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Rain returns for Bromont 4X

By Rob Jones
Published: Aug. 2, 2008

The rain, which had held off for the World Cup Downhill at Bromont, Quebec, on Saturday, returned for the start of the Four-Cross in the evening. Despite the soggy track, there was some extremely exciting racing, with multiple come-from-behind rides. World Cup leaders Anneke Beerten (MS-Intense) and Rafael Alvarez de Lara Lucas (Specialized) extended their leads in the women's and men's series with convincing wins.

The long and hard course provided lots of opportunities for passing, and there were numerous lead changes, with the most spectacular by Alvarez in the semifinals. He had a poor start, crashing out of the gate and coming out of the first corner well back in fourth place, and looking to be out of the race. However, a series of well executed passes through the middle and lower portion of the course allowed him to move back into second behind Guido Tschugg (Fusion) and move on to the final with Tschugg. Cedric Gracia (Furious-Oakley) and Johannes Fischbach (Ghost) led the other semifinal to move on to the gold medal round. In the men's final, Alvarez made no mistakes and led from start to finish. Gracia, coming back from his own poor start, moved ahead of Tschugg and Fishbach to take silver.

The women's final came down to Beerten, Anita Molcik (4 Elements Yeti), Mio Suemasa (MS-Intense) and Caroline Buchanan. Beerten led the race from start to finish, followed by Molcik. Suemasa came from behind to pass Buchanan for third.

Race Note: The organizers spent three weeks building what is probably one of the most sophisticated four-cross courses ever seen on the World Cup circuit. Four large dump trucks delivered 650 loads of dirt, which was put into place by six backhoes and a bulldozer. Organizer Richard Deslandes says that the course will be a permanent feature, and that he hopes to run a four-cross series next year.