Crashfest Bromont
05.08.2009
For the men the top-seeded riders began to fall out of contention in the first round. World Cup leader Graves went out in the first round after crashing in the second corner. Number one qualifier Romain Saladini (Team Sunn) crashed out in the second round, as did Roger Rinderknecht (GT Bicycles), who was second in the World Cup rankings and world champion Rafael Alvarez de Lara Lucas (Specialized Factory Team). In the semi-finals it was the Czech rider Tomas Slavik who went down.
This left Wichman, Dan Atherton (Animal-Commencal), Czech rider Michal Prokop and a newcomer to 4-Cross, American Junior rider Mitch Ropelato, for the final. Wichman managed to get away early and miss the horrific crash that took down the other three riders, to coast in for the win. Ropelato was up first and took silver, while Atherton limped in for third ahead of Prokop. Both Atherton and Prokop were clearly injured, with the Atherton favouring his shoulder on the podium.