CYCLING - MOUNTAIN BIKE: Paul Van Der Ploeg has powered to an emphatic victory at the 2013 UCI MTB & Trials World Championships in South Africa on Sunday, claiming the elite men’s eliminator world crown.

In an exciting final of the fast and furious format of mountain biking- which is not contested at the Olympics- the 23-year-old wowed the crowd as he unleashed his signature move ‘suicide inside’ to catapult into the lead.

The gamble paid off, with Van Der Ploeg maintaining his lead over the remainder of the race to power home to an emotional victory in front of a crowd of thousands gathered at Cascades Park. Daniel Federspiel (Austria) and  Catriel Andres Soto (Argentina) filled the podium.

“I don’t even know, yeah, that happened and it’s sinking in. It’s just one of those things you dream of happening and to have it all come off, is amazing,” said Mount Beauty’s Van Der Ploeg who became just the fourth Australian male in history to win an elite mountain bike world title, joining Sam Hill (Downhill 2006, 07, 09) Jared Graves (4X - 2009) and Wade Bootes (Dual – 2000).

“Considering I was on the sick bed for a while before coming to South Africa and not sure I would compete here,  I’m really happy with the win,” added Van Der Ploeg, who had entered the Championships off the back of contesting the UCI road event, the Tour of Borneo, where he suffered a bout of food poisoning, the affects of which were still being felt when he arrived in South Africa earlier in the week.

It is just the second year a world championships has been decided in the Eliminator, a fast paced exciting event which pits four riders against each other in a race to the line lasting just a few minutes in a much shortened version of the Cross Country track.

The top 32 after time seeding compete in heats of four, with two eliminated each race until only four remain for the Championship race.

Easily one of the biggest riders in the field, the rider dubbed the “Aussie giraffe” by ground announcers posted the fourth fastest time in seeding, before progressing through to the final by winning the quarter and semi finals. 

Despite already showing his hand in the semi final, his competitors had no answer for the nifty tactics of Van Der Ploeg in the final, as he once again took the exact same inside line on the first climb to take the lead.

“I know that with cross country eliminator the start is super important. Dan (Federspiel) is superfast off the start so I just got into his slipstream up the first hill,” Van der Ploeg said.

“To get into the final, that was what I was trying to do so I could put it all on the line, and as it turned out there was an inside line I found in the semi final which enabled me to take the lead and get a bit of a gap,” he explained.

“Then at the top of the hill before the run to the finish line, Bec Henderson yelled out to me ‘Paul, you’ve got this’ and I thought ‘Do I actually have this?’ But I didn’t look back and I just went for the line."

The victory was Van Der Ploeg’s biggest of his career since he claimed a victory in the UCI World Cup Eliminator series in 2011.  Over the past two seasons, the versatile rider has been switching between all forms cycling including mountain biking, road and cyclo-cross racing.

“Last year racing I was World Cups in the cross country, but I didn’t really get the results I was looking for, and expecting to get.  So I reassessed after World Champs as to what format best suited me,” he explained.

“Cross country eliminator really suits me better than cross country because the short and powerful style of racing is better for me only being 90kg.

“I rode the eliminator for the whole last year, but then I chose to ride a road bike for a while so I had to relearn how to ride a mountain bike this week.”

A shoulder reconstruction sidelined Van Der Ploeg late in 2012, before he returned to the bike for the start of the Australian domestic season only to break his collar-bone in his first race back, the Tour of Perth in April. Since then he has juggled international and domestic based racing in all disciplines.

“2013 in particular has been a mixed bag for me all year, I have done UCI and Australian road, cyclo-cross, cross country, everything.

“But I have enjoyed trying different things and learning new disciplines.  It has really been a crazy fun year.

“In two weeks I head to Beijing, China for the first ever UCI cyclo-cross held in that country, so I guess the madness will continue.

“I guess at this point I need to say a massive thank you to everyone who has looked after, my family supporting my random decisions.

“But now I have the rainbow jersey, I get to wear with pride for the next year.  It is just one of those moments I will remember forever.  It is unbelievable.”

In the Championship’s final event held on Sunday evening, Cairns’ Mick Hannah and Toowoomba’s Jared Graves secured the elite downhill silver and bronze medals respectively in a nail-biting men’s final won by defending champion and hometown hero Greg Minnaar.

Tracey Hannah showed no signs of a recent broken collar-bone as she won the bronze medal following a fantastic ride in the women’s event won in convincing fashion by Great Britain’s Rachel Atherton.

Australia capped a tremendous UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships with three medals in the elite downhill event to take the team tally in South Africa to seven medals, including one gold, two silver and four bronze (the remaining medals were won in Junior events).

Cycling Australia