With a top class field and 30 participating nations the 2003 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup was kicked off this weekend at St. Wendel. "City Manager" Klaus Boullion and his entire crew once more proved their skills in setting up an excellent venue which is known for its quality for many years. Swiss rider Christoph Sauser and reigning World Champion Gunn-Rita Dahle from Norway claimed the wins.

Riders, the race organization and 25,000 spectators alike doubted that the rain might completely stay away from St. Wendel today but the conditions turned out to be perfect. Most had stated the length of the course to be quite long for season opener: After a start loop of 1.2 kilometres length, a lap of 7.9 kilometres had to be done seven times by the men and five times by the women.

German rider Lado Fumic set the early pace with Filip Meirhaeghe from Belgium and Swiss rider Christoph Sauser right behind him but Meirhaeghe had a technical problem already in the second lap and dropped out. In the beginning of lap four Miguel Martinez from France attacked the leaders and started a sudden spurt but he was kept right away and could not make it up to the top again.

Fumic and Sauser fought hard switched positions in the lead but Fumic stepped back to third place in the fourth lap while Italian Marco Bui, Marek Galinski from Poland and French rider Julien Absalon pushed from behind. Sauser was the one to finally claim the win.

"I always wanted to be part of the leading group," he said. "This is a tactical course and you have to be prepared that someone suddenly attacks. On the other hand nobody likes to take the lead all the time so I just tried be with the top and follow any attacks. In the last two laps I was still in a pretty good shape so I knew I could do it. I'm so glad I worked it out. It's so nice to take the leader's jersey and I'll try to keep it for a bit."

Marek Galinski finished second ahead of Julien Absalon and Lado Fumic. The German was exhausted but happy about his result.

"I was a bit impatient," he said. "It obviously was a question of too much pressure in the early race. I always tried to close the gap whenever someone attacked but I had a lot of fun riding today and I don't feel that I lost the podium - it's more that I won fourth place. I think I could have won today but fourth place was kind of a confirmation that I belong to the top riders. It was just great to ride in front of a home crowd although there's also some more pressure since everyone expects you to do good. This result also gets me a lot of self confidence."