Absalon,Dahle Flesjaa to defend mountain bike gold

By NAOMI KOPPEL,
Associated Press Writer

Updated August 19, 2008

(AP Photo/KEYSTONE/Alessandro della Valle)BEIJING (AP) Until recently, no one would have bet against Julien Absalon of France to take the men's Olympic mountain biking title. He is still the favorite, but he has shown a few chinks in his armor this year.

The defending Olympic champion won four consecutive world championships through 2007, but this year failed to complete the course in Val di Sole, Italy, blaming heatstroke.

The man who won was the man who has run Absalon close all year in the World Cup, Christoph Sauser of Switzerland, and he will be Absalon's biggest challenger in Beijing, although he is returning from injury. He cut his knee on a rock during a World Cup race in Canada in July and the wound became infected.

"It's much better now. I can still feel it, but I can bend (my knee) all the way back," Sauser said.

Sauser headed an all-Swiss podium in Val di Sole, and the silver medalist, Florian Vogel, is also expected to be in the mix.

Athens silver medalist Jose Antonio Hermida of Spain and Atlanta gold medalist Bart Brentjens of Belgium will also be hoping for glory.

It's a similar story in the women's race, where the longtime number one has had a difficult couple of years. Athens gold medalist and four-time world champion Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway missed most of the 2007 season with a virus and has been slowly coming back this season. However she was hit by illness again before a World Cup race in Canada at the beginning of the month and it is unclear how strong she will be in Beijing.

"We're a couple of steps away from where I was four years ago," Dahle Flesjaa acknowledged. "But we have shown a couple of times we've been up there."

With Dahle Flesjaa not yet back to strength, veteran Margarita Fullana of Spain took the world championship title this year, her first in eight years, and the Sydney bronze medalist will be seeking to capitalize on her good form.

Irina Kalentieva of Russia, the 2007 world champion, and Sabine Spitz of Germany are also expected to be strong contenders.

Though mountain biking is heavily dominated by the Europeans, there is also good hope for Canada, especially in the women's event, where Marie-Helene Premont will seek to improve on the silver she won in Athens.

"Canada has always had a really good history in mountain biking," said Dan Proulx, who coaches Canada's younger woman hopeful, Catharine Pendrel. "We maybe don't have the depth, but the riders that we do bring to international competition are usually in the running.

"There is a strong connection to mountain biking in our culture, much more than, say, track or road. Especially where these riders are from, in the mountains, it is the culture there."
Chinese hopes lie with Liu Ying, winner of the women's under-23 world championships in 2007.

The mountain bikers have had to wait a long time for their chance at the Beijing Olympics. Theirs is the last of the four cycling disciplines to be contested, after three days of road racing, five days on the track and two of BMX.

The Laoshan mountain bike venue cost almost $10 million to construct. The race will consist of laps of the 4.5-kilometer (2.8-mile) course that climbs 60 meters (200 feet). The exact number of laps will be decided on race day based on the weather, but the intention is that the men's race will last about two hours and the women's 90 minutes.

As a change from the previous Olympics, this year there will be technical assistance zones, where riders can change wheels and other parts, but not get new bikes. They will also be allowed to carry tools with them, which they can share with other members of their team.