The Zer02 rider Rafa Álvarez de Lara could not qualify among the better 32 times that were giving the pass for the competition of Four Cross that was celebrated on August 24th in Rotorua, New Zealand.

Rafa finished in 34th position with a time of 54.96, whereas the cut was in 51.91. The reason of it was that he crashed when he was going a few seconds of his heat. And though he got up quickly, the time lost in it left him out of this better 32, when he was motivated to overcome the magnificent eighth position that he had managed last year in his début in Livigno (Italy).

The best times were for both big favorites, Michal Prokop, with 47.64, and the North American Brian Lopes, with 47.89.

On thursday 24th, on a beautiful Spring afternoon in Rotorua, around 10,000 spectators crammed into the 4X venue for 90 minutes of explosive action.

Michal Prokop, who crashed and broke his leg at last year's 4X Worlds, dominated all his heats, semi-final and the final to claim gold from second placed Roger Rinderknecht of Switzerland and Guido Tschugg of Germany following an afternoon of high drama on the 4X course.

Defending champion Brian Lopes crashed in the small final to eventually place eighth while other medal hopeful Cédric Gracia crashed in his first heat.

The action packed 4X was held in sunny conditions on Mt Ngongotaha and attracted a large crowd that lined the steep slopes. It was a perfect setting for Prokop to claim gold after spending months training on the velodrome in order to rehabilitate his ankle. During this time, the super talented rider was drafted into the Czech National team for track but for today he was thrilled to take the 4X crown and cast aside any painful memories from last year.
“That's racing. Last year I crashed and he won (Lopes) and this year he crashed and I won. That's 4X.” he said.

1 PROKOP Michal CZE 2 RINDERKNECHT Roger SUI 3 TSCHUGG Guido GER 4 ATHERTON Gee GBR 5 WICHMAN Joost NED 6 LONGDEN Will GBR 7 MAROSI Michal CZE 8 LOPES Brian USA 9 MEIJER Jurg NED 10 ATHERTON Dan GBR 11 DELDYCKE Mickael FRA 12 TATARKOVIC Kamil CZE 13 STERNBERG Lars USA 14 WARREN Cody USA 15 LLOYD Alex AUS 16 AUERSWALD Daniel GER 17 GRACIA Cédric FRA 18 POLC Filip SVK 19 KIRKCALDIE John NZL 20 CAVALIER Amiel AUS 21 TAMME Lukas CZE 22 HOUSEMAN Richard USA 23 RANDO Jared AUS 24 HOLLAND Tom NZL 25 BOE Reon NZL 26 COLE Cameron NZL 27 PATTLE Craig NZL 28 STROM Luke AUS 29 LEE Hayden NZL 30 MEYENBORG Sascha GER 31 MASTERS Wyn NZL 32 HADERER Mike USA 33 KURISE Yuta JPN 34 ÁLVAREZ DE LARA Rafa ESP 35 CARTER Eric USA 36 GEATER Scott NZL HANNAH Michael AUS BOOTES Wade AUS LANCELLOTTI Luis BRA BERCHTOLD Markolf BRA GIACOMOZZI Nathaniel BRA

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