Anderson wins in Cross Country MTB Stronghold - Bern, Switzerland

Richard Anderson continued to realise his stunning potential with a win in the prestigious HC category International Mountainbike Race in Bern, Switzerland yesterday. The Blenheim flyer picked up a flu on his way to Europe at the end of May, and has taken some time to shake the effects of this completely. But against a world class Junior field in Bern, there was no sign of any lingering effects as the Avanti sponsored Anderson led from the gun to post a convincing win in the six lap Junior race. This result puts Anderson right on track with his 2010 World Championship preparations and will be a huge confidence boost for the rest of his European racing campaign.

Rotorua's Dirk Peters was also racing at Bern, in the combined Elite/U23 field. The Elite/U23 startlist couldn't have been stronger, with current and multi-time former World Champions competing for valuable UCI ranking points in the eight lap race. First year U23 athlete Peters was one of the youngest in the mens field, competing against vastly more experienced athletes in Bern as part of his 2010 European campaign. Peters steadily worked his way through the field after three extremely fast start loops, improving from 50th at the start of the first lap through to a finish position of 29th after six. As beneficial as his performance against current World Champion Nino Schurter and multi-time World Champion Julien Absalon was, more importantly Peters placed 11th of the U23 athletes in this race which is a solid benchmark he is looking to build on over the next two months.

Brief Results, Bern
Elite Men
1 Julien Absalon (FRA) 1:48:45; 2 Nino Schurter (SUI) +1:20; 3 Christoph Sauser (SUI) +1:46; 4 Florian Vogel (SUI) +2:02; 5 Lucas Fluckiger (SUI) +3:43; 29 Dirk Peters (NZL) -1lap
Junior Men
1 Richard Anderson (NZL) 1:44:36; 2 Sascha Bleher (GER) +1:34; 3 Severin Sagesser (SUI) +3:36

Full Results