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April 27th, 2010, Team
Willow Koerber kicked off the opening round of the World Cup circuit at Dalby Forest in Yorkshire, UK with a silver medal performance. She finished just 11 seconds behind the race winner after getting gapped on the final climb with about 2 kilometers remaining in the 6.8k course. Teammate Heather Irmiger also scored her best European World Cup finish with a ninth place after leading the first lap of the race.
Heather said she was surprised when she looked over her shoulder at the first turn and no riders were challenging her for the lead after she had started 23rd. Most were content to let Heather and her big 29er wheels set the pace. She was joined by Willow, the current World Champion and three other riders on the opening lap as they carved thru the forest trails, and assembled crowds at the several challenging sections.
Both riders felt that their 29er Superfly bikes gave them a huge advantage on the technically demanding course with its steep ledge drops and rock gardens. Periodically they would have to brake just to keep from running over riders in front of them, since the wheels just allowed them to roll over obstacles smoother and more effortlessly compared to the smaller 26-inch wheels the rest of the women's field raced with.
At the mid-way point, Heather dropped back from the group suffering from some cramping and didn’t want to jeopardize all of her hard work from earlier in the contest. It was also at about this same point, that Willow and the World Champion opened up a 30 second gap on the chasing group. They remained together until on the final climb towards the finish that the rainbow-striped champion made her move. Willow countered but just couldn’t close the gap. Despite, maybe not being as aggressive as she should have been on the descents, where her big-wheel advantage shined, Willow was overjoyed with her best ever Worlds Cup podium. Just one more step to go.
In the men’s race a bit later that afternoon, Sam and JHK both managed to claw their way back into the top-40 overall after having a disastrous start loop and first lap where they both found themselves mid-pack amongst the nearly 200 starters. Sam finished 30th and JHK moved up three positions from his start number to cross in 39th. Both are focused on moving up another row of starters after this coming weekend’s second round contest.
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