World Cup Lead Valence won by Usobiaga and Vidmar

It was going to be a fight to the last hold and this is exactly how things turned out in this penultimate stage of the World Cup Lead. In this game of catching up and changing leaders, this time Patxi Usobiaga and Maja Vidmar (for the fifth time running) got the better of Ramón Julian Puigblanque and Angela Eiter, while Natalija Gros and Jorg Verhoeven placed third.

Valence confirmed that the Difficulty competitions are increasingly, how can one put it, touch and go... like bouldering comps?. How else can one interpret the nth competition in which the results are decided in the space of a hold or two? The "format" here in Valence too is always the same: a large number of joint equals qualify for the final. The first round is festooned with tops (18 out of 26 in the men's comp and 22 out of 26 in the women's). Photocopy performance in the semi, in which 14 men topped out, leaving 13 (instead of the regular 8) to qualify for the final as Daniel Winkler was excluded, "penalised" for not having topped out in the first round. In the women's competition a "mere" 5 tops were achieved by the likes of Vidmar, Eiter, Gros and Irati Anda, while Sarkany, Franko, Ciavaldini, Markovic and Kobayashi qualified too.

As was to be expected the dice were thrown in the final (a much, much harder route) which saw no tops at all. Usobiaga and Puigblanque battled it out in an emotional duel, won this time by Usobiaga who climbed just one hold higher. With his first World Cup win this season the Basque climber also leads the provisional WC field.

The women's competition followed a similar storybook, with Maja Vidmar unbeatable in Valence. The Slovenian beat reigning World Champion Angela Eiter for the 5th time running in this World Cup, but only by a hair's breadth: Maja managed to move off the monodigt, while Angela only held it. This "nothing" netted Maja her 5th consecutive win and, above all, the leadership in the World Cup. Third place went to teammate Natalja Gros, while Muriel Sarkany from Belgium lived up to her class reputation finishing fourth overall.

The focus now shifts to the final competition in Kranj. Undoubtedly on 17 and 18 November those to look out for will be Puigblanque vs Usobiaga, Vidmar vs Eiter. The name of the game will be: don't lose, since everything can still happen and the only way to win the Cup is to reach the top hold in the final. Third place is still up for grabs between Verhoeven, Crespi and Mrazek (absent in Valence), while Sarkany should get bronze by beating Gros and Markovic. But beware: nothing can be taken for granted in this champion 2007 season. No mistakes permitted. Just like in Bouldering?

Results men Valence
1 Patxi Usobiaga Lakunza ESP
2 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP
3 Jorg Verhoeven NED
4 Flavio Crespi ITA
5 Michaël Fuselier FRA
6 Magnus Midtboe NOR
7 Cédric Lachat SUI
8 Gauthier Supper FRA
9 Flavien Guerimand FRA
10 David Lama AUT
11 Fabien Dugit FRA
12 Manuel Romain FRA
13 Sylvain Millet FRA
14 Daniel Winkler SUI
15 Luca Zardini ITA
16 Romain Desgranges FRA
17 Marco Antonio Jubes Angarita ESP
18 Anatole Bosio FRA
19 Klemen Becan SLO
20 Aurélien Culver FRA
20 Gabriel Josseron FRA
20 Gabor Szekely HUN
23 Kevin Aglae FRA
23 Olivier Hequin FRA
25 Martin Jaggi SUI
26 Jürgen Reis AUT
27 Benoit Heintz FRA
28 Alessandro Fiori ITA
29 Anderson Gouveia BRA
29 Emmanuel Lopez FRA
31 Romain Pagnoux FRA
32 Michaël Lecomte BEL
33 Rafet Serkan ERCAN TUR
33 Mauricio Huerta MEX
33 Catalin Petrescu ROU
36 Killian Avocat-Benan FRA
36 George Maris ROU
38 Bogdan Rus ROU

Results women Valence
1 Maja Vidmar SLO
2 Angela Eiter AUT
3 Natalija Gros SLO
4 Muriel Sarkany BEL
5 Lucka Franko SLO
6 Caroline Ciavaldini FRA
7 Mina Markovic SLO
8 Yuka Kobayashi JPN
9 Irati Anda Villanueva ESP
10 Kinga Ociepka POL
11 Charlotte Durif FRA
12 Caroline Januel FRA
13 Yana Chereshneva RUS
14 Jenny Lavarda ITA
15 Barbara Bacher AUT
16 Florence Pinet FRA
17 Alena Ostapenko UKR
17 Katharina Saurwein AUT
19 Vanessa Taylor FRA
20 Mathilde Brumagne BEL
20 Bettina Schöpf AUT
22 Andrea Brigitta Szekely HUN
23 Marine Thévenet FRA
24 Emeline Thomas FRA
25 Alexandra Eyer SUI
26 Olga Bibik RUS
27 Léa Philippon FRA
28 Marine Largeron FRA
28 Agata Wisniewska POL
30 Solene Lecar FRA