Europeans dominate cross-country race at world mountain bike championships

Europeans win cross-country mountain biking

CANBERRA, Australia — Nino Schurter of Switzerland defeated Olympic champion Julien Absalon of France by 0.03 seconds Saturday in the sprint finish of the cross-country event at the world mountain bike championships.

Schurter, the Beijing bronze medalist, finished seven laps of the 4-mile course in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 39 seconds.

Florian Vogel of Switzerland was third in a photo finish, given the same time as fourth-place Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos of Spain. Reigning world champion Christoph Sauser of Switzerland was 10th.

In the women’s event, also held at Canberra’s Stromlo Forest Park, Russia’s Irina Kalentieva took gold, Norway’s Lene Byberg silver and American Willow Koerber the bronze.

The chain broke on Kalentieva’s bike midway through the race, but she fixed it and pedaled on to victory.