March 23, 2006

Canadian Marie-Helene Premont won the Women's Mountain Bike race at the State Mountain Bike Course (Lysterfield Park) in a time of 1 hour 55 minutes and 4 seconds.

New Zealand’s Rosara Joseph finished second in 1:56:37 and Canadian Kiara Bisaro took bronze with a time of 1:57:59.

On a glorious day, an estimated 15,000 spectators lined the course to see Premont and the rest of the 12-strong field compete over six laps of the 6.6km circuit.

The Athens Olympic silver medallist, Premont said “I’m delighted to win this medal. I found the course very fast.”

A battle for second place emerged behind Premont. Canadian Kiara Bisaro suffered a flat tyre on the second lap, but under the new regulations she was able to accept a replacement wheel in a technical assistance zone and lost little time.

Early on, Joseph looked comfortable in third place before making an attacking move to overtake Bisaro and claim silver towards the end of the third lap.

She was very happy about winning a silver medal, saying “The Canadians are so strong and if you have a look at the world rankings, they’re both ahead of me, so I’m very happy today.”

Post race the Canadian riders both commented that they found the hot conditions challenging, coming from a northern hemisphere winter.