Vallnord, Andorra, May 18th – Roger Rinderknecht made his way into the UCI World Cup 4X finals in Vallnord, Andorra, winning all his previous runs. In the finals, the Swiss GT team rider pedaled straight to first position and stayed there until the second last turn of the track: Roger crashed. Joost Wichman (NED) took his chance and won in front of Luke Madill (AUS). Jared Graves (AUS) took third and Roger fourth.

Vallnord’s 4X track was a fast one, offered a lot of different lines and featured three big sized doubles in the middle section. The 4X racers got a lot of airtime over those jumps and the spectators obviously loved it, screaming and jelling like there is no tomorrow. Roger dominated all of his heats until the finals. The semi finals against Romain Saladini (FRA), Filip Polc (SVK) and Luke Madill (AUS) were decided directly after the start: GT team colleagues Rinderknecht and Madill had a neck-and-neck race at the very beginning and Roger mastered it to get into first position. Madill, Saladini and Polc followed Roger in this order until the finish, but the whole race pack was very compact. Please take a look on: http://freecaster.tv/mtb/1008004/nissan-uci-mtb-world-cup-vallnord-4x-semi-final-2-men for the 4X semi finals video clip.

Jared Graves, who is currently leading the 4X World Cup standings, as well as Joost Wichman and Luke Madill joined Roger in the finals. Jared had the best boost out of the gate, but Roger got him on the inside line at the first turn and took the lead. Joost Wichman did the same with Jared on the second turn, following Roger. It seemed like a safe victory for Roger, because he achieved a gap of a few meters to the followers in the middle section of the track. But in the last section, in the second last turn to be precise, Joost took a faster line, passing Roger, whose front wheel slipped away in the same moment. Roger crashed and Jared was running into him. Madill took his chance and placed second in the end, Graves third and Rinderknecht 4th (http://freecaster.tv/mtb/1008002/nissan-uci-mtb-world-cup-vallnord-4x-final-men).

Roger was pretty disappointed and a bit angry about himself after he blew his final run: “I had it already, it felt really great, but I didn’t see Joost coming, he was extremely fast. I thought that I would have enough time in the last section and wanted to make a safe run. I think it’s ok: learning by doing mistakes. I have learned my lesson and I am looking forward to the next World Cup in Ft. William!”

Results and ranking overview:

Top 5 UCI World Cup in Vallnord, Andorra:

Rank Name Nat. Team
1                Joost WICHMAN                 NED   Giant
2                Luke MADILL                     AUS   GT
3                Jared GRAVES AUS   Yeti
4 Roger RINDERKNECHT SUI GT
5                Thomas SLAVIK                     CZE    Giant

Top 5  UCI World Cup overall ranking:

Rank Name Nat. Team
1                 Jared       GRAVES AUS    Yeti
2 Roger     RINDERKNECHT SUI GT
3                 Joost       WICHMAN                NED    Giant
4                 Romain    SALADINI                FRA    Sunn
5                 Michael    PROKOP                  CZE    Author

For more general information about Roger Rinderknecht, please visit the rasoulution website or Roger’s homepage:
www.rasoulution.com and www.rogerrinderknecht.com