Bike report and Race reports.

Ok so I haven’t posted for a while and a few things have happened since then, which to be honest is why I haven’t managed to put anything together. Firstly the Lanai is up and running and already covered in mud. The World Cup season is over and the World Championships took place last weekend. I’ve been to Oslo for my brothers wedding and have another wedding to attend this coming weekend. My car failed it’s MOT and after everything is going to the big car park in the sky.

Bike Repair

The Lanai had new brake pads installed, a new saddle and new tyres as well as the old grips off my bike put on as they were a damn sight better than the gaffa tape and scraps of rubber that passed for grips before. The old tyres were practically bald and very weather beaten, so I had suggested rather strongly they should be replaced. So it’s up it’s been out for a very decent ride and is now coated in mud. All the hard work seems to have paid off and the payment in beer was much appreciated.

World Cup

The World Cup season was all but decided when I last posted and that’s how the overall standings finished.

Elite men; 1. Aaron Gwinn (USA). 2. Greg Minaar (RSA) 3. Gee Atherton (GBR).

Elite Women; Tracey Moseley (GBR).  2. Florianne Pugin. (FRA) 3. Rachel Atherton (GBR)

Junior Men’s Champion; Troy Brosnan (AUS)

Junior Women’s Champion; Manon Carpenter (GBR)

You may notice one country keeps cropping up in these results and you’re just looking at the top 3 if you look at the overall standings you’ll notice how often GBR crops up. We have a mass of talented riders from Lewis Buchanon and Manon Carpenter in the juniors through to Steve Peat still getting on the podium at 37 and everyone in between. More on how amazing Britain is at mountain biking in the next section.

Lewis Buchanon

The World Cup series has been thrilling to watch this year, while it may not have had the head to head competition for the overall of previous years, each race has had me completely gripped for both the men’s and the women’s. Aaron Gwin and Tracey Moseley, both racing for Trek, have been dominant this year with Gwin winning 5 out of 7 races, Minaar winning the other 2. Yet still we have seen these people pushing themselves to the limit to try and catch up, not only that but we have seen the future Danny Hart GBR grabbing 2 second places, Brook Macdonald getting on the podium a few times as well as Florianne Pugin and Myriam Nicole in the women’s, it won’t be long until these guys are winning world cups in fact the girls already have. Hot on the heels of these guys are the generation after, with Carpenter placing 10^th overall in the women’s and Brosnan placing 8^th next years world cup series is going to be intense.

World Championships

Unfortunately, but I think fairly, you had to pay to watch the World Champs on Freecaster and I’m skint and wasn’t sure I’d even be around to watch any of it. Freecaster pay a lot of money to show the World Cup series and World Champs so I don’t think you can argue too much about only having to pay for one race. Call it a season ticket if you will.

The week started off hot and dry, it finished quite differently after thunder storms and showers the downhill track rapidly deteriorated and with it being such a steep course anyway carnage was bound to ensue. However certain riders’ faces lit up when they saw the rain falling on Sunday.

On Friday night the 4X took place. I don’t often mention the 4X but it’s great to watch, 4 people head to head on a Downhill/BMX course. The dominant force in women’s 4X this year has been Anneke Beerten (NED) winning most World Cup rounds and the overall so it was no surprise that she took the World Championship title, one she’s so far not managed to achieve. She did this just ahead of Fionn Griffiths (GBR) see those three letters again, told you we were good. In the men’s races the win was taken by Michal Prokop(CZE), with World Cup overall winner Jared Graves (AUS) in 4^th after a massive pile up which resulted in all the riders going down in the final and Prokop managing to pick himself up and ride on fastest. Graves had hung on a little longer before going down but ended with a flat front tyre for his trouble.

Rachel Atherton

Sunday saw the Downhill finals, starting with the Junior women which Manon ran away with, putting over 14 seconds on the next quickest person. This girl is fast, in fact her time would have seen her third in the Elite Women’s race if my maths is right. This was followed by the Junior Men’s race which saw once again Troy Brosnan at the top of the pile despite two French lads having posted better times in testing, they weren’t able to hold it together on the day. Lewis Buchanon managed 4^th . Unfortunately there were quite a few crashes in this race with the rescue Helicopter working overtime, this delayed things a little and some of the top men were worrying they should charge their bike lights.

The Elite Women’s race was always going to be hard to call and it was a shame Florriane Pugin crashed in practice and was unable to race. Hopes were high for Rachel Atherton but after a couple of crashes she only managed 2^nd 15 seconds behind the winner Emmeline Ragot(FRA). The French girls are looking pretty good for next years season. Clare Buchar(CAN) came in 3^rd which is cool for her, I met her in Glasgow airport 5 years ago and have followed her results since. Tracey Moseley defending World Champion and World Cup overall winner only managed 9^th with some big crashes in the mud.

The Elite Men’s race was going to be an all or nothing affair in the low cloud and pouring rain, there were apparently some pretty heavy crashes throughout with the prize for the best one going to Josh Bryceland with this effort. Steve Peat managed 17^th, Marc Beaumont 6^th, Brendan Fairclough, after a disappointing season following surgery on his knee, came in 4^th and letting it all hang out and styling it up with an 11 second gap on 2^nd place was Danny Hart, taking a well deserved win. Aaron Gwin finished in 12^th , after slipping in the mud and getting caught up in the catch netting.

Danny Hart

Dannys run is here it just shows how much he is in control of that bike even when it looks like he isn’t, it also shows how awful the weather and the track is by this point.

All in all a good run for the Brits in the World Champs, though a couple of the riders will be disappointed with their performance as a team they kicked arse. Oh yeh some Cross country happened and we got a 2^nd by Annie Last in the under 23 class but other than that Britain doesn’t do so well in that discipline.

Photos all from Fort William World Cup round.