Cooper carries Kiwi hopes at pinnacle event
A broken wrist may have dashed Sam Gaze’s world championships hopes, but fellow Kiwi mountainbiker Anton Cooper has declared himself fit to race the year’s pinnacle event after overcoming his own unpleasant injury in recent weeks.
While Gaze is back in New Zealand nursing a broken wrist and busted ankle, Cooper has arrived in Switzerland feeling ‘‘100 per cent’’ after making a speedy recovery from the scrotum tear he suffered in the penultimate round of the World Cup series in Canada.
Although he required a couple of days off the bike, it didn’t take long for the 24-year-old cross-country rider to return to training, and he even competed in the final round in France for good measure.
‘‘I’m all good now. I’ve healed up pretty well so it’s in the back of the mind at the moment and I’m just focussing on worlds at the moment,’’ Cooper said after touching down in Lenzerheide ahead of Saturday’s (Sunday NZT) race.
‘‘I had a couple of days off the bike. It wasn’t so much the stitches [that hurt] it was the impact and bruising. It wasn’t a pleasant injury but 10 days later I got the stitches out and I was on the mountainbike again.’’
Cooper has enjoyed a solid World Cup season, his seventh place in France the fourth time he has cracked the top-10 in 2018. Although he admitted that he would be satisfied with another top-10 at the world championships, Cooper said he is prepared to ‘‘risk everything’’ for the best possible result.
‘‘I took my chances in under-19 and under-23 and managed to win a rainbow jersey in both of those categories so an elite rainbow jersey would complete the trifecta. It’s something I want to complete before my career is out, and hopefully sooner rather than later.
‘‘Worlds is definitely the biggest race of any year outside of the Olympics. Obviously I believe it’s possible [to win] but probability-wise it’s unlikely. But it’s exciting to know that you are a chance because there’s not a huge amount of guys who can say that.’’
But to win the race, Cooper will have to beat hot favourite Nino Schurter on his home track. Schurter has won the the previous three world championships and will be the rider to beat again this weekend.
‘‘Pretty much any day, any race, any course he will be the favourite. He has won the last couple of times and I’ve only seen him get beat once here and he had a puncture that day. He’s on form and he won the last World Cup,’’ Cooper said.