Brian Lopes out to make up ground

EXCLUSIVE

AFTER coming 33rd in the first World Cup of 2008, the king of skills Brian Lopes is going to be all out to get back on the podium - and he will be chatting to us later today about how he's planning to do it!

Europeans dominated the first World Cup 4X of 2008 with the second round at the end of May in Andorra.

But the multi prize winning star will be back on top form after he's fixed his dodgy back wheel....

Brian Lopes was an unlikely first round wash out but stranger things have happened according to him
His rear wheel QR skewer came opened in the first heat and his rear wheel came loose.
4X is a game of inches and split seconds, and with a rear wheel loose, Lopes was pretty much insta-screwed, so scratch one old guy Dan Atherton, too, barely made it out of the first round after posting the fastest qualifier, but his poor finish in heat one gave him the outside starting gate, which was pretty much a death sentence for anyone with ambitions of advancing onwards on this course, there's just too much distance to try close down as you come around the first gate; if it's still tight coming out of the first corner, you might gain a place or two in the second corner if you're in lane 3, but lane 4 was the pretty much the dead zone.

biography

Brian Lopes, current 4X World Champion has had an unprecedented career since becoming a professional cyclist at age 17, he has been labeled by USA Today "Undisputedly the best all around world class cycling athlete". Having raced BMX for most of childhood, he learned how to ride a bike at the tender age of 4, turning Pro at the age of 17 and competing in the BMX circuit for 7 years before channeling all his efforts in 1993 to mountain biking.

He has won over 19 titles in his MTB career, 9 of those on the NORBA National circuit, 8 on the UCI World Cup & 4 prestigious World Championships. The most recent win was this past September, 2007 in Fort William, Scotland. After an excellent & healthy race year Brian went on to win his 4th World Championship title. He has more UCI World Cup career wins than any other male mountain biker in the history of the sport.