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Elite Men’s XCO Report

Published Date

Written by Tony Scott

Australia’s Mr Consistency, Dan McConnell, has produced yet another excellent ride whilst wearing the Green and Gold to finish in 27th place at the 2012 Elite Men’s Cross Country Championships – an event that was dominated by the Swiss Riders.

With 6 of his 8 laps within 4 seconds of each other (and the other two only 8 seconds outside of that) Dan laid down a performance to be noted. The dedication and hard work that Dan McConnell has put into his cycling this year has paid massive dividends for the Victorian. Coming right off the back of the biggest sporting event in the world, Dan approached the World Championships with a professionalism that others should envy.

It was that professional approach that allowed Dan McConnell to place 27^th at this years worlds and finish 7 min and 8 sec behind the fast finishing Swiss rider, Nino Schurter.

Sitting between 30 and 33^rd position in the early part of the race, Dan simply did not let up as others fell by the wayside and picked up a number of places in the final two laps to gain his final position.

It what will be marked as an extraordinary race, the first laps were dominated by Marco Fontana from Italy and Nino Schurter from Switzerland putting 35 seconds into the chasing group that included the Swiss Fluckiger brothers, Lucas and Mathias, as well as fellow Swiss team mate Fabian Giger and the ever-present Julien Absalon from France.

But it was on lap six, where Nino put the pressure on and the unlucky Italian (broken seat in the last lap of the Olympic event) was simply unable to respond and from that point began to go backwards through the field, with the Swiss riders dominating over the last two laps.

McConnell was pretty pleased with himself after the race “That was solid” said the laconic Victorian “I felt like I really put in for the whole duration of the race. I’m pretty pleased with this race and in fact the whole year.”