*** Robinson Takes Olympic BMX Course With Victory ***
Beijing, China ( USA Cycling) -- 08/21/2007
Less than one year before BMX racing makes
its Olympic debut at the 2008 Games in Beijing,
Donny Robinson (Napa, Calif.) rode to victory in
the official BMX Olympic Test Event on Tuesday.
The event, which doubled as the second round of the
2007 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup, featured an
all-star field of Olympic hopefuls from 25 countries in
the only world-class competition scheduled on the track
that will be used at the Olympic Games before next August.
As the sole American in the elite men’s final, Robinson
outrode Dutchman Robert de Wilde and Australian Jared
Graves to claim the win and bolster his number-one world
ranking.
Jill Kintner (Seattle, Wash.) led the U.S. with a fifth-place
effort in the elite women’s contest. As in the men’s final,
only one American advanced from the semifinals as Kintner
finished behind world champion Shanaze Reade (GBR),
Anne-Caroline Chausson (FRA), Laetitia le Corguille (FRA)
and Maria Gabriela Diaz (ARG).
For Robinson, the win proved to be a major accomplishment
after being eliminated in the quarterfinals at last month’s world
champion****ps.
“I was pretty disappointed with my performance at worlds,
but that’s the way BMX is”, Robinson explained. “Things
can happen all the time, but you can’t let it get you down,
especially now that the road to the Olympics is in full swing.
It’s a huge win for myself.”
Robinson was one of 13 Americans that made the trip to
China to compete in the elite men’s division. After Monday’s
qualifying round, the U.S. had again illustrated the depth which
has it ranked number one in the world. Mike Day (Santa Clarita,
Calif.), Kyle Bennett (Conroe, Texas) and Steven Cisar (Altadena,
Calif.) claimed the top-three seeds as the only three riders to
clock lap times under 37 seconds.
Robinson qualified 16th, while Danny Calaug (China, Calif.)
qualified 25th, Nicholas Long (Lakeside, Calif.) 27th, Randy
Stumpfhauser (Sanger, Calif.) 29th and Tyler Brown (San
Clemente, Calif.) 30th, giving the U.S. eight riders in the 32-
man quarterfinal round.
Four of those athletes – Day, Robinson, Bennett and Cisar
– advanced to the semifinals, but only Robinson was able to
secure a spot in the eight-man final where he faced de Wilde,
Graves, Raymon van der Biezen (NED), Pablo Gutierrez (FRA),
Martijn Scherpen (NED), Rob van den Wildenberg (NED) and
Arturs Matisons (LAT).
In the final, Robinson took advantage of a good start to
enter the first of four turns in the lead and hold off the rest
of the field, fini****ng 0.185 seconds ahead of de Wilde for
the win.
“The time trial didn’t go as well as I thought it should have,
but that’s like having one bad lap at worlds”, Robinson said.
“You just can’t think about it, especially with the weather and
the amount of racing we did today. Mentally, the toughest rider
out there wins most of the time and luckily I had the best lap in
the main.
This week’s competition gave the U.S. delegation an
op****tunity to preview the Olympic course and get a
sense for what it will take to perform well at the Olympic
Games next summer.
“The Supercross races are technical and the courses are
big, so the power riders don’t have an advantage with the
big start ramp,” Robinson explained. “You really have to be
a finess rider and hit all the rhythm straight-aways consistently.
It takes an awesome rider just to get around this
track and this one is the biggest that we’ve ridden.”
Kintner, the 1997 UCI BMX World Champion and two
-time 4-cross world champion in the s****t of mountain
biking (2005, 06), qualified eighth for the U.S. and was
joined by Americans Amanda Geving (Largo, Fla.), Kim
Haya**** (Chandler, Ariz.) and Arielle Martin (Clarksville,
Tenn.) in the semifinals. Kintner was the only American to
qualify for the eight-woman final where she lined up against
Reade, Chausson, le Corguille, Diaz, Sarah Walker (NZL),
Nicole Callisto (AUS) and Tanya Bailey (AUS). Kintner,
who will defend her 4-cross title at the UCI Mountain Bike
World Champion****ps in Scotland in two weeks, turned an
impressive fifth-place finish considering her split schedule of
mountain bike and BMX racing this season.
2007 UCI BMX Supercross World Cup #2
Beijing, China August 20-21
Elite Men
1. Donny Robinson (Napa, Calif.)
2. Robert de Wilde (NED)
3. Jared Graves (AUS)
Elite Women
1. Shanaze Reade (GBR)
2. Anne-Caroline Chausson (FRA)
3. Laetitia le Corguille (FRA)
5. Jill Kintner (Seattle, Wash.)
CC - http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=3128
ACC - http://www.genesbmx.com/2008-bmx-olympics.html
Geneb...Wenatchee,Wa****ngton-USA
All Things Northwest in BMX!
***** Gene`s BMX *****
http://www.genesbmx.com
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