Hermida 2010 World Champion

SI, SI, SI, SI I SÍ

Every Canadian cloud has a silver lining... In the name of Hermida

Date:
05.09.2010

Description: The second-to-last day of the 2010 UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne was one full of emotion, with two Elite cross-country events on the programme. Early in the morning, despite heavy rains, big crowds were ready to cheer the Canadian athletes on, especially in the most interesting parts of the course, supporting them in their quest for medals in the women’s competitions.


However, the hopes of thousands of spectators to see Marie-Hélène Prémont and Catharine Prendel fight for the victory did not last long: the Quebec athlete almost never entered into the struggle for the top positions, while this year’s World Cup winner soon had to give the lead of the race back to Poland’s Maja Wloszczowska, who probably started a little too fast.

In the last three laps, the effectiveness of the very first Mountain Bike Marathon World Champion — in 2003 in Lugano — and Olympic silver medallist two years ago in Beijing, gradually enabled her to increase the gap on all her opponents. Behind Wloszczowska, titleholder Russia’s Irina Kalentieva finally negotiated the end of the event with a second-place finish, ahead of United States’ Willow Koerber and Canada’s Catharine Pendrel, visibly disappointed.


In the men’s race, 32-year old José Antonio Hermida celebrated the greatest success of his career. Arriving in Mont-Sainte-Anne in great shape, he took advantage of the difficulties experienced by Swiss 2009 World Champion Nino Schurter and France’s Julien Absalon, who wanted to come back to the top — both of them having problems during the race — and took an ideal position behind Czech Republic’s Jaroslav Kulhavy and South Africa’s Burry Stander. Thanks to his experience, the Spanish star overtook and passed them with three laps to go, offering himself the dream of a lifetime.


Schurter, certainly the strongest man of the day, finished in fourth, while Absalon, who ended up with a broken finger, took fifth place.


In the Juniors, Spain also won the two gold medals awarded in the 20’’category Trial event. Ion Areitio Aguirre finished in front of Germany’ Raphael Pils and France’s Marius Merger. In the Elite category, Benito Ros Charral won the title in front of teammate Abel Garcia and Netherland’s Mustieles Rick Koekoek.