Dahle-Flesjå and Absalon the best ever?
By Fred Dreier
Photo: AFP (file photo)
Perhaps it’s no surprise that Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjå and Julien Absalon earned top mountain-bike honors in the VeloNews Awards for the third year running. Both again ruled cross-country racing in 2006. Each won their respective world championships, European championships and World Cup overall titles, seemingly with ease.
But is it time to label Dahle-Flesjå and Absalon the most dominating cross-country racers of all time? For now that’s still debatable, but if the riders continue their current trajectory, it will be unquestionable. Cross-country racing has a history laden with eras ruled by a single dominant athlete. So why are the reigns of Dahle-Flesjå and Absalon more impressive than those of Roland Green, Thomas Frischknecht, Henrik Djernis, Paola Pezzo or the great Juli Furtado?
We’ll begin with Dahle-Flesjå. For starters, the 35-year-old’s palmarès glow brighter than any other female cross-country racer. Period. With her convincing 2006 world championship win in New Zealand, the Norwegian became the only person to win the title four times. And with 25 career World Cup victories, it’s likely just a matter of time before she surpasses Furtado’s career total of 28 — a number once considered untouchable.
“[Beating the record] hadn’t been a thought until last season,” Dahle-Flesjå said. “If it is possible to beat the record, then that will be a record that will be standing for a long time I believe.”
Furtado posted her golden stat during the sport’s primordial days in the early 1990s, when the World Cup featured 10 events each year — though Furtado’s career was cut short at age 30 when she contracted lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease. Twenty of Dahle-Flesjå’s World Cup wins have come during the past four seasons of her decade-long career, when a six-race schedule was the norm.
“She’s closing in on Juli’s World Cup win record, and I never thought that could ever happen,” says Canadian Alison Sydor, herself a three-time world and World Cup champ. “There is more competition and fewer World Cups these days.”
Sydor called Dahle-Flesjå the “best ever” after September’s world championships. “To have such results and have such longevity, what she has done is amazing,” added Sydor, who has been battling the world’s best since 1991.
What Dahle-Flesjå has done is stake her claim as the favorite for every race she enters. At the 2006 world’s, she out-climbed the best ascenders in the biz including Spaniard Marga Fullana, then floated down the descents to win by nearly three minutes. In spite of her constant declaration that she “is only racing for a podium spot” at big events, the Norwegian now grabs headlines when she doesn’t win. That’s usually the result of mechanical disaster, which was the case at the May 27 World Cup in Fort William, Scotland. Dahle ran her bike 2km to the nearest tech zone to fix a flat tire, then rejoined the race in 60th place, only to ride her way up to fourth by race’s end. “That is the result I am most proud of this season,” she said.
Dahle-Flesjå plans to continue racing through the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She already owns one Olympic gold medal, from Athens in 2004, and if she can score one more she’ll equal Pezzo, winner in 1996 and 2000. Whether Dahle-Flesjå can hold her spot is the question. Over the past two seasons, only Canadian Marie-Hélène Prémont has succeeded in bringing down Dahle-Flesjå in head-to-head battles. The plucky Canadian took two World Cup wins in 2005 and 2006. Whether this is a sign of kinks in Dahle-Flesjå’s seemingly impenetrable armor is a story for the history books.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
With an Olympic gold medal, three world championships and two World Cup titles in his bag of hardware, Absalon has already scored more major titles any other male cross-country racer. And the scary thing for his rivals is that, at 26, the Frenchman may have his best years ahead.
In 2006, Absalon’s stature in mountain biking history grew as he confidently called his shots before the season began. “I will try to win the World Cup and the world championships,” he said in March while training in the south of France. “It is my first time because each year I chose one or the other but this year I will try to do both.”
That goal put him in direct competition with Swiss Christoph Sauser, World Cup champ in 2004 and 2005 and one of the most consistent riders in the world. It also challenged Absalon to maintain top form throughout the season, something he hadn’t attempted since 2003.
Still, mountain biking’s ruling patriarch and all-time World Cup leader Thomas Frischknecht never doubted Absalon.
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“Julien wins if it is dry and with short climbs in Athens, and when it is muddy and rainy and cold,” Frischknecht said before the season began. “He wins everywhere because he is the best.”
For the complete text of this article and a complete summary of all of our 2006 Awards, see the current issue of VeloNews.
