The GB team of Oli Beckingsale, Liam Killeen, Caroline Alexander and Ian
Wilkinson produced an excellent performance on the opening day of the World
Mountain Bike Championships in Spain, to take sixth in the Team Relay.

With each team fielding an Elite Male, Junior Male, Elite Female and
Under-23 Male, the Team Relay is only in its second year as World
Championship event. Great Britain showed that they are learning fast, having
finished well outside the top ten in Sweden last year.

Spain retained the title, reflecting their excellent strength in depth, but
the GB team put some of the most fancied teams behind them, including USA,
France and Canada.

Team Manager Simon Burney put it down to good riding and planning:
„The team all rode well. I guess we just rode a bit smarter than some of the
other teams. It‚s given us a boost, and morale was high anyway. The course
is very technical and there is nowhere to rest. Liam‚s heart-rate was
averaging only about eight beats below maximum for the whole lap. A lap is
taking up to 33 minutes, which makes it a bit longer than most teams were
expecting. During the race we only had one drama, when Ian Wilkinson crashed
challenging for fifth place, but he‚s fine. Everything wen to plan: Oli led
us off and came in at about 12th place, having come up against some of the
top Elite men. Liam moved us up to about ninth. Caroline continued the good
work, getting us up to sixth and Ian did well to hang on to it, considering
he crashed.‰

Simon also updated the news on the team‚s walking wounded:
„Barrie Clarke is still struggling with his recently broken wrist. He won‚t
be riding off-road until the last possible moment. Rob Warner and Nigel Page
are still nursing broken bones in their hands, but expect to race

Mountain Bike World Championships
Team Relay
Sierra Nevada, Spain 7th June

1. Spain
2. Switzerland
3. Italy
4. Poland
5. Australia
6. Great Britain