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UCI World Marathon Championships

Oct 20, 2009
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<p>UCI World Marathon Championships</p><p>
by Gary Perkin</p><p>
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Sunday 8 August 2010</p><p>
Course Length: 107km</p><p>
Total Ascent: 2556m</p><p>
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A week after the last UCI World Cup in Val di Sole, Italy, Christoph Sauser and Burry Stander of Specialized Factory Racing were back in action - this time at the UCI World Marathon Championships in St Wendel, Germany.</p><p>
The marathon discipline requires a completely different mindset and racing strategy - add on top of that the fact that it is a full blown World Championship and you know the racing is going to be fought tooth and nail over the entire distance.</p><p>
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Both Christoph and Burry were fired up for this race - but from opposite sides of the coin - Christop has raced and won the Marathon Worlds before but Burry had never raced the long distance discipline at the World Championships level until St Wendel.</p><p>
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At dinner on Saturday night there was a lot of good natured ribbing going on between the lads - and you could sense they were both ready for a fight for the win.</p><p>
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Race day dawned, with clear skies, but with rain predicted for later in the afternoon. First up everybody wished Bobby Behan a happy birthday and then got down to business. From the gun the field settled into the kind of pace expected for the day and the Christoph and Burry started setting the tempo early on. Burry was determined to keep the pace high so no-one could launch an attack and get away. And that tactic worked - until right at the last feed zone - where Austria's Alban Lakata managed to break away and get a gap of 5 seconds which he held all the way to the end. Literally seconds later the bunch sprinted in with Mirko Celestino of Italy taking 2nd and just beating Burry into 3rd. Ralf Naef of Switzerland took 4th while Christoph took 5th.</p><p>
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Burry Stander:</p><p>
I was pretty nervous today but excited at the same time - it's always cool to try something new. The marathon is very big in South Africa - I think there's some guys who follow this more than cross country. I was pretty motivated to do well here today. Christoph and I were both riding well today and together with Ralf Naef we were getting away on every climb - but the group would come back to us on the flats and downhills which is unfortunate as it would have been nice to get away - but thats the way it goes. Towards the end we were watching and attacking and Alban Lakata capitalised on that and attacked - as he did that I suffered a little bit of cramp and couldnt get across to him. From there I knew it was going to be a sprint and my sprinting has been pretty good lately. I might have come into the stadium a little far back - I was 5th or 6th and there was a lot of corners - despite that I managed to get past a lot of the guys - it was just the Italian (Mirko Celestino) who stayed ahead of me and got second. A bronze medal - I'm stoked - medalling was my big goal for today. For South Africa I think it means a lot - we've never medalled at a marathon World Champs - or at an Elite Cross Country World Champs level - so for me it was an awesome day - it couldn't have gone any better.</p><p>
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Bike Choice: S-Works 29'er Hardtail</p><p>
We have an awesome bike for this course - I think the 29'er allowed me to save so much energy in the first loop - because it was so fast and flowing - and I still had a lot left when action started.</p><p>
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Christoph Sauser:</p><p>
I came here to win so I am very dissapointed. I knew that in the last 10 kilometres it would be so hard to break away - just two short climbs - but not steep enough. I attacked twice very hard and managed to break away a little bit - but straight after the climb it was flat and the guys just regrouped. I think maybe on a different course I would have had a good chance to won today - I never really suffered today - just for two or three minutes when I attacked - it's a pity.</p><p>
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Bike Choice: The 2011 S-Works Epic.</p><p>
The new Epic feels so stiff and I had the Renegade 1.80s so great rolling resistance and super light. I was so relaxed in the downhills. I tried the 29'er and it was super fast on the smooth gravel and asphalt climbs - but to have a full suspension - which is the same weight as the 29'er hardtail - the rotational weight is even better - it felt awesome.</p><p>
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Benno Williet:</p><p>
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The riders got here a day earlier than and when we got here the boys had already made up their minds with bike choice - Burry on the 29'er and Christoph on the 26 inch Epic. And from there it was just a matter of watching the weather and making a tire choice. The first few days it was wet so they had LK's on but by the end of the week it had dried out - so they were both on the new Renegade.</p><p>
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The race itself was very smooth - no problems or mechanicals. We also changed from 2x10 to 1x10 - with a 40t front ring and that worked well - after spending some time trying to figure it out and set it up. Claire, Manuella, Bobby and I went to all the feed zones but there were no problems at all - i think there were only 2 or 3 riders that had flat tires - but thats about it. The race was good - exciting!</p><p>
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The next major events for the team are the UCI World Cup Finals in Windham, New York, on 28-19 August followed by the UCI World Championships in historic Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec on 4-5 September.</p>

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