Cooper cruises to junior men's cross country title
French duo round out podium
Anton Cooper won a gold medal for New Zealand in the junior men's cross country race at the mountain bike world championships in Saalfelden, Austria on Saturday morning. The Kiwi rider upset defending champion Victor Koretzky (France) and Titouan Carod (France).
"One of my goals I set for this year was to win the world championships," said Cooper. "It's been a dream as a kid to win this thing. I'm finally satisfied. I felt relaxed. Everything just fell into place."
Cooper set the pace from the start and only Koretzky could hang at first; however, the French maintained a strong presence at the front of the field. On the first lap, Cooper was chased by three French riders in a row: Koretzky, Carod and Antoine Bouqueret (France) and Romain Seigle (France) was not far behind them.
"The pace was hot. I knew going up the first climb because I could listen to the other riders breathing," said Cooper. "I got first into the singletrack. I wasn't quite on to it and I let a couple of the riders pass me, but I managed to get them back not long after and took the lead again. I played my cards well. I felt comfortable with my race and how it was going."
Carod bridged up to Cooper and Koretzky on lap two, but by the end of that lap, Cooper had dropped them both and would ride the rest of the start-loop-plus-four-lap race on his own off the front.
Koretzky and Carod were left to battle for silver and they remained close throughout the race, but the defending champion triumphed in the end.
"I felt good today, but Anton was stronger," said Koretzky. "For me, it was difficult on the uphill road sections. After he dropped me, I ended up in a race with Titouan. I went into the last singletrack first to keep my second place on that final lap.
"The French junior team is so good. It's a good achievement for us French juniors."
Carod said, "I feel very good. In the start, I had a bobble, and on the second lap, my legs were good, and I got on the wheel of Anton. We French are very strong. Anton and Victor got clear of me, but in the finish, Victor and I were very tight."
Seigle was fourth ahead of Keegan Swenson (United States) in fifth.
"I had a little problem at the start and missed my pedal. I had to catch up, but I felt good," said Swenson. "The race was fast - consistently fast."
Swenson, who will move up to the U23 ranks along with all of the top nine finishers on the day, is looking forward to the transition and was delighted to make his goal of finishing in the top five. "It was a great season. I had a bunch of top 10s and World Cup finishes and a national title. I'm excited for the U23s. It will be fun."
Full Results
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Anton Cooper (New-Zealand) | 1:06:53 |
2 | Victor Koretzky (France) | 0:02:17 |
3 | Titouan Carod (France) | 0:02:34 |
4 | Romain Seigle (France) | 0:04:06 |
5 | Keegan Swenson (United States Of America) | 0:04:35 |
6 | Antoine Bouqueret (France) | 0:04:54 |
7 | Enea Vetsch (Switzerland) | 0:04:57 |
8 | Kevin Panhuyzen (Belgium) | 0:05:06 |
9 | Beltain Schmid (Italy) | Row 8 - Cell 2 |
10 | Manuel Fasnacht (Switzerland) | 0:05:07 |
11 | Nicolas Sessler (Brazil) | 0:05:34 |
12 | Eirik Sverdrup Augdal (Norway) | 0:05:40 |
13 | Georg Egger (Germany) | 0:05:52 |
14 | Ben Zwiehoff (Germany) | 0:06:01 |
15 | Martin Frey (Germany) | 0:06:05 |
16 | Dominic Zumstein (Switzerland) | 0:06:06 |
17 | Piotr Konwa (Poland) | 0:06:18 |
18 | Andri Frischknecht (Switzerland) | 0:06:26 |
19 | Artem Shevtsov (Ukraine) | Row 18 - Cell 2 |
20 | Lukas Baum (Germany) | 0:06:35 |
21 | Oleksii Zavolokin (Ukraine) | 0:06:42 |
22 | Boris Cara (Belgium) | 0:07:07 |
23 | Martin Stosek (Czech Republic) | 0:07:21 |
24 | Sebastian Carstensen Fini (Denmark) | 0:07:24 |
25 | Jesper Slik (Netherlands) | 0:07:30 |
26 | Emil Linde (Sweden) | 0:07:35 |
27 | Toki Sawada (Japan) | 0:07:44 |
28 | Ben Bradley (Australia) | 0:07:46 |
29 | Nigel Mcdowell (New-Zealand) | 0:08:13 |
30 | Raphael Gay (France) | Row 29 - Cell 2 |
31 | Peteris Janevics (Latvia) | 0:08:14 |
32 | Jan Vastl (Czech Republic) | 0:08:48 |
33 | Marc-Antoine Nadon (Canada) | 0:08:50 |
34 | Daniel Voitl (Germany) | 0:08:51 |
35 | Luis Camacho (Costa Rica) | 0:09:04 |
36 | Philipp Bertsch (Germany) | 0:09:13 |
37 | Edvard Vea Iversen (Norway) | 0:09:21 |
38 | Ruslan Boredskiy (Russian Federation) | 0:09:25 |
39 | Massimo Rosa (Italy) | 0:09:26 |
40 | Elias Hagspiel (Austria) | Row 39 - Cell 2 |
41 | Michael Mayer (Austria) | 0:09:40 |
42 | Patrick Belton (South Africa) | 0:09:43 |
43 | Niels Rasmussen (Denmark) | 0:09:47 |
44 | Omer Shubi (Israel) | 0:09:49 |
45 | Javier Cerdeno (Spain) | 0:10:02 |
46 | Sam Gaze (New-Zealand) | 0:10:31 |
47 | Denis Fumarola (Italy) | 0:10:42 |
48 | Samuel Stean (Great Britain) | 0:10:46 |
49 | Amado Goncalco Duarte Basilio (Portugal) | 0:10:55 |
50 | Casey Williams (United States Of America) | 0:11:07 |
51 | José Pedro Silva Dias (Portugal) | 0:11:28 |
52 | Alberto Rossi (Italy) | 0:12:01 |
53 | Max Foidl (Austria) | Row 52 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Paul Rodenbach (South Africa) | Row 53 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Alexandre Vialle (Canada) | Row 54 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Kohei Maeda (Japan) | Row 55 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Mathieu Dehaeze (Belgium) | Row 56 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Michael Thompson (Great Britain) | Row 57 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Felipe Rodrigo Garry Rojas (Chile) | Row 58 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Louis Bendixen (Denmark) | Row 59 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Franco Nicolas Adaos Alvarez (Chile) | Row 60 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Iain Paton (Great Britain) | Row 61 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Diego Gonzalez Calderon (Spain) | Row 62 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Karl Henrik Nordbakken (Norway) | Row 63 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Martin Fusek (Czech Republic) | Row 64 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Sylwester Seweryn (Poland) | Row 65 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Gregor Krajnc (Slovenia) | Row 66 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Philipp Wetzelberger (Austria) | Row 67 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Roman Vladykin (Russian Federation) | Row 68 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Christopher Aitken (Australia) | Row 69 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Lukasz Szymczuk (Poland) | Row 70 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Guy Niv (Israel) | Row 71 - Cell 2 |
-1lap | Peter Disera (Canada) | Row 72 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Fabian Costa (Austria) | Row 73 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Amit Krispil (Israel) | Row 74 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Maksymilian Jedrzejczyk (Poland) | Row 75 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Andrea Maccagli (San Marino) | Row 76 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Cristian Losonczi (Romania) | Row 77 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Gregor Dimic (Slovenia) | Row 78 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Ben Comfort (Australia) | Row 79 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Kyle Dorkin (South Africa) | Row 80 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Connor Bell (United States Of America) | Row 81 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Blaz Kadivec (Slovenia) | Row 82 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Jihun Lim (Republic Of Korea) | Row 83 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Jose Antonio Barroso Roque (Spain) | Row 84 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Leandro Baez (Argentina) | Row 85 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Nikita Fedorov (Russian Federation) | Row 86 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Ricardo Pelegrina (Argentina) | Row 87 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Simon Vozar (Slovakia) | Row 88 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Andreas Mündle (Liechtenstein) | Row 89 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Adam Horvath (Hungary) | Row 90 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Matej Fackovec (Slovakia) | Row 91 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Dominik Banyai (Hungary) | Row 92 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Luka Pussnik (Slovenia) | Row 93 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Dylan Hattingh (South Africa) | Row 94 - Cell 2 |
-2laps | Paolo Rigo (Croatia) | Row 95 - Cell 2 |
-3laps | Lukas Kaufmann (Austria) | Row 96 - Cell 2 |
-3laps | Pawel Kawalec (Poland) | Row 97 - Cell 2 |
-3laps | Slobodan Stankovic (Serbia) | Row 98 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Ondrej Glajza (Slovakia) | Row 99 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Romain Bannwart (Switzerland) | Row 100 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Fredrik Fang Liland (Norway) | Row 101 - Cell 2 |
DNS | Lucas Newcomb (United States Of America) | Row 102 - Cell 2 |
DNS | Johan Widen (Sweden) | Row 103 - Cell 2 |
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | Header Cell - Column 3 |
---|---|---|---|
1 | France | 300 | pts |
2 | Switzerland | 276 | Row 1 - Cell 3 |
3 | Germany | 267 | Row 2 - Cell 3 |
4 | New-Zealand | 233 | Row 3 - Cell 3 |
5 | Belgium | 222 | Row 4 - Cell 3 |
6 | Italy | 214 | Row 5 - Cell 3 |
7 | Norway | 196 | Row 6 - Cell 3 |
8 | Czech Republic | 189 | Row 7 - Cell 3 |
9 | Denmark | 182 | Row 8 - Cell 3 |
10 | Austria | 175 | Row 9 - Cell 3 |
11 | United States Of America | 172 | Row 10 - Cell 3 |
12 | Ukraine | 166 | Row 11 - Cell 3 |
13 | Poland | 155 | Row 12 - Cell 3 |
14 | Canada | 148 | Row 13 - Cell 3 |
15 | Great Britain | 141 | Row 14 - Cell 3 |
16 | South Africa | 132 | Row 15 - Cell 3 |
17 | Australia | 131 | Row 16 - Cell 3 |
18 | Japan | 123 | Row 17 - Cell 3 |
19 | Israel | 118 | Row 18 - Cell 3 |
20 | Spain | 116 | Row 19 - Cell 3 |
21 | Russian Federation | 115 | Row 20 - Cell 3 |
22 | Portugal | 106 | Row 21 - Cell 3 |
23 | Brazil | 92 | Row 22 - Cell 3 |
24 | Chile | 86 | Row 23 - Cell 3 |
25 | Slovenia | 80 | Row 24 - Cell 3 |
26 | Netherlands | 78 | Row 25 - Cell 3 |
27 | Sweden | 77 | Row 26 - Cell 3 |
28 | Latvia | 72 | Row 27 - Cell 3 |
29 | Costa Rica | 68 | Row 28 - Cell 3 |
30 | Argentina | 32 | Row 29 - Cell 3 |
31 | San Marino | 26 | Row 30 - Cell 3 |
32 | Romania | 25 | Row 31 - Cell 3 |
33 | Slovakia | 25 | Row 32 - Cell 3 |
34 | Hungary | 22 | Row 33 - Cell 3 |
35 | Republic Of Korea | 19 | Row 34 - Cell 3 |
36 | Liechtenstein | 13 | Row 35 - Cell 3 |
37 | Croatia | 7 | Row 36 - Cell 3 |
38 | Serbia | 4 | Row 37 - Cell 3 |
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
Latest on Cyclingnews
-
WorldTour licence application delay allows Cédrine Kerbaol to terminate Ceratizit-WNT contract
Team owner 'disappointed' to lose Tour de France Femmes stage winner one year before planned end of contract -
Niels Albert: 'One day Thibau Nys will go in the direction' of Van der Poel and Van Aert
Two-time world champion says new European champion has the capability to get close to the level of the two superstars -
Tom Pidcock, Kasia Niewiadoma and Greg LeMond headline Rouleur Live in November
Running from November 14-16, dozens of cycling stars will descend on London amid over 80 brand exhibitors -
€50 million in six years and a €200 million buyout clause – Tadej Pogačar's new contract revealed
'The Tour will be central to my season in 2025' – Slovenian outlines new season goals