Golds for Denmark and Russia in MTBO Mass-Start race

After more than an hour of hard riding, Camilla Søgaard, Denmark and Anton Foliforov, Russia were the gold medallists in today’s Mass-Start race in Poland. Søgaard rode clear to win by 2.22, whilst Foliforov’s winning margin was tighter – 23 seconds.

Søgaard is a very consistent and versatile rider, and she solidly improved on her silver medal in yesterday’s Sprint. She started carefully and was 13th after 7 controls of the 20-control course, but then pulled up quickly and was fastest throughout the second half of the course. Positions 2-5 were the same at half-way as at the end; France’s Constance Devillers took sixth place with a strong finish, overtaking yesterday’s champion, the Czech Veronika Kubinova, on the way. Silver medallist was the improving British rider Clare Dollimore, and bronze went to the experienced Finn Ingrid Stengard.

As yesterday, the six top places went to riders from six different nations – and this time with no riders from the Czech Republic and Russia!

Anton Foliforov showed today that he was back to the form of a few seasons ago with a very strong performance; he was not below third-fastest throughout, except for a 3-control stretch in the middle. Jussi Laurila, Finland led mid-way but dropped back to twelfth. Closest challenger to Foliforov was Kare Kaskinen, Finland, and Spanish colours were waving for the bronze medallist, Angel Garcia.

Krystof Bogar, Czech Republic mis-punched today, but the Czechs had two riders in the top six, Vojtech Ludvik and Jiri Hradil.

So ends an eventful European MTBO Championships in Strzelin and Wroclaw, Poland, with 19 nations taking part. The Championships doubled as the first round of the World Cup; the second round is combined with the World Championships in Viborg, Denmark starting on 27th July.

Leading results, Mass Start

Women

  1. Camilla Søgaard DEN 1:06:15
  2. Clare Dallimore GBR 1:08:37
  3. Ingrid Stengard FIN 1:08:46
  4. Gabriele Andrasiuniene LTU 1:09:34
  5. Marina Reiner AUT 1:11:09
  6. Constance Devillers FRA 1:11:28

Men

  1. Anton Foliforov RUS 1:12:18
  2. Kare Kaskinen FIN 1:12:41
  3. Angel Garcia ESP 1:13:20
  4. Vojtech Ludvik CZE 1:13:36
  5. Ruslan Gritsan RUS 1:13:39
  6. Jiri Hradil CZE 1:13:40