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Kyle Strait wins bronze medal at UCI World Championships

11.9.2004

17 year old Kyle Strait (Oakley/Red Bull/Specialized) from Redlands, California, became the only USA rider, junior or senior, to climb upon the UCI World Championships Downhill podium today when he scored the bronze medal ahead of other more fancied junior men. Kyle, who finished 4th last year in his first attempt, set his goal for these Championships a long time ago and that was to be a medalist. Since that time he has suffered a broken knee, lost a lot of training time, had mixed results, failed in gaining automatic selection for the US team for this event, and only scraped in as a self funded athlete for the last spot available on the team at the 11th hour. However, his preparation for these Championships involved some other races where he was able to get back into racing mode and lift his form.

First up he competed in the Red Bull Taxco Street Race, 2 weeks before the Worlds. The event was held in the streets of the Mexican city of Taxco and was a huge success with thousands of spectators coming to see the event, which Kyle actually won. For more information on this amazing event, check the following links:

http://www.redbull.com.mx/article.action?documentIntID=1093876697872-699097696

or go to www.redbull.com.mx and click on the box that says "Taxco".

Kyle the flew home briefly before jumping on a flight to Europe to join his 23 Degrees riding mates Greg Minnaar and Matti Lehikoinen for a round of the Swiss Cup in Buttes, not far from where the World Championships were to be held. Despite missing some training due to lost baggage items, Kyle finished as the second placed junior, behind Team G Cross Honda Junior Cyrille Kurtz, with a time of 3m 55.61secs, which would have put him in the top 25 in elite men. Despite not having a lot of training, Kyle was clearly picking up speed and getting into race mode for the Worlds.

Training at the Worlds went super well with his Specialized Demo 9 suiting the steep fast technical course. Many photo journalists commented on his exciting style during the week and his definite strength in the last half of the course. After the first day of training where Kyle spent a lot of time getting to know the course and having fun with it, he started to train with some faster riders to pick up his race speed, and this was also helped by doing some timed runs. In the qualification Kyle rode a steady race, at what he called " a 70% effort", to qualify 5th with a time of 2m 55.10secs. It was clear from this point that a medal was a real possibility.

For the final Kyle remained calm and like he did last year in Lugano for the 2003 Worlds, approached the race with the same relaxed attitude of enjoying the run. That he did with very few errors and a solid time that put him in the leader's hot seat. He was ultimately unseated by the eventual World Champion, Romain Saladini of France.

"I'm pretty stoked to be honest. I mean, this year got off to a bad start when I broke my knee, missed my European training window in Spain, and then battled all season to get my fitness up to where it should be. Actaully, I hardly trained at all and it's purely on race fitness that I got here today. My bike and Fox suspension were awesome today, and the Maxxis tires really hooked up. And even though Red Bull can't be sold here, I managed to get my hand on one this morning so that got me amped up! Standing on that podium knowing my Dad and my Mom were in the crowd was pretty cool and I'm just so happy to be on target for next year. I want those rainbow stripes!!".

Kyle is now off to Livigno, Italy, next week for the World Cup finals which is also the host for next year's World Championships where Kyle will once again be a junior. Following that Kyle is off to Germany for some photo shoots with the European press and he has a major Free Ride event also in Germany called the "Ride To The Lake". More info can be found at www.ridetothelake.com

Results:

1. Romain Saladini (FRA) - 2m 48.69secs
2. Florent Payet (FRA) - 2m 49.58secs
3. Kyle Strait (USA) - 2m 51.15secs

Kyle's site: www.kylestrait.com

Martin Whiteley
CEO/Director
23 Degrees Sports Management S.L.
mailto:captain23@23degrees-sports.com
www.23degrees-sports.com