South African Nat. DH Series RD. 4

Just one week away is the first world cup of the year in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Coincidentally the venue was the fourth stop on the South African National series which took place this weekend. Many elite international downhillers took the opportunity to check out the course and see if thier off season training and preparation was worth a damn. American Duncan Riffle, who has been racing World Cups for a few seasons now without stellar results, managed to break the top ten. Hopefully this is the first of many strong finishes for the Californian and his new Chumba backed team. GT rider Kevin Aiello rocked his way to the top of the podium in the Junior catagory. Both results are a great indication of the future direction of american downhill (now if we could just get a decent domestic series).

Back on the top of the box after a long hiatus was Chris Kovarik of the Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense team. A brand not in recent memory associated with dowhill racing, Trek, saw 3 of its riders podium - Neethling (2nd), Leov (4th), and Moseley (1st womens). Slovenian rider Filip Polc managed 6th abord the new Evil Revolt.

Here's the top results as reported by cyclingnews.com:

Pro-elite men

1 Chris Kovarik (Aus)        3.56.09
2 Andrew Neethling (RSa)     0.02.45
3 Marc Beaumont (GBr)        0.03.27
4 Justin Leov (NZl)          0.04.08
5 Fabien Cousinie (Fra)      0.05.04
6 Filip Polc (Slo)           0.05.39
7 Florient Payet (Fra)       0.05.58
8 Duncan Riffle (USA)        0.06.03
9 Julien Camellini (Fra)     0.06.59
10 Damien Spagnolo (Fra)     0.08.96

Pro-Elite women

1 Tracy Moseley (GBr)        4.34.50
2 Claire Buchar (Can)        0.05.50
3 Emmeline Ragot (Fra)       0.08.86
4 Fionn Griffiths (GBr)      0.17.45
5 Joanna Petterson (RSa)     0.27.83

Junior men

1 Kevin Aiello (USA)         4.06.44
2 Timothy Bentley (RSa)      0.05.38
3 Laurie Dinham (Aus)        0.06.15