World Inline Cup Stage 6 Engadin June 26th 2004
Stage 6 brings Kia Verducci to St.Moritz, Switzerland’s. One of the worlds most beautiful regions gives a perfect backdrop to the worlds highest and fastest 42km marathon.
With Zurich and St.Moritz WIC’s only a week apart most of the teams stay the week in the Swiss Alps of Engadin to try to acclimatize to the roughly 1800m or 6500feet altitude, get in some photo shoots, do some clinics and of course relax and enjoy one of the playgrounds of the rich and famous. The 1800m altitude is tough to handle at first with World class athletes all over the city puffing and panting at the top of every set of steps, it seems an impossible feat to do a 42km marathon when it’s so hard to breathe.
Because of the high altitude of Engadin currently some of the Worlds best athletes are living there to train and prepare for the coming Olympics, just a few that we seen was Van-Moorsel the women’s Olympic and World champion cyclist, some of the Kenyan long distance running team, and the entire Australian Olympic Rowing team.
The Engadin WIC is the fastest marathon in the World with the best time of 53min for the men and 59min for the women for 42km both are about 5min faster then the World records but with a mostly down hill race (going from 1800m to 1600m) and normally a strong tailwind the Firs (World Federation) will not let the record stand. Last years race seen rain come in the final 10min of the race, this year the skies were blue but the normal afternoon wind that tunnels through the Alps giving a strong tailwind for the skaters was now a strong afternoon headwind. The hopes of some of the skates to have an easy down hill race and not having to breathe too heavy were gone with one flag at the start line that was flying the wrong way.
The Course:
The point to point Marathon starts in the town of Maloja and has 2 steep downhill sections of 40mph+ with tight corners, the road is 2 lanes and goes between an Alp and the lake of Sils Maria. Through this section the road snakes back and forth with 100’s of Bed mattresses lining the rock face or railing on the tighter turns to stop the skaters that don’t make the turns from going into jagged rock or over the railing into the lake. Next is a straight section that comes to Silvaplanna the Worlds most famous wind surfing lake and a tight round-a-bout then more straight line until passing the skate village and going into the town of St.Moritz. The difference this year is that the course went back to the one of 1999 with a small loop in the city of St.Moritz, something that management forgot to mention in the meeting giving quite a few skaters a scare when the normal road was blocked and they had to make a tight right hand turn at 30mph. After the loop is the most dangerous section of the race with a road work area and an unfinished small round-a-bout leading onto the big down hill that the skaters reach speeds of 60mph+ This section is a non-attack area to try to keep the speeds as low as possible. After that the course is flat and fast with only a few turns and a small uphill followed by a big 1500m hill, a few more round-a-bouts and a fast downhill finish slightly turning to the right and the last 200m finishing up hill.
The Women’s race
Kia Verducci were happy to again have a full team of 4 for the race in Engadin, the girls coming off their 3rd 1,2,3 in a row and preparing the week at the race were ready and confident before the start. At lunch plan A and B were set; A, being the team waits till the first attack on the big up hill... when its caught and the group relaxes they attack on the turn around and try for a break away. B was for Jessica Smith to lead out Theresa Cliff-Ryan for the finish at a set point to stop the chances of Kia Verducci getting blocked in on the final down hill sprint.
At the start Nathalie Barbotin attacked from the line, causing some instant panic in the pack, Kelly and Briggyte of K2/Empire clashed skates leaving Kelly’s skate broken and unable to compete in the race. The pace slowing slightly while the skaters negotiated the fast down hills and tight corners and then back to high speed again, the “mystery” loop in St.Moritz nearly claming a few casualties including Theresa, luckily no one was hurt and they continued to the dangerous no-attack section. The Kia Verducci girls got to the front and took over policing the pack, making sure no skaters were carrying to much speed to make the tight round-a-bout. After that came the big down hill section skaters seemed to be at ease at the bottom and the racing could start. Within 5min the first big attack went on the small uphill section by Celine Weiss of Fila/Mentos followed by Pia Knecht of Saab/Salomon 2 of the 3 Swiss skaters that won this race on a break-away in 2002, within 10seconds Switzerland’s best female skater Nadine Gloor of Athleticum/Rollerblade attacked the bunch bridging the gap leaving 3 Swiss girls all on 100mm, 150m off the front with the big hill to go, looking like a planned attack and with the bunch not chasing it looked dangerous, Theresa not waiting for them to get away attacked the field taking with her fellow team mate Nathalie, Theresa bridged the gap getting them at the top of the up hill. The Swiss girls looking to work with Kia Verducci to stay away and Kia Verducci already prepared for a break away attempt quickly started to share the leading around by this time the gap grew to 400m. The girls sharing the work load pushing the pace was too much for Weiss of Fila/Mentos dropping after only 2 leads. The main field worked together to chase with leads from Rollerblade, Roces, Fila/Mentos, Hyper, K2/Empire and Salomon but the gap was not closing the teams then excepted defeat and rested for the 5th place field sprint. In the last km’s at the front the leaders slowed and prepared for the final sprint, Theresa and Nathalie going to the back, then with 400m to go Theresa did a surprise attack on the field with Nathalie in toe dropping the other girls by 5sec to 3rd and 8sec to 4th winning easily for another 1,2. The main field came in 1min 27sec behind with Jessica waiting till 200m to go to start the sprint holding off Laura Lombardo and Andrea Gonzalez of Roces for 5th place.
Final results:
1st Theresa Cliff-Ryan, KIA/Verducci, USA
2nd Nathalie Barbotin, KIA/Verducci, FRA
3rd Nadine Gloor, Athleticum/Rollerblade, SUI
4th Pia Knecht, Saab/Salomon Swiss, SUI
5th Jessica Smith, Kia/Verducci, USA
12th Kuok Chae Yi, KIA/Verducci, KOR
20th Maita Corrales, Verducci National, COL
Men’s Race:
For the men it looked like 90% of the field was on 100mm wheels for the downhill race. With a rare headwind the race was full of attacks from the start. Skaters were risking injury to try to get a gap on the first downhill sections, but with 283 men in the field it seemed as though on the downhill’s they had to much speed for anyone to escape. This was proven wrong with an early attack with 8 skaters breaking away. A dangerous attack to let go with the long distance specialists like Tristan Loy and Roger Schneider of VW SportXX, Jorge Botero of Bont, Diego Rosero of Hyper, and Mathieu Grandgirard of Fila B and fast finishers like Pascal Briand of SAAB/Salomon, Wouter Hebbrecht of Rollerblade, and Nikolay Garikoitz Lerga of Roces International. Diego and Jorge leading the strongest of the field, also very strong were Tristan, Roger, and Mathieu. Wouter, Pascal, and Nikolay all sat for the win. But with every km the main field were catching, Fila A using up there normal lead out skaters trying to bridge the gap. With 2km to go the gap had shrunk to 30 seconds and looked like the main field would swallow the break away before the finish. With 500m to go the break away group started their sprint to the line with it turning out to be a 3 way 100mm drag race to the line with Diego, Jorge, and Wouter. Wouter, more rested, proved too strong won in a close finish with Jorge 2nd, Diego 3rd, and Pascal 4th. The main field arrived 8 seconds too late with the bunch sprint to the line won by Ruben Martines of Roces just beating Kalon Dobbin of Athleticum/Rollerblade for 9th. Fila A heavily weakened from chasing could only manage 12th, 14th, 34th, and 48th.
Final Results:
1st Wouter Hebbrecht, Rollerblade, BEL
2nd Jorge Botero, Bont, COL
3rd Diego Rosero, Hyper, COL
4th Pascal Briand, SAAB/Salomon, FRA
5th Nikolay Garikoitz Lerga, Roces, SPA
