The Rocky Mountain Team put its stamp on the city of Madrid, Spain this past weekend at both the Nissan World Cup #3 and the Nissan Qashqai Challenge.
Going into this World Cup round, Rocky Mountain's Marie-Helene Premont was a favourite for the win and to take over the World Cup overall lead.
From the gun, It was Marie-Helene, Last year's winner in Madrid, Gunn-Rita Dahle of Norway, and hometown favourite and also former winner, Marga Fullana of Spain. By the end of the first lap, the three had ridden away from the decimated field. On the first climb of the last lap, Premont and Dahle were able to drop Fullana and then went to work attacking eachother for the win. It came down to a photo finish with Dahle narrowly taking the win over Premont.
With her one third and two second places, Marie-Helene now sits atop the World Cup overall standings and will be wearing the leader's jersey at the next stop in Andorra.
Max Plaxton after two mechanicals in his last two races had an off day and pulled the plug halfway through the race to start rebuilding for the next races.
Alison Sydor is proving she is on the road to recovery from her blood infection and moved a further 10 spots up from her last World Cup after starting in 80th position.
While the XC racers were busy battling it out in the dust, Rocky Mountain had Geoff Gulevich competing at the Nissan Qashqai Challenge dirt jump event in front of Real Madrid's stadium. The biggest names in Dirt Jump and freeride were there to compete for big prize money and big glory. Geoff missed qualifying for the next rounds by one spot, but organizers were so impressed by the riding, that they awarded 5 more spots, one going to Gully. With the event in Paris getting cancelled and so many other opportunities going on at home, Geoff will be coming back to Canada to do a 10 day fiming trip.
Next stop for the team is the Canada Cup at Baie St Paul, Quebec, and then the World Cup in Vallnord, Andorra at the end of May.
Thanks again to Shimano, Alpina, WTB, Easton, Biemme, Hutchinson, Fox, Nissan Europe, Dakine, Powerbar, Pedros, FSA, and Champion Nutrition for your solid support of the RMB team.
-Peter
