The top American in the cross-country event at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup event in Cairns, Australia on Sunday was Chloe Woodruff. Woodruff was the second highest finishing American in the series last year with a 21st overall finish. She was eighth after the first through third laps on Sunday before falling off a bit down the stretch and finishing 13th 4:27 back. Georgia Gould finished 18th while Lea Davison, last year’s third place overall finisher, was 19th. Erin Huck made it four Americans in the top 32 with a 27th place finish.
On the men’s side Stephen Ettinger was the only American in the top 50 on the series last year and he started off this year with a 20th place finish, 2:50 back. Ettinger got off to a slow start and was 35th after the first lap before climbing as high as 17th after the sixth lap. No other Americans finished in the top 50.
The next Mountain Bike World Cup stop is in Albstadt, Germany from May 21st through the 22nd. Only the cross-country portion will be held. The downhill competition doesn’t pick back up until June 4th and 5th in Fort William, Great Britain.
For the second time in three races on the UCI World Tour Alex Howes finished as the top American. After finishing 32nd in the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday Howes finished 21st in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege a week later in a group just 12 seconds behind the winner. Howes’ finish was the third highest by an American on the tour this season.
Lawson Craddock was the next American to finish in 37th and 1:41 behind winner Wout Poels. The only other American in the top 100 was Peter Stetina who finished 85th, 5:27 back. Kiel Reijnen ended a streak of three straight races he had not finished and was 151st.
The next UCI World Tour event is the Tour de Romandie starting Tuesday and running until May 1st. Howes is scheduled to be in the field as will Tejay Van Garderen who has not raced since the Volta a Cataluyna a month ago where he finished fifth. Joe Dombrowski also hasn’t raced since then and finished 37th in that, his only event so far this year. Stetina, fresh off the 85th place finish Sunday is in the field and Andrew Talansky who did not finish his only event so far this year, the Paris-Nice race.
The Tour de Romandie starts with a 3.95km time trial on Tuesday.
The downhill final was a chance for Aaron Gwin to win his second straight event to start the year but the winner from Lourdes was unable to do so finishing almost three seconds behind winner Loic Bruni of France. Bruni came closer to Gwin’s series lead but Gwin still leads Bruni by 28 points and leads second place Troy Bosnan by 13 points.
While Gwin couldn’t match his finish from Lourdes the other three Americans in the final all improved on their previous season high. Luca Shaw finished 13th after a 21st place finish in Lourdes while Eliot Jackson was 14th after not participating in the first event. Neko Mulally was 23rd on Saturday after a 45th place finish in Lourdes. Shaw is the only American other than Gwin in the top 25 as he sits 19th.
Sunday will be the cross-country event and six men and five women will be competing for the US. The top American finisher from last year’s series in the field on the men’s side is Stephen Ettinger who was 36th while on the women’s side Lea Davison was one of the top riders finishing third for the season. Three other Americans, Chloe Woodruff (21st), Georgia Gould (22nd), and Erin Huck (24th), finished in the top 25 last season.
Eleven Americans will be in the field Sunday for the Liege-Bastogne-Liege race in Belgium, a 157.2 mile race. Lawson Craddock is the top American in the field but finished 121st in the last race, La Fleche Wallonne, on Wednesday. The best American in that race, Peter Stetina who finished 35th, is in this race as is Alex Howes who was the top American finisher in the Amstel Gold Race last Sunday where he finished 32nd. Kiel Reijnen will be hoping to complete the race and break a streak of three straight races he has not finished.
The next six events on the Tour and seven of the next eight are multi-day events instead of the single day races that have been six of the last seven.
With the downhill event having qualifying on Friday five Americans were seeking to ensure themselves a spot in the finals. Aaron Gwin, winner from Lourdes, finished third in qualifying. Others to advance were Eliot Jackson in 22nd, Neko Mulally in 33rd, and Luca Shaw in 34th. Luca Cometti just missed out on qualifying as he finished 84th. He was about 1.6 seconds behind the final qualifier.Gwin will race for his second straight gold on Saturday.
Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Cairns Coverage: Preview
The Mountain Bike World Cup is in action again this weekend in Cairns, Australia. In the first event of the year in the downhill competition defending series champion Aaron Gwin was the winner. Gwin will be trying to go back-to-back to start 2016 and is joined by four other Americans in the field including Luca Shaw who was 21st in Lourdes.
The downhill begins on Friday with the qualifying round and ends on Saturday with the finals and on Sunday a cross-country competition will be held.
Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Coverage: Lourdes Recap
The Americans came close to the top spot in La Fleche Wallonne Feminine but had to settle for the next two as Anna Van Der Breggen held off a challenge from Evelyn Stevens to win by eight seconds with Megan Guarnier third 22 seconds back. Carmen Small was the third American in the top 25 with a 12th place finish 53 seconds back. Kristabel Doebel-Hickok had her first finish of the year, a 54th place finish, though this was only her second race. Stevens’ second place finish was tied for the best finish by an American this year.
On the men’s side only one American cracked the top 50 as Peter Stetina tied his season high with a 35th place finish, 40 seconds behind the winner. Chad Haga had his best finish of the year in only his second race in 103rd while Lawson Craddock was 121st and over seven minutes behind the winner.
On the men’s side the next race is the 157.2 mile Liege-Bastogne-Liege on Saturday. The women will head to Asia as the Tour of Chongming Island in China will be held from May 6th through the 8th. Megan Guarnier sits fourth on the women’s tour after six races.
Wednesday is the next stop in both the UCI World Tour and the UCI Women’s World Tour as the two will both race in Belgium at La Fleche Wallonne. Both will start and end in the same place but the men will cover 121.8 miles in their race while the women cover 85.13 miles. The two top Americans in the women’s field are Megan Guarnier and Carmen Small who both have top five finishes already this year. Guarnier was second in the Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio and was fourth in the most recent race, The Tour of Flanders. Small was fifth in the Gent-Wevelgem race. One rider, Amber Nelson, is making her first appearance of the year while Kristabel Doebel-Hickok is trying to finish a race for the first time after not finishing the season opening Strade Bianche.
On the men’s side the top competitor is Lawson Craddock who was ninth in last race, the Tour of the Basque Country, and 16th in his only other race this season, the Paris-Nice race. Larry Warbasse, Nathan Brown, Peter Stetina, and Alex Howes all are in the field as well having finished races in the top 50 this season.
Alex Howes wasn’t part of the lead group on Sunday at the finish of the Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands. 31 riders finished within seven seconds of the leader in a large group before a gap opened up back to the second group. That second group was led by Howes who finished 32nd and 34 seconds back. Larry Warbasse was six seconds further back in 44th. They were the only Americans in the top 100.
The next event on the UCI Men’s World Tour is Wednesday, the 121.8 mile La Fleche Wallonne in Belgium. There is also a women’s version of the race that is part of the Women’s World Tour.
Sunday is the one-day 154.5 mile Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands. This race is full of climbs and six Americans will be in the field. Chad Haga will be competing for the Giant-Alpecin team, Kiel Reijnen will be competing for the US based Trek-Segafredo team, Larry Warbasse will be competing for the IAM Cycling team, and Nathan Brown, Alex Howes, and Benjamin King will be competing for the Cannondale team.