Results|
Unfortunately the link from Freecaster to their satellite died, but with a little help from the UCI, Twitter and Facebook we managed to get live commentary of the event to you. Hopefully the updates were ok, and for those of you who want to watch the whole thing as nature intended here's the video!
FOURCROSS LATEST:
The town will be on fire tonight! Home-girl Caroline Buchanan has taken the women's race and Graves the men's.
Finals Result Men:
1. Jared Graves
2. Romain Saladini
3. Jakub Riha
4. Rafa Alvarez
Finals Result Women:
1. Caroline Buchanan
2. Jill Kintner
3. Melissa Buhl
4. Anita Molcik
Semi Finals women's result has changed for some very unknown reason! It now seems Buhl is through and Beerten is out.
Semi Finals Result Men:
Graves and Alvarez into the finals! Could Alvarez come back at the biggest race of the year and defend his title? Nobody would have seen that coming for sure!
Round Two Result Men:
Semi Finals Result Women:
Graves is through round two, another win. Could this year be the one for him? Bad news for team GB, no riders make it past the quarters as Dan Atherton goes out. Sam Willoughby is also a shock exit - apparantly he went down hard. Favourites so far to make it to the final are Graves, Slavik, Wichman and Saladini.
World Champion Melissa Buhl is out, too.
According to Simon Burney it is really cold in Oz, but the crowds for the fourcross are massive!
Only Dan Atherton made it through for the Brits. Both Scott Beaumont and Fionn Griffiths went out in the opener. Prokop and Ropelato also out in round one, Labounkova out of the women's also.
Round One Result Men:
Round One Result Women:
Looks like the fourcross broadcast is delayed for twenty minutes or so because the Freecaster satellite is out, the tension is so much I am going to snap into a Rob Warner metaphor of rage any time now!
Welcome to the live coverage of the 2009 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Friday morning in the UK and it's time for the fourcross from a floodlit Canberra. The running order is decided and in round one Brit Scott Beaumont is up against it with favourite Jared Graves in the gate, alongside Filip Polc and Giordanengo. Dan Atherton has a slightly easier draw in round two lining up with Graf, Huntingdon and Harderer.
Heat three features the 2008 World Champion Rafa Alvarez, heat four Joost Wichman - who has taken three World Cups in 2009, heat five sees second-placed qualifier Tomas Slavik and 2003 World Champion Michael Prokop.
Heat six is the Aussie BMX duo of Luke Madill and Sam Willoughby, heat seven the crazy Mitch Ropelato and heat eight Johannes Fischbach. That is one hell of a lineup!
For the women it's a bit of threecross in the opening quarters, a shame but the action will go down in the final with the anticipation of another Kintner/Beerten showdown. Look out for Caroline Buchanan, Melissa Buhl and Fionn Griffiths to be in the mix for the remaining spots. Fionn did have a 'mare in qualification but must be high on confidence following her third position in downhill timed practise earlier today. Let's hope she didn't burn all her matches on that one.
