- HOT TOPICS:
- An American start for the Giro? •
- 2010 Routes: Giro | California | TdF •
- LA doc guilty on all counts
Paulissen, Hurikova win Cyprus stage race
Belgian Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein) and Czech Tereza Hurikova took overall victories at the Afxentia Stage Race, a three-day cross-country race held on the island of Cyprus. The competition included two cross-country races — each counting as rounds of Cyprus’ Sunshine Cup series — as well as an individual time trial sandwiched between.
Paulissen took his GC victory by 5:11 over Czech Jaroslav Kuhlhavy (Czech National), with Kuhlhavy’s teammate and countryman Milan Spesny in third. American Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) finished in fifth place, 9:50 down on Paulissen.
The Belgian took the opening stage, the 43km Mantra-Kionia-Mantra cross-country race, ahead of former teammate Swede Fredrik Kessiakoff (Full Dynamix) by 1:47. Paulissen then padded his lead by defeating Kessiakoff by 29 seconds in the 7.4km Macheras Mountains time trial.
Kessiakoff dropped out of the stage 3 cross-country race on March 2 due to a leg injury, opening the door for the Kulhavy to take over the second-place spot. Kulhavy did not disappoint, and attacked Paulissen on the last of five laps to take the stage win.
“I didn’t want to take any risks in the downhills. I was looking on the overall,” Paulissen said about his second-place finish in the final event. “The last two days were very hard.”
Hurikova, the 2005 junior world champ, battled relentlessly with German Sabine Spitz (Central-Ghost) throughout the three day event. Spitz narrowly defeated the Czech rider in the opening stage, dropping Hurikova on the course’s final climb and hanging on for a four-second victory. But Spitz sat out the time trial, allowing Hurikova into the driver’s seat. The Czech took the short individual race by 30 seconds over Swede Alexandra Engen (Merida Sweden). American Heather Irmiger (Subaru-Gary Fisher) finished in third place at 41 seconds down.
Spitz asserted her dominance in the final day’s cross-country race, defeating Hurikova by 15 seconds. But with the German only completing two of the three races, Hurikova took the overall win by 10:09 over Engen. Irmiger, who suffered a flat tire in the opening stage, finished third, 19:26 down.
Each year Cyprus’ Sunshine Cup series hosts the first UCI-sanctioned cross-country mountain-bike events of the calendar year. Many of Europe’s top cross-country riders use the five-race series as training and preparation for the upcoming World Cup series. The Sunshine Cup concludes with the March 9 race in Voroklini and the March 16 event in Limassol.
