Lukas Flueckiger and Mathias Flueckiger Both Finish Top 10 for Trek World Racing
Following on from their great return to form last week in Mont St. Anne, the two Swiss brothers powered their Top Fuels into the Top 10 here at Windham, USA, for the 5th of 7 rounds of the 2011 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
In a race where podiums places could have been taken by anyone in the top 15, the lead was once again dominated by Czech rider Jaroslav Kulhavy who rode away from the chase group at the end of the 1st lap.
The chase groups were numerous and after a solid start both the Trek World Racing riders found themselves in the top 15 where they stayed the entire race. On the first lap Math rode a super-fast lap and was looking strong, but soon after joining his brother felt a little flat and wasn't able to move on up further into the top 10, but then later in the race started to feel strong again, as did Luk who was attacking and strong, lapping consistently in the low 16 minutes.
Riding in very warm and humid conditions, both riders climbed very well and also descended strongly. Windham is essentially a course made up of a long climb, a fast decent with some technical content in the woods, but overall is not considered a very technical course. The average speed was higher than last year, when Kulhavy won in similar conditions in 2010 with 19.4km/h average; he won this year with 21.5km/h, a big increase, and as fast as the fastest race all year. The brothers finished just 1m 30secs off the podium, well and truly in contact.
Luk said: "I felt great today. I was able to fight the whole race which is a really good sign for me that all is coming together strongly. Of course I would like to be on the podium, but when I look at my lap times, and how close I am to the podium this week, I'm quite happy, and I know things are going in the right direction. These days you have to be in the top 10 to have any chance of winning, so we are where we need to be."
Math said: "I had a really great start and for the first lap I was able to make up a lot of places and thought I was on for another strong day. But then on the 3rd lap I dropped about 30 seconds off my race pace...I started to feel some back pain but I think that was just a mental thing and not really the issue. I've had a little trouble sleeping this week and finding my normal routine, and maybe I did a bit much training earlier this week, but overall this is a good result. Thinking back to where I was earlier this year to get two top 10's here in North America is very good."
For results on the World Cup XC #5 click here
The next World Cup XC #6 will be in Nove Mesto (CZE) on August 14, but next week the brothers have their Swiss National Championships in Plaffeien.
