Joost Wichman finished 6th at the World Championships Four Cross 2009 in Canberra. His dream ended in the semi final with a flat tire...

It's unknown what exactly happened down under. Freecaster coudn't get the broadcasting running so the only source of information was live-timing on the UCI site.

Wichman had a great start. He won his heat in the 1/8 finals, Tschugg was second. The curtain fell for Meijer, as it did for Prokop (in the same heat), Beaumont and Ropelato. The Aussies did verry wel, 5 riders got through, including big favourite Graves.

It kept on going verry well for Wichman, he won his quarter final, finishing in front of Alvarez. Most top riders made it to the semi-finals, like Slavik, Ssladini and Graves. Atherton was out however.

Out. Over. The World Championships Four Cross ended in the semi-final for Wichman. Clearly something happened (but we couldn't see!) because he finished 4th. (edit: Wichman got a flat tire, riding in second place)

R.S.P. teammate Slavik got a tire as well and missed the big final as well.  So it was Graves, Alvarez, Saladini and Riha for the title. Graves kept his head cool and took the title in his own country. Saladini took silver, Riha bronze.

In the small final Wichman was second, behind Slavik. Meaning a 6th place in this 2009 edition.

1. Graves
2. Saladini
3. Riha
4. Alvarez
5. Slavik
6. Wichman
27. Meijer

Here are the complete results.

It's wasn't the best day for the Dutch four crossers. Anneke Beerten didn't make it to the big final and finished 5th. The gold medal was for another Aussie; Caroline Buchanan.

The footage will be shown on Freecaster soon. Will keep you posted. This weekend more reviews of this event, but it's likely that it will be on sunday.