The second Eliminator round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano had a bit of everything: beautiful sunny conditions for the start and torrential rain, thunder and lightning for the men's Final. Alexandra Engen (Ghost Factory), the Wor...    [More]

The second Eliminator round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano had a bit of everything: beautiful sunny conditions for the start and torrential rain, thunder and lightning for the men's Final.

Alexandra Engen (Ghost Factory), the World Champion in the discipline, was clearly in control of the women's field, qualifying first and then only working as hard as necessary to make it through each round on her way the Final.

Miha Halzer, the number one qualifier for the men, followed the same strategy as Engen - conserving his strength by finishing second in the first two rounds before winning his semi-final heat to make the Final. He was joined in the Final by defending World Cup champion Daniel Federspiel (Oetztal-Scott), World Champion Paul van der Ploeg of Australia and Fabrice Mels (Salcano Alanya). Missing was World Cup leader Samuel Gaze of New Zealand, who didn't make it past the quarterfinals after suffering a mechanical.

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