 |
 |
 |
The men’s Olympic MTB race takes place at Parnitha on 28 August, and both British riders have shiny new bikes to race. Oli Beckingsale will be riding one of three race-ready Scott Scale carbon fibre hardtails – Thomas Frischknecht has the other two. The frame dusts the, er, scales at under 1kg, while Oli’s custom spec includes one-off silver-anodised Hope brakes (complete with British flag motifs) and a one-piece carbon seatpost/saddle unit.
Meanwhile, Liam Killeen will be racing a 2005 Gary Fisher hardtail. The new AC/DC frame (that’s Aluminium Damping Carbon Composite, contrived abbreviation fans) uses ZR9000 aluminium up front with carbon fibre chain and seatstays. It’s 100g lighter than the current all-aluminium frame, and Liam’s has a custom paint job that should be easy to spot on the telly. Liam’ll be running Manitou Skareb forks, ultralight Bontrager wheels, bar, stem and seatpost and IRC tyres.
Medals? Quite possibly. All the big names will be there, including Sydney gold medallist Miguel Martinez. Pre-race favourite Filip Meirhaeghe won’t, of course, be racing, having retired in disgrace after testing positive for EPO. It’s close racing at the top of the men’s Elite XC field these days, but Roel Paulissen and Christoph Sauser are probably the ones to watch. Liam Killeen’s had some great results this year, though, and the Parnitha course is apparently on the technical side which’ll suit him. A gold looks somewhat unlikely but we wouldn’t bet against Liam getting a gong of some sort.
Best of luck to them both. Results as soon as we know them…
Share