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Kyle Strait Takes First Top 10 in World Cup 12.6.2005 June 12th, 2005.
In a result that most great riders have shown they can achieve in junior years before moving on to their elite career, Kyle Strait of Redlands, California (Specialized/Red Bull/Oakley/Fox Shox), has scored his first ever top 10 in World Cup racing when he finished 7th in the Menís 4X held last night in Schladming, Austria.
Round 3 of the World Cup was held on yet another spectacular course built by Full Contact Racing, and despite some sprinkling showers towards the end of the racing, the large crowd stuck around to watch an exciting set of finals, semi finals and round of 16 racing that had plenty of passing and action.
Kyle qualified strongly in 14th place which meant he had the choice of gate for the first round, which he won without incident, moving into the round of 32 to meet up with 2003 World Champion Michal Prokop (CZE) who, as 3rd fastest qualifier had choice of gate. Kyle rode the next round on Prokopís wheel to take 2nd place and move through to the round of 16. The round of 16 was to be challenging as Kyle had no choice of gate and was up against Prokop, Nathan Rennie (AUS) and Swiss 4X star Roger Rinderknecht. Opting to play a race of patience and hopefully watch the other three take each other out, Kyle managed to find himself in 3rd place at the half way point as Rinderknecht came undone on a jump, and then later was able to pass Rennie with one corner to go as Rennie lost speed trying to pass Prokop. This put Kyle into the 4X semi finals for the first time in his World Cup career.
The semi final was a tough race against Cedric Gracia (FRA), Prokop and Michal Marosi (CZE), all super strong out of the gate. Kyle didnít manage a pass but on the final jump, styled out a perfectly horizontal superman seat-grab for the crowd, looking pretty blinged out in his new white and green tartan style Oakley kit, and with his Specialized P3 wearing chromed Bombshell rims. This moved Kyle through to the consolation final for 5th to 8th place where he was once again against Marosi, and also Scott Beaumont (GBR) and Jared Graves (AUS) with the winner going to the podium to take 5th place for the night. Once again Kyle fought from behind and profited from the mistakes of others. This time it was Michal Marosi, giving Kyle 7th for the night, as well as 12th overall in the series.
ìOnce I got through the round of 16 I was pretty stokedÖit was all a bonus from there on in. My P3 worked perfectly, and I learned so much tonight. Canít wait to do this againî, said Kyle in the finish zone shortly after his consolation final.
Next week Kyle is competing in Saalbach, Austria in the Adidas Slopestyle event, now regarded as one of the worldís premier free ride competitions, before moving onto 3 weeks of World Cup racing in Canada, Brazil and New Mexico, USA.
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