With eight rounds per discipline, the 2005 UCI World Cup is the biggest since 2001. Rounds five of the DH and 4X circuits and round six of the XC were held in the new venue of Balneario Camboriu on the coast of Brazil, the first time that the World Cup has visited South America. It's great to see the World Cup getting to more of the world, but scheduling the Brazil round a week after Mont Ste Anne in Canada and a week before Angel Fire Resort, New Mexico has meant a punishing travel schedule for the teams and riders. It didn't appear to put off many of the downhillers, but some key XC racers chose to skip it, with men's series leader Christoph Sauser and Mont Ste Anne winner Marie-Helene Premont probably the most prominent examples.
XC
Actually the women's field was made up almost entirely of Brazilian and Argentinan riders, with the only European riders being Gunn-Rita Dahle, Sabine Spitz, Ivonne Kraft and Lene Byberg, and no North American competitors at all. The 5.5km XC course definitely favoured the climbers, with wide tracks going straight up the hillsides. Heat and humidity added to the challenge, with Camboriu's coastal location apparently not managing to cool things down at all.
With Premont, the only woman to have beaten Dahle this year, not racing, it was no surprise to see the Norwegian racer take to the front of the pack, beating Sabine Spitz by just over four and a half minutes. Ivonne Kraft was third, with Jaqueline Mourao the highest-placed Brazilian in fourth. With four wins and two second places, Dahle's running away with the series. She's 310 points ahead of Spitz, 380 ahead of Premont, there's two races left and you get 250 for winning and 200 for second - something would have to go very wrong indeed for Dahle not to take the title.
In the men's race, Jose Antonio Hermida took full advantage of the absence of front-runners like Sauser, Julien Absalon and Marco Bui to post his first World Cup win of the year. Roel Paulissen was second and Ralph Naef third. Sauser's still at the top of the standings, but his lead's down to 85 points.
4X
We're sometimes forced to wonder why the UCI bothers to put on a women's 4X event - with only four riders in Brazil, there was just a final and that was it. In a repeat of last week, Jill Kintner won ahead of Anneke Beerten. Hopefully there'll be bigger turnouts as the circuit heads to the US and then Europe for the remaining rounds.
There was a healthy 44 riders in the men's event, though, with all the big names in attendance. As a result, there was a quality line-up in the final, with Roger Rinderknecht getting the better of Cedric Gracia, Gee Atherton and Nathan Rennie to take his first World Cup win of the year.
DH
After last week's epic DH course at Mont Ste Anne, Camboriu's short track from 240m to sea level must have felt almost like a 4X course. But Tracy Moseley showed that she doesn't need a long track to win, standing on top of a World Cup podium for the second week in a row. Rachel Atherton was only a couple of seconds behind for a British 1-2. Sabrina Jonnier was third, good enough to keep here on top of the overall leaderboard. But she's only 30 points ahead of Moseley with three rounds to go.
All eyes were on local hero Markolf Berchtold in the men's race, and the Brazilian came very close to pulling off the win on home soil. He had to work for it, with most of the World Cup front-runners in attendance, but he beat everyone except Greg Minnaar. Minnaar took the win by 1.75 seconds. Mickael Pascal, Fabien Barel and Cedric Gracia completed the top five, with Gee Atherton just missing out on a podium place in sixth. Minnaar's consistent performance this season - two seconds, a fourth and two wins - has given him a comfortable lead at the top of the overall standings, 398 points clear of second-placed Nathan Rennie.
