This weekend’s opening round of the Tissot XC World Cup in Spain saw previous champions Bart Brentjens and Marga Fullana turn up the heat in Madrid.

In the men’s event Sir Bart Brentjens (knighted after his 1996 Olympic victory) took the lead on a technical section towards the end of the first lap and then never looked back, extending his lead lap by lap until the finish. Fellow Olympian Miguel Martinez blew his chances and his tyre simultaneously after he lost his spare innertube, leaving defending World Champion Roland Green to pull away from the other pursuers for second place.

Liam Killeen was the first British rider over the line in 30th, (8.22 down on Bart) while Barrrie Clarke came in 44th.

Positions for the rest of the very large Brit pack were as follows; Jody Crawforth (78th), Phil Dixon (81st), Zak Toogood (89th), Philip Cooper (103rd), Adrian Lansley (110th), Jody Burnett (113th), Tim Dunford (116th), Sam Gardner (118th).

Oliver Beckingsale, Nick Craig, Dave Collins and Tim Morley were all in the high number of riders who DNF’d.

As usual British riders – OK lets face it, Caroline Alexander – did a lot better in the women’s race than the men’s. While Marga Fullana pulled away for another solo win in front of an ecstatic home crowd, it was Caroline who made most of the running in the chase group. A late move by Alison Dunlap saw her pull away from Alexander’s pursuit group but she still finished 39 seconds down on Fullana. Caroline was then pipped for third place by Sabine Spitz and she came in one minute fifteen after Fullana.

UK honours were also represented by Jenny Copnall (40th), Sue Thomas (44th) and Victoria Wilkinson (57th).

For full results and race reports head for the UCI website.