No surprises were to be had at the opening round of the World Cup 4X series at Houffalize: Graves who is on-fire and seemingly great form coming off the back of a win at the Sea Otter Classic obliterated the field. Consistently snapping everyone out the gate each and every round, Graves progressed with ease to the final, crossing the line convincingly ahead of Tomas Slavic for his first World Cup win of the season.
In the women’s event, the name at the top of the results sheet was perhaps a little surprising, but the cause for it was a little less so: with a crash in the early part of the track seeing defending World Cup Champ, Anneke Beerten and Austrian Anita Molcik tangling up, Harakova was able to avoid the pile-up and slip onto the top box.
Women’s 4-cross: Victory for Horakova
Raced at night under artificial lighting, the Houffalize 4-cross competition attracted large crowds. The extremely dry, dusty conditions and gravel-covered corners made for spectacular racing.
The line-up for the women’s final was as expected: Horakova, defending World Cup Champion Anneke Beerten (Suspension Centre), her new team mate Emmeline Ragot and Austrian Anita Molcik, the fastest qualifier. Molcik and Beerten were fastest out of the gate for the final, but tangled in the first corner, allowing Horakova to sneak through. Molcik managed to avoid going down and took second, followed by Ragot, with Beerten limping home in fourth.
“I was pretty happy with my gates,” commented Horakova, “But I didn’t think I could win. In the final, Anita cut inside and forced me to go higher on the first corner. That worked in my favour as she and Anneke bumped, allowing me to go through to the front.”
Men’s 4-cross: Graves untouchable
Graves was already untouchable in the men’s heats. He was joined in the final by Tomas Slavik (RSP 4 Cross Racing), Michal Prokop (Agang Racing) and Dutch mainstay Roger Rinderknecht. Once again, Graves got the holeshot, with the two Czech riders Slavik and Prokop bumping elbows through the first couple of corners before Slavik finally pulled ahead in the lower half of the run.
“On those first two turns you had to be careful,” Grave explained “because anything can happen there. A good start definitely helps on this course, but you still aren’t completely safe, because there are plenty of spots to get passed. It is definitely good to start the season off with a win, because it takes the pressure off, so I’d say am pretty happy right now.”
The lads from DirtTV were once again on-scene to provide some of the action:
Enjoy,
Ed
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