COOPER’S STOKED TO EARN A CRACK AT A WORLD TITLE

TORQUAY mountain bike ace Cooper Jessen hopes to replicate the form he produced in South Africa when he competes in a world title later this month.

Jessen (pictured) has won a berth in the Australian team for the 2019 Mountain Bike World Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec, Canada, from August 28 to September 1.

Jessen, a Year 12 student at St Joseph’s College, will compete in the junior men cross-country event, joining 43 members of the Australian team.

“I’m pretty stoked … it’s not far away now,” Jessen said. “It’s all happened pretty fast. Selection was pretty late, but we leave in a couple of weeks now. “It’s exciting.” Jessen enters the world titles in solid form, having earned top-10 finishes in a host of events in the leadup.

“There were five races, a junior world series in Canberra, which was the main selection race, and the national championships and Oceania championships at Bright,” Jessen said.

“I was third in Canberra in the junior men, which I was pretty happy about, and I was fifth at the national championships.

“In South Africa I was eighth and the first Australian across the line, so that was my best result. I was happy with that.

“To make the team you have to sit in the top seven from the selection races, so it’s all about getting good results in each race and they were my best performances.”

Jessen said he made the bold move to travel to South Africa for the XCO Cup Series in Pietermaritzburg to improve his chances of landing a spot in the world championships.

“I needed to get more points,” Jessen said.

“Everyone who competes in these UCI world series races is ranked and that establishes the start order for the race.

“You want to start from the front, because it’s a sprint to the single track and there’s over 100 riders, so I went to South Africa to build on my points to move up the rankings.

“There was a final race in Mackay at the start of July, and that was another selection race for the worlds, so it was a lengthy process, but I got there in the end.”

Expecting to start in the middle of the pack, Jessen stressed he was uncertain how he would fare.

“I’m really not sure what to expect because I haven’t raced against many of the Europeans, Canadians and Americans,” Jessen said.

“Australia doesn’t have the same amount of races to accumulate points, so I’ll be starting a bit further back on the start grid, which is frustrating and I can’t anticipate how I will go.

“I’ve really just got to focus on my own race and not worry about other people.

“But it’s going to be an awesome experience. There’s going to be between 100 and 120 riders all grouped up within 20-50m and the gun will go and everyone will go nuts to get to that single track first.

“The start grid is eight riders wide and there’s about 15 rows of riders and it’s just a sprint that goes into one lane.

“So the first two minutes is one of the most important parts of the race.”