  Mountain Bike World Cup: Cross Country, Round 8 Les Gets/Haute Savoie, France Sunday, August 11, 1996 Sir Bartman Bart Brentjens (NED, American Eagle) started on a roll when winning the Olympic gold at Atlanta. Shortly after his return home, he was knighted, by the Queen of Holland, becoming "Sir Bart," in recognition of his Olympic achievement. And today he won his first Grundig World Cup race of the year. "Today was just a test, now I am feeling confident about achieving my other objectives, which are defending my Tour de France VTT title and then the rainbow jersey," said Brentjens after the race. Brentjens was pushed all the way in the five lap, 38.5km, race. It was a climber's course, which suited the on-form Hubert Pallhuber (ITA, DBR/Freewheeling) admirably. Pallhuber was slightly stronger on the climbs, but Brentjens was clearly better on the descents. With a long downhill to the finish, all Brentjens needed to do was stay with Pallhuber on the climbs. "I tried, but I could not drop him," said Pallhuber, who finished 22 seconds behind. Jerome Chiotti (FRA/Sachs-Peugeot) was third at 3:20. World Cup leader, Miguel Martinez (FRA/Sunn-Chipie) was with the leaders early in the race, but retired with a broken rear derailleur. Thomas Frischknecht (SUI, Ritchey) dug deep to finish seventh. Since winning the silver medal at the Olympics, Frischknecht has been feeling tired . "For me it was a really big achievement to finish the race. On the first lap I thought I would pull out," he said. Frischknecht now takes over the series lead from Martinez. With two races remaining, the series is delicately poised with Frischknecht two points ahead of French Sunn-Chipie rider Christophe Dupouey and and three points ahead of Martinez. Martinez remains the leader in the Under-23 category. The three lap women's race was won by a climber, Daniela Gassmann (Wheeler-Tissot), who was just able to stay ahead of Annabella Stropparo (ITA Volvo-Cannondale). "I can't believe I won today," said the tiny 45kg, 32 year-old from Zuerich. "I was bad on the descent, and fell two times last time down." French newcomer, Sandra Temporelli (Kona) took third. Alison Sydor (CAN/Volvo-Cannondale) was not present, but now only needs to start in the World Cup final to clinch it. Second and third placed riders, Jui Furtado (USA/GT) and Caroline Alexander (GBR/BMW-Klein) cannot catch Sydor now. Furtado missed this race because of exploratory knee surgery, while an off-form Alexander took 16th. Olympic champion, Paola Pezzo (ITA/Gary Fisher) did not start. Olympic bronze medallist, Susan DeMattei (USA/DBR) missed this race in order to concetrate on the NORBA series, which she leads. Paul Skilbeck, Mountain Zone Contributing Writer
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Just the Facts
Crowd: 10,000 Course: 7.7km, 345m climbing, muddy. Weather: cool, raining. Ave. speed: Men:16 kp/h; Women 14.3kp/h Next xc race: Kristiansand, Norway, August 18th
Results Men
20. R.Grewal (Klein-Motorola) at 14.43 35. T.Juarez (Volvo-Cannondale) at 19.09 Women
Men
22. John Tomac (Tioga-Giant), 133 Women
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