Cross country team nabs top-10s in Lenzerheide
The cross country World Cup continued this weekend in the heart of Switzerland, at the picturesque village of Lenzerheide. Always a technical and challenging stop, the course did not disappoint, with fireworks coming from nearly every race. The day’s top elite result comes from Emily Batty in 7th, along with Anton in 16th, Sergio in 32nd, and U-23 rider Evie Richards in 3rd.
Emily Batty came into the weekend looking to make solid improvements on last weekend’s 5th place in Andorra.
"I'm disappointed with today's performance. I was hoping to build on my successes in Andorra, and I prepared well. Last weekend's 5th was confidence boosting and today's 7th tells me we need to fine tune even more and deliver a better performance. The racing is tight, and I'm well within the winning position, I just need to find a way to close that gap.”
Anton was an unknown quantity due to sickness, but the determined Kiwi was still able to line up for Sunday’s race.
"After falling ill on Monday's travel from Andorra, I did everything possible to be in good enough shape to take the start on Sunday. I completed 2 laps on Saturday and felt pretty lousy but thought I'd make a call after my warm up on Sunday as to whether or not I would take the start.
I had a good sleep and woke up feeling somewhat human. I felt okay during my warm up so decided to give the race a crack. I had a great start and from there set about just riding to my own rhythm, eventually crossing the line in 16th, pretty stoked with that all things considering and can't wait for Mont Saint Anne!!"
Evie Richards lined up for the race with firm memories of the struggles she had one year prior in Lenzerheide. After working with mentor Tracy Moseley, she made signification improvements to tackle the technical and challenging Swiss course. A strong 3rd place finish was the reward on the day.
"I am super happy with how the race went in Lenzerheide. From not being able to ride a lot of the course last year because my skills just weren't up to it, I felt really proud being up there and competitive due to the skills work I had put in over winter with Tracy Moseley. I took the race on early but made a few silly mistakes that caused me to drop back. I loved every minute of the race, It was a great battle and my crazy Malvern fans were doing an amazing job of cheering me on!"
Sergio Mantecon continues to make his comeback to racing, with another solid result.
"I had some problems on the start which made me loose spots all the way back to 70th position. I tried to keep a consistent pace, and recovery as much as possible, eventually finishing 32nd. I'm happy with how the day went, because after the injury, it honestly feels like a resurrection of sorts to be racing. Now I will continue training and racing to improve fitness, with the big goal in September at World Champs."
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