Global Oakley Mountain Bike Team Invades Canada for UCI World Championships
When the Global Oakley Mountain Bike Team all shows up in one place, rivals know there’s trouble coming.
Just ask the field of riders at the 20th UCI MTB World Championships last week. The event took place on the steep slopes of Mont Sainte-Anne just outside of Historic Quebec City in French Canada – and it’s safe to say that the Big O dominated the scene.
The Global Oakley team gathered and trained all week to a very different MSA than normal…Dry! The beginning and most all through the week, it was unusually hot and bone dry. As the week continued on, with the help of Hurricane Earl, everything changed back to what was expected…wet, slippery and steep trails to challenge the world’s best mountain bikers.
One of the highlights of the week for the Athletes was the “Oakley Safehouse” which was located at the base of the mountain – easily accessible to our team for a quiet place to recharge between training and competition and celebrations. It must have worked…as the contest results spoke for themselves.
Here’s just how prominent Oakley’s presence actually was:
RESULTS
Team Relay
1. Switzerland- Oakley
2. Germany- Oakley
3. Czech Republic- Oakley
JR Women XC
1. Pauline Ferrand Prevot- Oakley
2. Yana Belomoya
3. Helen Grobert- Oakley
U23 Womens XC
1. Alexandra Engen
2. Annie Last-Oakley
3. Paula Gorycka
JR Men’s XC
1. Michiel Van Heijden
2. Julien Tarieux-Oakley
3. Julian Schelb-
U23 men’s XC
The U23 cross-country Victory went to Oakley Europe’s Mathias Flückiger, who had already won the title in the Juniors category in New Zealand in 2006. Despite a swollen knee the morning of the race…Mattias “soldiered on” to start the race to do his best…well, his best was a win and another World Title to his list of accomplishments.
1. Mattias Fluckinger-Oakley
2. Thomas Litscher
3. Patrik Gallati- Oakley
W’s 4X
A massive crowd attended the 4-cross finals under lights and live on World Wide TV, certainly one of the highlights of these World Championships. In the Women’s race, Australia’s Caroline Buchanan secured the title she had won at home in Canberra a year ago, riding faster than Czech Republic’s Jana Horakova and Romana Labounkova.
1. Caroline Buchanan- Oakley
2. Jana Horakova
3. Romana Labounkova
M’s 4X
1. Tomas Slavik
2. Jared Graves-Oakley
3. Michal Prokop-Oakley
W’s XC
In what was arguably the most exciting W’s XC race of the history of world championships so far, Koerber powered her way to a bronze medal to cap off a stellar season that also saw her finish second overall in the World Cup standings last weekend.
1. Maja Wioszczowska
2. Irina Kalenteiva
3. Willow Koerber-Oakley
M’s XC
1. Jose Hermida
2. Jaroslav Kulhavy
3. Burry Stander- Oakley
JR DH
1. Troy Brosnan
2. Neko Mulally_Oakley
3. Lewis Buchanan-Oakley
W’s DH
Oakley UK’s Tracy Moseley had never won a world title. In fact, this season she hadn’t even managed a victory in a World Cup race. And still, Tracy, who for years has been part of the select circle of the best downhill specialists, knew that anything was still possible. For her, the gold medal in Mont-Sainte-Anne was a well-merited crowning achievement in a career that would not have been quite complete without this latest exploit.
On the track in Quebec, which was extremely slippery after the morning rain, the British rider opened up some very significant gaps over the two French competitors Sabrina Jonnier, the newly-crowned World Cup winner, and Emmeline Ragot, 2009 World Champion in Canberra. The two French riders joined her on the podium, having finished respectively 8 and 11 seconds behind.
1. Tracy Moseley-Oakley
2. Sabrina Jonnier
3. Emmeline Ragot
M’s DH
1. Sam Hill
2. Steve Smith-Oakley
3. Greg Minnaar- Oakley
Some truly awesome results for Team Oakley! A special thanks goes out to the Oakley Canada Crew for the hard work to get everything looking sharp.
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