace even faster, Nicole Cooke (GBR) broke away on the descent heading towards the bottom of the hill on Mt Pleasant, stringing out the rest of the peloton on the descent. Cooke was still in the lead as they rode the rainbow bridge for the last time, Judith Arndt (GER) closing the gap on the final climb, both Arndt and Cooke worked together with less than 6km to go.

The final 4km was reminiscent of Mark Renshaw’s lead out of Mark Cavendish on the final stage of the 2009 Tour de France. With less than 4km to go the women were not chasing as the two leads rode onto the Esplanade with a slight headwind, once they hit Moorabool St it was each for their own.

First place went to Italy’s Giorgia Bronzini in the bunch sprint that we had all been talking about, Marianne Vos of the Netherlands came in second place for the second time and Emma Johansson of Sweden took 3rd place.

2nd Marianne Vos (Netherlands), 1st Giorgia Bronzini (Italy), 3rd Emma Johansson (Sweden)

The Elite Aussie Women

The elite women raced hard and fast, commentators telling the crowds that this race was not high tea nor was it a moment to be a lady.

It came down to the last lap; the final six km saw Judith Arndt and Nicole Cooke dragged each other along the Esplanade to Moorabool St. Once on Moorabool Street the peloton came back together in preparation for a bunch sprint as expected.

Our highest placed Australian was Ruth Corset coming in 26th place and Vicki Whitelaw coming in 28th.

2010 UCI World Championship Elite Women’s Road Race

1 Giorgia Bronzini (Italy)
2 Marianne Vos (Netherlands)
3 Emma Johansson (Sweden)
4 Nicole Cooke (Great Britain)
5 Judith Arndt (Germany)
6 Grace Verbeke (Belgium)
7 Trixi Worrack (Germany)
8 Rasa Leleivyte (Lithuania)
9 Elizabeth Armitstead (Great Britain)
10 Carla Swart (South Africa)

Coming up next – the Elite Men’s Road Race

If the under 23′s race and Elite Women’s road race is anything to go by, we’ll see the same thing at the Elite Men’s race on Sunday 3rd of October. The Elite Men’s road race departs from Federation Square in Melbourne at 10am and  head to Geelong for the circuit.

Photos ? Sirotti

On the time trial course at the Championships:
“It’s certainly a very tough circuit. I was lucky enough to see it in January when I was here for the Tour Down Under and made a special trip down here to Geelong to inspect the circuit, but I don’t remember it being this tough…I think the weather conditions will play a big part in the race.”

“It’s tough. There’s a lot of rhythm change. The weather, the wind, will have a huge impact.”

“A lot of the European guys have been shocked. Everyone thinks, ‘sunny, beautiful, flat Australia’ and that’s not the case.”

On how he feels before his participation in the Championships:
“I’m feeling good. I’ve had quite a good build‐up, particularly for the time trial. I’m feeling positive and ready to go, but until I get out there and cross the line there is, for me, a bit of a question mark on how I’m going. I haven’t raced so much since the Tour de France, but I’m feeling confident and good on the bike.”

“I haven’t raced that much, I’ve had to base my entire preparation on training, but that’s exactly what I did in the years that I won.”

On his two‐year break from time trials:
“I still enjoy it. I’ve taken the last couple of years out…but after winning three world championships earlier on in my career, I didn’t have that drive anymore to win it. But I worked hard to get that back this year and I’ve been time‐trialing well. I’ve hardly finished out of the top three or four in time‐trialing this year.”

–

Michael Rogers (30) currently is part of the Pro Cycling team HTC Columbia and his contract ends in 2010. There is strong speculation, though unconfirmed by HTC Colmbia and Team Sky that Mick Rogers will join Team Sky for 2010.

Photo : TDWSport / Team HTC Columbia

Schurter, 23, won the 2004 junior crown, last year claimed gold in the U23 event and today added an elite title to his collection of rainbow jerseys. His team mate Florian Vogel, 27, was third.

It was the most exciting cross country event of the week with only three seconds separating Schurter and Absalon, with Vogel and Spain’s Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos finishing on the same time 58 seconds behind the winner.

Earlier in the elite women’s event, Irina Kalentieva of Russia overcame a disastrous start to defeat Lene Byberg of Norway and American Willow Koerber but it was the men’s event that had the massive crowd in raptures throughout.

All four of the top men sat together for the first four and a half 6.47 kilometre laps of the 45.29km race but it was Schurter and Vogel who rode a perfect tactical race for Switzerland.

Schurter sat glued to 29-year-old Absalon’s wheel for more than half the race while Vogel shadowed Hermida Ramos as the Spaniard rode hard in a bid to try and bridge the gap to the two leaders.

With less than 1.2km to go Absalon tried to attack but a misjudgement with his gears saw him lose ground and Schurter surged ahead at the final feed zone to win in a time of 2hr04min39sec.

A jubilant Schurter said even though it appeared the course had been made for him he didn’t think he could win the gold from his more experienced and well credentialed rival.

“I’ve had such a bad season but now with this race it’s a dream come true,” Schurter said. “It’s an amazing feeling, the perfect race, perfect course for me. It was very technical and that suits me.

“The whole race I was thinking just to try to stay on his back wheel and race for silver, never thinking I could take the win but at the last feed zone I attacked and got away.”

After the race Schurter praised his bronze medal winning teammate.

“I like courses that are technical and this was the perfect course for me. I was lucky to stay with Julien and maybe without Florian I wouldn’t have been able to do that,” he said.

Meanwhile Absalom, who has won four World Cup events this year, said he was up against it having led most of the race against the Swiss pair and even though he expected Schurter to try and break away he couldn’t respond.

“I was not in a good position. I led, I did most of the race in front,” Absalom said. “This track is fast and it was not possible to get away with the wind, it was hard and the Swiss riders proved that they are the strongest nation together.

“I was expecting the attack in the feed zone (from Schurter) but not as strong.”

Swiss 2008 world champion, Christoph Sauser was well back in tenth and was only ever as close as eighth.

Chris Jongewaard was the best placed Australian in 15th place, 4min35sec behind the winner.

Of the other Australian’s Daniel McConnell finished 32nd, Ben Henderson was 35th, Sid Taberlay 39th, Dylan Cooper 55th and Andrew Blair 61st.

In the women’s race, Kalentieva of Russia overcame a disastrous start in the 32.35km women’s elite cross country event, to claim her nation’s first gold medal of the Championships.

The 31-year-old was forced to stop on the first lap after a technical problem that dropped her back to 21st place. The Russian eventually finished in a time of 1min43min20sec, just 13 seconds ahead of silver medallist Lene Byberg of Norway. American Willow Koerber claimed the bronze a further 39 seconds behind.

Kalentieva said she used the early mishap as motivation throughout the rest of the race.

“It was unbelievable, I was in first place and then on the downhill section my chain broke and I had to spend over a minute fixing it,” Kalentieva said. “I think it gave me more concentration and gave me more strength because it is not something that should happen today at the World Championships.”

After leading for the first four of the five lap race, Byberg could do nothing as Kalentieva powered past her in the final stages.

“I had the title in my hands and lost it,” a clearly disappointed Byberg said. “I tried really hard and just went for it but it was hard riding alone for so long, this is my first international medal so I am still happy.”

Koerber also spent the majority of the race at the front of the pack and said that a hectic start had played into her hands.

“At the start I was just wondering what was going on, no one could ride because everyone was crashing,” Koerber said. “It obviously worked for me though because I finished well and got a medal.”

The reigning champion and number one ranked rider going into the race, Margarita Riera Fullana failed to fire and finished in a disappointing 16th place.

Kate Potter was the best of the sizable Australian contingent in 24th in a time of 1hour53mins33secs, ahead of Rowena Fry (27th), Joanna Harrington (32nd), Katherine O’Shea (34th), Jodie Willett (40th), Joanna Wall (41st) and Zoe King (44th).

Potter seemed to enjoy the experience more than most and was pleased with her effort.

“It was a tough race but a really, really fun course so even though you’re trying as hard as you can, and you’re hurting you can’t help but love it because the single track is so much fun and there was always someone in front and someone behind so I always pushed as hard as I could and it was a really good race for me today,” Potter said.

Fry had been placed 20th at the end of both the third and fourth laps before crashing on the last circuit, damaging a tyre and losing several places when she stopped for repairs.

“I was having a good race, fighting it out for a spot in the top 20 which I was really happy about and then just unfortunately on the last lap, a bit of fatigue kicked in on the climb and I lost my front wheel and crashed,” Fry said.

“That wasn’t such an issue but I must have lost a bit of air from the tyre and about a minute later I rolled the tyre off the rim which I had to repair while watching all the girls go past me.”

The Observed Trials competition has been a hit with spectators of all ages with the world’s best riders completing two rounds each of six sections in and around the event village. The riders have to jump over and onto a range of interesting materials including pallets, drainage pipes, shipping containers, wine barrels, rocks and other obstacles. Riders are penalised and a dab (point) is recorded if any part of their body touches the ground.

In today’s 20″ elite mens final, crowds that would have pleased Tiger Woods gathered to watch the favourite, Spain’s Benito Ros Charral ride to his sixth World Championship gold medal in seven years.

Benito, now 28, a 20″ specialist, dominated the event with five penalty free sections, more than all of his rivals combined.

“The course was beautiful and hard,” said Ros Charral. “The crowd was very good, with a lot of people in some sections. Their support really inspired me to perform well.”

Ros Charral finished nearly 14 penalties clear of second place Rafal Kumorowski from Poland with Swiss rider Loris Braun a further nine behind.

Braun, 19, was last year’s junior World Champion and the youngest in the elite final.

“Benito rode incredibly and is on his own level, I enjoyed the competition and the crowd atmosphere,” said Braun. “I hope one day to win a World Championship.

“I’m impressed by the knowledge of the trials fans in Australia, but hope to see the sport get more coverage and become more popular.”

In the Junior 20″ event Spain took out the quinella with an impressive first and second place. The gold medal went to pre-event favourite Abel Mustieles Garcia, with a confident and polished performance for a total penalty score of 24.

It’s the last year in the junior ranks for Mustieles Garcia, who has been riding trials since he was six.

“I liked the challenge of the hard sections like the rock garden,” said Mustieles Garcia. “The course for the finals was harder than for the semi-finals, but I enjoyed it.”

The silver medal went to Ion Areitio Aguirre, on 31 points with Belgium’s Roderique Timellini in third place three penalties further back.

The team trials medal, introduced this year was based on performance in the semi-finals, was presented to Spain. Second place went to France, just 20 points behind with Belgium a further 26 points back taking third.

Competition concludes tomorrow with all the downhill finals and the medal rounds of the elite and junior men’s 26″ observed trials.