Worlds: Glentress leaves XCO riders with little satisfaction

After a fifth place in the short track two days earlier there was plenty of confidence heading into the cross-country Olympic for Canberra's Rebecca Henderson at Glentress.

However, the start wasn’t one she had imagined falling back at the end of the start loop.

By the first lap Henderson had dropped to 23rd.

In similar scenes to the U23 race Loana Lecomte went out in a bid to blow her rivals away from the first lap, but she was chased down soon after by French teammate and defending champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot who then took charge.

Lap four saw the Australian move up six places as she began the fight back to break into the top 20 but that’s where it would end.

A crash on on the final lap, added to a tough day in the saddle for the two-time world championship medalist.

Henderson, who would finish in 22nd more than eight minutes behind Ferrand Prevot who claimed her fourth world XCO championships in five years, made little excuses for her performance.

“Not what we came here for.

“We put a lot of effort in to being ready for the race and everything was feeling spot on Friday and the first time this season I’ve felt good.

“I got my self together mid-race but it wasn’t enough”, she said in a post race interview.

“I moved up to the 20’s but I did what I could but doesn’t give me a lot of satisfaction.”

Glentress wouldn’t be kind to our elite men with Sam Fox and Cameron Ivory lining up for the eight-lap race.

Sam Fox finished 72 in the elite men XCO (Thomas Maheux/SWpix.com)
 

Starting well back on the grid Fox began to pick his way through the field before a crash saw him plummet back down.

“Just washed out on an off-camber root, twisted the bars, got a flat and then took a while to get going again,” the national champion said after he would cross in 75th place.

Fox is confident of improvement ahead of the rest of the World Cups as he tries to collect more ranking points in a bid to be in a better starting position at next years Worlds.

Ivory also tried to mount a chase in a bid to improve his plate number having avoided a crash early on along the start finish straight.

“Felt like I had.a good first lap, but after that I just couldn’t hold that intensity and it was full gas from the start.”

The Australian would find himself removed from the race with two laps to go under the 80% rule which left him in 75th position overall.

Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) would take the rainbow jersey ahead of Sam Gaze (New Zealand) and 10-time World Champion Nino Schurter (Switzerland).

Results Elite Women XCO

Rebecca Henderson – 22nd

Results Elite Men XCO

Sam Fox – 75th

Cameron Ivory – 78th

Photo Credit: Thomas Maheux/SWpix.com