After a great race the previous weekend in Houffalize where she got third, Marie-Helene Premont hightailed it to the airport and flew home to ace her exam, and then came back ready to lay a beating on the full field at Nissan World Cup #2 in Offenburg Germany.
From the gun, Marie-Helene, Marga Fullana of Spain, World Champion Irina Kalentieva, and the winner in Houffalize, Ren Chengyuan immediately put a gap on the rest of the field on the very techical and demanding course. The four swapped the lead several times before Fullana and Chengyuan faded in later laps. It was then down to Marie-Helene and the World Champion Kalentieva who managed to hold onto a narrow 33 second lead over Marie-Helene at the end.
Third in Houffalize, second in Offenburg; World Cup #3 in Madrid is looking good.
Alison Sydor, competing in her first race back from a serious blood infection, finished the race, using it to gain critical start position for next weekend's race in Madrid.
Max Plaxton suffered from another mechanical problem when the piston in his brake lever failed and had a nasty crash as a result. Max has Spain in his blood, so he is excited for what he can do on his former home turf.
Geoff Gulevich placed 8th in a stacked field of 40 a the Nissan Qashai Challenge in Milan, Italy this weekend. He narrowly missed qualifying for the Qashqai tour by just one spot, but he is competing in next weekends qualifier, which is also in Madrid and is confident that we will be on tour.
Look out Madrid, Rocky Mountain is coming.......
-peter