Joseph and Leary Solid at UK Mountainbike World Cup

Rosara Joseph returned to World Cup Cross Country racing with a solid performance at the first round of the UCI MTB World Cup at Dalby Forest in the UK yesterday. The Beijing Olympian was absent from world class racing in 2009 and returns this year with her health issues sorted, while targeting a continuation of her 2008 top ten World Cup form.

Without a store of ranking points going into Dalby Joseph started from a grid position of 100, with 12 rows of competitors in front of her at race start. Halving that deficit during the five minute start loop, Joseph continued to work her way through the field to claim a 25th place result.

Nic Leary (Rotorua) was in action at the first event of her busy 2010 international events schedule and also raced strongly. Oceania Champion Leary had a start grid postion of 57th on the 7th row and steadily picked off riders in front during the five lap race to finish 40th.

Brief Results
1 Irina Kalentieva (RUS) 1:54:57, 2 Willow Koerber (USA) +00:11sec; 3 Katerina Nash (CZE) +00:28 sec; 25 Rosara Joseph (NZ) +06:34; 40 Nic Leary (NZ) +10:39.

Full Results