Crans-Montana Elite and U23 Women XCO Results

I had a friend in high school who lived in a nice neighborhood next to the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond. And like many families in Richmond, Virginia, despite your upbringing or social standing, more than likely, you grew up hunting. And if you hunt, you need some good hunting dogs. And these folks had two of the best.

One of the dog’s jobs was to get the newspaper from the mailbox in the morning. This family lived on the top of a hill, and the mailbox was at the bottom of the driveway on the street. It was a steep driveway. One of those get-off-your-ten-speed-bike-and-walk driveways. That’s all to say you couldn’t see the mailbox from the house.

So, every morning, the dog would be let out the back door to get the paper and bring it back to the house. Easiest duck the pooch ever retrieved. The door opens, the dog is given the command, runs to the mailbox at the bottom of the hill, grabs the newspaper, and leaves it on the porch.

I should note that, technically, the dog didn’t get the paper from the mailbox. It was the plastic newspaper holder the Richmond Times-Dispatch used to give subscribers to attach underneath or next to the mailbox so the newspaper company didn’t skirt federal mail regulations and the delivery people had an easy place to put the paper.

Regardless of where the paper was placed, this was a well-trained dog, and the family liked showing off the newspaper retrieving trick. Once, when they had out-of-town guests, my friend said, “Watch this,” and let the dog out to get the paper.

They all stood on the porch as the dog disappeared down the hill. A minute passed, and the dog finally returned, but he didn’t have the paper. My friend was a little miffed because the dog always retrieved the paper, and the one day he didn’t was when they had guests.

So he sent the dog back down the hill, waited a minute, and the dog sheepishly came back empty-mouthed. At this point, my friend was beside himself and scolded the dog to get the paper and to stop embarrassing him!

The dog took off down the hill once more, and a minute passed without him returning. And then another minute. My friend was now concerned that the dog just took off and wasn’t coming back. It got worse when the dog was still nowhere to be seen, but they all heard a loud snap and crack from the street.

Freaked out that something had happened to the dog, my friend started running towards the street. He didn’t get far because sprinting up the hill towards him was the proudest of good boys with the empty newspaper holder in its mouth. Frustrated that nobody understood, the dog had ripped the holder off its pole to show everyone the morning newspaper hadn’t been delivered that day¹. Such a good boy.

As always, the above should’ve taken up enough space to save those who are waiting to watch the broadcast from inadvertent spoilers. Below the puppy are your results for the Crans-Montana MTB World Cup Elite and Women’s U23 XCO Cross-Country races. Enjoy!

Women’s Elite XCO

Men’s Elite XCO

U23 Women’s XCO

1. When they were training the dog to do the newspaper delivery trick, the dog was so excited to perform his job that the first few times he was sent out the door, he would come back with the paper and then sprint off again to get the paper out of the boxes for the next three neighbors on the block and bring those back, too.