Mont-Ste-Anne leftovers
Odds and ends from last weekend’s World Cup final at Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec. — With Mick Hannah out for the rest of the year after breaking his collarbone at Mount Snow, Global Racing has signed 16-year-old Finnish junior Matti Lekihoinen to race for the team at the world championships in Vail. Team director Martin Whiteley said if Koinen wins at world’s his team will sign the reigning European junior downhill champion for 2002. — GT’s Steve Peat was at Mont-Ste-Anne but didn’t race. The early-season World Cup leader is still recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in practice at the
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By Jason Sumner, VeloNews Associate Editor
Photo:
Odds and ends from last weekend’s World Cup final at Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec.
— With Mick Hannah out for the rest of the year after breaking his collarbone at Mount Snow, Global Racing has signed 16-year-old Finnish junior Matti Lekihoinen to race for the team at the world championships in Vail. Team director Martin Whiteley said if Koinen wins at world’s his team will sign the reigning European junior downhill champion for 2002.
— GT’s Steve Peat was at Mont-Ste-Anne but didn’t race. The early-season World Cup leader is still recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in practice at the Grouse Mountain World Cup, but expects to be ready to go for world’s. Peat’s teammate, Fabien Barel, who injured his knee at Arai, is also expected to be ready for Vail after missing the last three World Cups.
— When Chris Kovarik lost to Barel in the downhill at Grouse Mountain by one hundredth of a second, he wasn’t wearing a skin suit. Guess who was wearing Lyrca at Mont-Ste-Anne when he won the downhill?
— When asked about his plans for next year — road or mountain-bike racing? — Miguel Martinez didn’t have a firm answer. “I don’t know. It depends on my team. I’m not sure if the team will continue. We will see.”
— Gravity racers Brian Lopes and Greg Minnaar both took a shot at the cross country at Mont-Ste-Anne, but neither finished. Lopes ended up 63rd at –3 laps, while Minnaar was 67th at –4.
— Barbara Blatter said she’s extremely confident going into world’s, but no matter what happens, she’ll be more proud of her back-to-back World Cup titles. “The World Cup is more important to me,” she said. “It’s eight races, not just one race and some luck.”
