Cooper dominates junior men's cross country

Once again, it was the phenomenal Anton Cooper (Trek World Racing) who dominated the junior men's World Cup Challenge race in Windham, New York. Cooper rode everyone off his wheel on the first climb of the four lap race, and began to quickly overhaul the under 23 men who had started two minutes in front. Eventually he caught all but the top 11 riders in the under 23 race and his time after four laps was good enough to put him seven seconds out of third place in the U23 field.

"That was probably the hottest race I've ever done. It was a real challenge timing my passing and getting through the back of the under 23 field but I enjoyed having people to chase," said Cooper. "This isn't my favorite type of course with the sustained long climbs and towards the end of the race my lower back was starting to give me some issues, but I'm just really proud and happy to end my junior World Cup racing career with five victories from five starts."

Anton heads home to New Zealand on Monday to continue with his final year of high school. He will return to Europe in mid-August for training and then racing the Swiss Cup in Muttenz just prior to the world championships in Saalfelden, Austria, on September 8.

However, American Keegan Swenson (Cannondale Factory) was also having a strong ride, keeping the gap down to 3:18 at the finish - half of what it was the previous weekend at Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec. Nicolas Sessler (Brazil) took third.

Canadian champion Marc-Antoine Nadon (Scott-3Rox), second to Cooper at Mont-Ste-Anne, struggled in the first half of the race before finally finding his legs and starting to move up quickly, eventually finishing sixth.