Paulissen, Hurikova win Cyprus stage race
- By VeloNews.com
- Published Mar. 3, 2008
- Updated Mar. 3, 2008 at 6:53 PM EDT
Belgian Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein) and Czech Tereza Hurikova took overall victories at the Afxentia Stage Race, a three-day cross-country race held on the island of Cyprus. The competition included two cross-country races — each counting as rounds of Cyprus’ Sunshine Cup series — as well as an individual time trial sandwiched between.
Paulissen took his GC victory by 5:11 over Czech Jaroslav Kuhlhavy (Czech National), with Kuhlhavy’s teammate and countryman Milan Spesny in third. American Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) finished in fifth place, 9:50 down on Paulissen.
The Belgian took the opening stage, the 43km Mantra-Kionia-Mantra cross-country race, ahead of former teammate Swede Fredrik Kessiakoff (Full Dynamix) by 1:47. Paulissen then padded his lead by defeating Kessiakoff by 29 seconds in the 7.4km Macheras Mountains time trial.
Kessiakoff dropped out of the stage 3 cross-country race on March 2 due to a leg injury, opening the door for the Kulhavy to take over the second-place spot. Kulhavy did not disappoint, and attacked Paulissen on the last of five laps to take the stage win.
“I didn’t want to take any risks in the downhills. I was looking on the overall,” Paulissen said about his second-place finish in the final event. “The last two days were very hard.”
Hurikova, the 2005 junior world champ, battled relentlessly with German Sabine Spitz (Central-Ghost) throughout the three day event. Spitz narrowly defeated the Czech rider in the opening stage, dropping Hurikova on the course’s final climb and hanging on for a four-second victory. But Spitz sat out the time trial, allowing Hurikova into the driver’s seat. The Czech took the short individual race by 30 seconds over Swede Alexandra Engen (Merida Sweden). American Heather Irmiger (Subaru-Gary Fisher) finished in third place at 41 seconds down.
Spitz asserted her dominance in the final day’s cross-country race, defeating Hurikova by 15 seconds. But with the German only completing two of the three races, Hurikova took the overall win by 10:09 over Engen. Irmiger, who suffered a flat tire in the opening stage, finished third, 19:26 down.
Each year Cyprus’ Sunshine Cup series hosts the first UCI-sanctioned cross-country mountain-bike events of the calendar year. Many of Europe’s top cross-country riders use the five-race series as training and preparation for the upcoming World Cup series. The Sunshine Cup concludes with the March 9 race in Voroklini and the March 16 event in Limassol.
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Results
Mens Elite GC:
1 JAROSLAV KULHAVY CZECH NATIONAL TEAM 01:57:25
2 ROEL PAULISSEN 01:57:52
3 ANDREAS KUGLER 01:58:09
4 CHRISTOPH SOUKUP 01:58:50
5 MILAN SPESNY CZECH NATIONAL TEAM 01:59:05
6 JIRI FRIEDL MERIDA BIKING TEAM 02:00:01
7 MAKCIM GOGOLEV 02:00:05
8 JAN SKARNITZL DIMP GIANT TEAM 02:00:40
9 ALEXANDER WETTERHALL 02:00:47
10 SERGIY RYSENKO 02:01:04
11 JEREMY HORGAN-KOBELSKI SUBARU/GARY FISHER 02:01:47
12 STEFAN SAHM BULLS 02:02:07
13 MATTIAS NILSSON 02:02:12
14 KARL PLATT BULLS 02:02:25
15 NICOLAS VERMEULEN B.N.T 02:04:12
16 DRIES GOVAERTS B.N.T 02:04:35
17 CHRISTOF BISCHOF 02:04:47
18 JOSEF KAMLER CESKA SPORITELNA MTB 02:05:17
19 TOMAS TRUNSCHKA CESKA SPORITELNA MTB 02:05:43
20 NICOLA ROHRBACH CENTRAL GHOST PRO TEAM 02:05:56
21 ANTON GOGOLEV TEAM LENINGRAD REGION 02:06:27
22 ANDRAS MELTS CORRATEC WORLD TEAM 02:07:40
23 LARS BLECKUR 02:07:49
24 TIM WIJNANTS B.N.T 02:09:52
25 DMITRIY MEDVEDEV RUSSIA NAT.TEAM 02:10:17
26 RONALD PLANK MTB-CLUP-OBERWART 02:10:25
27 ANDRIY GUMENYUK 02:11:08
28 ILIAS PERILKLIS 02:11:33
29 ANDRIY KHRIPTA 02:11:35
30 MARIOS ATHANASIADIS 02:13:33
31 NICOLAY ZAGULAEV CCL KARO FILM 02:14:03
32 IAN FIELD BIKIN’ CYPRUS 02:14:08
33 MICHAEL WEISS CICLOPIA 02:14:23
34 ANTON FOMIN 02:14:36
35 VLADISLAV NEROZNAKS 02:14:42
36 IGOR BOGDAN 02:16:16
37 BILLY-JOE WHENMAN 02:17:12
38 ALEXANDER FEDOTOV CCL KARO FILM 02:19:02
40 OSCAR EKSTAM SWEDEN -1 LAP
41 EVGEN MEDVETSSKYY -1 LAP
42 FRANCESCO PANZA -1 LAP
43 PAUL BEALES -1 LAP
44 MATTHEW STEVENS -1 LAP
45 MAXIM ZHURKIN RUSSIA NAT.TEAM -2 LAPS
46 ANDREAS LIEBERHERR -2 LAPS
47 TIMOTHEOS SKETTOS -2 LAPS
48 LUKE SMITH -3 LAPS
49 ALEXIS ELEUTHERIADIS -3 LAPS
DNF KARL MARKT SRM-STEVENS-TEAM DNF
DNF ALEKSEY MEDVEDEV RUSSIA NAT.TEAM DNF
DNF FREDRIK KESSIAKOFF FULL DYNAMIX DNF
DNF EMIL LINDGREN FULL DYNAMIX DNF
DNF GIORGOS FATTAS DNF
DNF PAVEL BLAGIKH RUSSIA NAT.TEAM DNF
DNF BJORN BREMS B.N.T DNF
DNF MAGNUS DARVELL RIETUMU DNF
DNF MAKAEL SALOMONSSON ASARNA IK DNF
DNF DENIS VORONTSOV RUSSIA NAT.TEAM DNF
DNS MIRKO PIRAZZOLI DNS
DQ MAX OSTE MACDONALD DQ
Womens Elite GC
1 SABINE SPITZ CENTRAL GHOST PRO TEAM 01:57:43
2 TEREZA HURIKOVA CZECH NATIONAL TEAM 01:57:58
3 PETRA HENZI FISHER BMC 01:58:55
4 ELISABETH OSL GHOST INTERNATIONAL 01:59:51
5 ALEXANDRA ENGEN MERIDA SWEDEN 02:01:11
6 MARIA OSL 02:01:34
7 IVONNE KRAFT 02:02:57
8 ELENA GADDONI 02:04:19
9 NATALIYA KROMPETS UKR.NAT.TEAM 02:05:56
10 HEATHER IRMIGER SUBARU/GARY FISHER 02:06:29
11 MAAIKE POLSPOEL B.N.T 02:07:05
12 OXANA RYBAKOVA RUSSIA NAT.TEAM 02:10:25
13 GITHA MICHIELS 02:13:07
14 KSENIA CHERNYKH RUSSIA NAT.TEAM 02:17:11
15 ELENA GOGOLEVA 02:21:50
16 EVGENIA BELOZEROVA RUSSIA NAT.TEAM -1 LAP
17 YELENA PETROVA APOLLON -2 LAP
DNF IRYNA SLOBODYAN UKR.NAT.TEAM DNF
DNF EKATERINA MELNIKOVA MGFSU-CUBE DNF
DNF BARBEL JUNGMEIER CICLOPIA DNF
FILED UNDER: Mountain / Race Report / Race Result