Mountainbiking: Madcap 4X riders dig gold on mountain

The old "rocks in your head" adage sprang to mind as the world's best crazies chased gold in 4X at the World Mountain Bike Championships in Rotorua yesterday.

Charging down a 700m course and through aptly named challenges such as the "Hanging Pit", "Taniwha," "Rotovegas Rollers" and "Gut Buster", they can only pedal and hope.

From a BMX-style starting gate at the top of a forebidding hill, which even the 4WD vehicles struggled to climb, four riders are pitted against each other. Cheered by a huge crowd who lined the course from top to bottom, the madcap 40 or so seconds the combatants needed to get down the course was a frenzy.

After a quick-fire series of heats and eliminators, it was all over in less than an hour, with gold medals going to defending champion Jill Kintner (US) and Czech Michal Prokop, who snapped Swiss domination in pushing Roger Rinderknecht back to silver.

The winners went in as fastest qualifiers and showed the importance of speed from the start. Defending men's champion Brian Lopes (US) crashed out in the semifinals, ending American hopes of a double in a sport they claim to have invented.

Prokop leaped to the lead in the men's final and was never headed. Behind him it was carnage with Rinderknecht, who is aiming to ride BMX at the Beijing Olympics, stalling but then getting up for second ahead of Guido Tschugg (Germany), who recovered after crashing.

Kintner was first out and first home in the women's final, with Anneke Beerten (Netherlands) holding out Austrian Anita Molick for silver.

New Zealand's participation stalled early. And when it seemed there was hope, the rule book came out and Wellington builder John Kirkcaldie was disqualified in what was to be his last 4X ride.

His ride in this afternoon's downhill final will be his swansong from competitive mountain-biking.

Pushed off the course early, Kirkcaldie recovered, charged back into contention and swept around the field to grab second with course-marking tape wrapped around his arm. Hitting the fence cost him and ended his day.

"You have no time to think," said Kirkcaldie. "You don't normally have time to pass two riders like that. But you can't argue with the rules.

"The crowd was going nuts. It was amazing." No one would argue with that.