Lopes and Kintner Win 4-Cross World Titles

By Karl Rosengarth

Brian Lopes (San Clemente, CA/GT) and Jill Kintner (Seattle, WA/GT) each won their third career world 4-Cross title on Friday, September 7th at the 2007 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships at Fort William, Scotland.

Lopes fumbled the out of that gate in the semi-finals, but pulled it together to finish second and advance to the finals. "Leading up to the semi-finals I had pretty good gates and led pretty much from start to finish in each round," Lopes explained. "Unfortunately in my semi I came out of my pedal on the second stroke straightaway, and when that happens you pretty much fall off the pace real quick. I was pretty bummed out as soon as it happened, but I got my foot back in, grabbed a gear and just started pedaling. Thank God they added a little bit of length to the course because if it was a 20-second course it wouldn't have played out too well for me."

In the final Lopes was the fastest out of the gate, Jurg Meijer (NED) and Roger Rinderknecht (SUI) tangled and crashed, which left only Romaine Saladini of France to try in vain to chase down the American.

The women's bracket ran true to form, with the top four seeds all advancing to the final. Jill Kintner continued her domination of the women's bracket, as the 2005 and 2006 world champion defeated Anneke Beerten (NED), Melissa Buhl (USA) and Jana Horakova (CZE) to earn her third straight rainbow jersey.

Elite Men's 4-Cross Results

1. Brian Lopes (San Clemente, CA)

2. Romaine Saladini (FRA)

3. Jurg Meijer (NED)

4. Roger Rinderknecht (SUI)

Elite Women's 4-Cross Results

1. Jill Kintner (Seattle, WA)

2. Anneke Beerten (NED)

3. Melissa Buhl (Chandler, AZ)

4. Jana Horakova (CZE)