06/15/2007 Team

Willow Koerber On a World Cup Tear

Round three of the UCI Mountain World Cup was hosted by Champery a small town in the Alps along the French border in the southwest corner of Switzerland.

The riders were set to race 6 laps for the women and 8 laps for the men plus a half-lap each of the 5.1km figure-eight shaped technically challenging course.

With an 11th place call-up for the starting grid, Willow positioned herself to avoid any barriers or crashes that might occur in the tight fast turns of the opening few hundred yards of the race. As the gun, sounded much to the surprise of the Subaru-Gary Fisher staff located just past the first turn, Willow had made the most of her first few pedal strokes and surged directly to the front of the field to lead the all the racers up the first climb prior to entering the woods and descending back into the venue area. Comfortably situated in the top-10 position for most of the race, Willow just rode a smart and conservative race. As the laps ticked off, Willow began to slowly move forward and on the final lap, Koerber and another rider took over the battle for fifth, with the Willow getting to the front before the final descent and then opening a gap to take her first ever European World Cup podium.

"Last race (in Offenburg, Germany) I thought the race was shorter than it was and I ran out of energy. This time I thought it was longer, so I had double extra energy! When they (leaders) went away I was trying not to panic, and just ride my own pace; just to be me, do my ride and let it come back to me.

"On the last lap we could see we were gaining (on fifth place), and then saw her stop (in the tech zone for a rear wheel). I attacked on the last little paved bit of the climb and got into the downhill first, and that was it."

Fellow American and Subaru-Gary Fisher teammate, Heather Irmiger had a strong race result as well finishing 21st, up 10 places from her start. Willow now stands 8th overall in current World Cup standings. Heather is 22nd.

While the women raced under clear skies, the men were not so lucky, as they had barely begun their day when on lap two it began to rain. The mud and now slippery rooty descents changed the race dynamics. Having lack-luster results at the first two World Cup events, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski had started 60th. He had managed to move up 20 places with the first lap. A lot was attributed to his strong climbing form. While the rain stopped on lap four, mud and roots continued to challenge riders as they crashed or were forced to slow down in technical sections.

"I could see that I was stronger on the climbing parts. When it began to rain that made it so slippery that they could no longer ride technical parts well and would crash," according JHK, "and I’d loose several positions that I had gained on the climb."

At the end of the race JHK crossed the finish line in 30th.

Everyone returns to the US for a few days of rest before traveling to Park City, Utah and the Deer Valley NMBS race this weekend, presented by Subaru-Gary Fisher.

The Subaru-Gary Fisher MTB Team is proud to be sponsored by:

Subaru of America, Inc , Gary Fisher Bicycles, SRAM , RockShox, Bontrager Wheelworks and Components, Avid Brakes, Bontrager tires, Crank Brothers pedals, Nike Cycling shoes, performance and casual apparel, 661 gloves, Tokyo Joe's, Stronglight chainrings, Light & Motion, Pedros, Genuine Innovations, Brave Soldier, Yakima , Mountainsmith, Cane Creek, Sara SuperSocks, GU Energy Gel and GU2O Sports Drink.