After her third place at last weekend’s Grouse Mountain World Cup, Tracey Moseley (Team Kona Ford Focus) was looking to get at least another step up on the podium.

Unfortunately flying Frenchwoman Anne Caroline-Chausson finished over 5 seconds faster than Moseley, who just edged Missy Giove into third place. Tracey now moves up to 4th overall. Ffionn Griffiths also had another excellent race, placing 8th for the underdog Ancilotti / Zeal team, and increasing her reputation for amazing consistency.

On the decidedly testostreone rich side of things, Rob Warner pulled a top ten finish out of the hat to place ninth, while Will Longden had a great run on the long course to come in 20th, ten places ahead of Nigel Page.

Dual results saw Donovan and Lopes repeat last weekend’s wins, with both taking overall 1st place in the series so far.

The XC races would have done Marti Caine proud though, with several “new faces” making an impact on the podium. Ex junior World Champion, 21 year old Julien Absalon (Bianchi) was absolutely ecstatic after powering to his first ever World Cup win as first early leader Roland Green (Trek) and then Cadel Evans (Cannondale) suffered punctures. Kashi Leuchs (Cannondale) also celebrated his first podium spot in second place, overtaking a flat tyred Evans in the final minutes. “But that’s racing, hey?” commented Evans afterwards.

In the Women’s XC Caroline Alexander (Specialized) proved her love of long climbs and high altitude by shadowing her previousy unassailable team mate Barbara Blatter throughout the race. The two established an early lead, but Mary Grigson (Fisher) was determined to wipe the memory of last week’s puncture which cost her second place at Vancouver. Attacking into the top of “The Plunge” (a long technical descent) she pulled clear and used her altitude home advantage to keep the gap extending to the finish to take a jubilant first place.

Full results and race reports on the UCI site, but keep watching this space for detailed race reports from Tracey and Caroline here, as soon as they’ve got their breath back.