Hafjel World Cup – Final Round

A couple of hours North of Oslo lies Hafjel Bike Park, where the last round of the 2012 Downhill World Cup took place at the weekend. This was the first time the World Cup circus has come to Norway, and right from the track walk the riders were impressed.

There were comparisons to Scotland from the British riders during the track walk and during practice a lot of the riders were proclaiming it as the best track of the year or even the best track in years. Norway was off to a good start, the only downside being the price of the beer, which (at least from my visits to Oslo) is around £6-£10 a pint.

The weekend kicked off with a Staff/Media race using a mostly different course from the World Cup but going into the main finishing area where competitors had to down a beer before their time was counted. This was a bit of fun for a wind down at the end of the season but there were a few people concerned there would be no one left to take photos of the main event. Sven Martin, a photographer as well known as some of the riders, took the win ahead of Nigel Page CRC manager and Chris Ball UCI Technical Delegate. There were some accusations of cheating with the downing of the beer though. I hope they do this again at Fort William and let volunteers race, I can’t ride that well but I can down a beer pretty quick.

The qualifying took place on the Friday with Rachel Atherton and Stevie Smith going fastest, this gave Rachel a helping hand in the overall and left her needing to finish in the top 5 even if Emmeline Ragot won the actual race. Aaron Gwin had already taken the overall however he injured himself in practice and didn’t race, 2^nd and 3^rd could still change around between Minaar and Gee Atherton.

Race day was Saturday for a change and the weather, despite expectations, was staying clear. The women’s race was going to be a hard fought one even with some of the top riders being out injured. Canadian Casey Brown put in a run stomping the earlier times but was swiftly deposed by the new World Champion Morgane Charre. Ragot was after revenge from the Worlds and took 6.5 seconds out of Charres’ time, however next up was Manon Carpenter who had qualified 2^nd unfortunately a massive crash in her run put her out of contention, although she made it down the hill with a broken bike and probably feeling a bit dizzy after landing on her head and came 14^th overall.

Rachel Atherton was last on the hill with everything to play for, the overall title and the win on the day were what she wanted but after a back injury in the Worlds could she pull it off? She was down and looking a little tentative at split one but she pulled back time and went into the lead by split two, looking smooth she crossed the line fastest by 2.283 ahead of Ragot and Charre. Tahnee Seagrave came in 9^th despite a crash and Jess Stone came in 10^th looking good for the British girls.

Full Womens results: http://dirt.mpora.com/news/hafjell-womens-world-cup-final-results.html

The men’s race was hotting up with Markus Pekoll having set a solid time which seemed unassailable, Brendan Fairclough dropped into 2^nd just behind Pekoll with Jo Smith and Matt Simmonds following going into 14^th and 8^th. Marc Beaumont apparently said “inconsistency is key to an average season” which just about sums it up for him as he came down in 11^th place.

The winner of the last World Cup, Brook ‘Bulldog’ MacDonald still couldn’t beat Pekolls’ time, neither could Junior World Champion Loic Bruni however the wind was blowing pretty hard seemingly effecting them on the jumps and through the woods as a headwind. Britain Greg Williamson repeats his Fort William form ending up in 15^th but it’s Cam Cole who finally topples Pekol from the hotseat, but that just starts the ball rolling with Gee coming down and going 2 seconds faster, Sam Hill came down flying but ends up 7^th in the end. Then Greg Minaar sticks it on the hot seat securing his 2^nd in the overall ahead of Gee. 

Ratboy at Fort Bill

Josh Bryceland came down smooth as ever but not fast enough ending up 8^th, it was Kiwi George Brannigan next up on the hotseat securing his first podium ever and looking good for the win even. However it was his team mate Stevie Smith up in the start gate for the final run of the day and led all the way down the hill to take a massively well deserved first ever win and a great day for the De Vinci team getting 1^st, 2^nd and 5^th a full podium set.

Mens Results:http://dirt.mpora.com/news/hafjell-world-cup-mens-results.html

A great exciting end to a fantastic, if somewhat injury riddled season on a superb track in a new venue, I'll be trying to make it out there next year for sure.. The Women’s overall was decided on the day and the final overall podium was 1^st Rachel Atherton, 2^nd Emmeline Ragot, 3^rd Myriam Nicole (injured), 4th Tracey Hannah (injured), 5^th Emilie Siegenthaler (injured). The Junior Women’s title was taken by Tahnee Seagrave from Great Britain.

Tracey Hannah at Fort William

The Men’s overall was taken in the Val D’Isere by the now injured Aaron Gwin ahead of 2^nd Greg Minaar, 3^rd Gee Atherton (who was never off the podium all year), 4^th Steve Smith and 5^th Sam Hill. The Junior title was taken by Loic Bruni. The overall team win went to GT Racing, the Athertons and Marc Beaumont securing the title in their first year together.

Once again the Brits placed well with 2^nd Gee, 6^th Bryceland, 8^th Hart (injured), 13^th Beaumont, 16^th Simmonds and 19^th Smith from the top 20 men and 1^st Rachel, 9^th Manon in the top 10 of the women’s despite Manon being out for a couple of races due to a broken collar bone and Rachel missing the first round due to injury.

The biggest of many injuries of the year were to Cedric Gracia who is suprisingly looking to be back racing next year despite what could have been a career (if not life) ending crash, Tracey Hannah who still came 4^th overall and Troy Brosnan who came back for World Champs then promptly had a huge stack in the race and busted his shoulder. Heal up fast to you guys and all the other riders suffering.

Full overall results: http://dirt.mpora.com/news/2012-world-cup-overall-results-after-hafjell.html 

World Champs 2012.

So the Worlds have been and gone again, with the Downhill and the UCI return of 4X for one event only providing great action and excitement right the way through in the Leogang bike park, Austria.

The 4X had a very welcome return to the World scene after it was dropped from the World Cup Circuit although the 4X Protour had filled the gap nicely being organised and run by riders and teams, it currently lacks the prestige of a UCI title so riders were fired up to pick up the one title going this year. The track itself had taken a beating in the rain but was looking good for the race, the two points where there was a line choice would be critical, with many people early on taking the first early option but later on it became must make to be in with a chance, meanwhile most people took the easy line for the second option missing the big double.

Despite it’s only appearance as an official UCI event there were surprisingly few women with only  entering creating a situation where only the semi’s and the Small and Big finals were fought out. British hope Katy Curd suffered a snapped chain in qualifying so didn’t make it to the final 8.

In the men’s David Graf qualified fastest and got first gate choice which proved to be all important on the day. Again Britain’s hopes were dashed as Scott Beaumont started strongly with his first couple of races being in the first or second start lane, however he came into a round against some of the top qualifiers and was pushed down to the 3^rd lane and despite his efforts on the first corner couldn’t make up the time and didn’t make it to the Semi finals.

With Mellisa Buhl relegated to the small final after a lane infraction at the start of the last race, the girls finals had Anneke Beerten the favourite starting from gate 1 along with Romana Lobounkova, Celine Gros and Anita Molcik. This lane and some hard fighting took Anneke to her 2^nd Gold in a row after not being able to clinch it for so long.

The men’s big final had a couple of surprises and was a Swiss vs Czech battle with 2 from each country taking part, with David Graf in lane 1 looking the surprise favourite against Roger Rinderknecht, Michael Mechura and Tomos Slavik. However after a incident straight off the start where Slavik in lane two ploughed straight into Graf and took them both out leaving  Roger Rinderknecht to take his first Gold medal at the World Champs after 3 Silvers in the past and just back from the Olympic BMX competition and also announcing his retirement in his post race interview. All the best to him in the future.

Downhill.

The Downhill always seemed to be Gwins to lose after his dominant performance in the World Cup series having clinched the title with one round to go, although his main rival, and until Val D’Isere, the only other World Cup winner since 2010 Greg Minaar pushing for his second World champs Gold medal. In the women’s race it was all about Rachel Atherton and Reigning Champion Emmeline Ragot bring their World Cup battle to the World Champs.

Both Junior competitions were missing the massively dominant Troy Brosnan and Manon Carpenter who both moved up to Elite this year, so it was for Loic Bruni and Richie Rude Junior to fight out the men’s while the girls race had no particularly dominant characters but all British eyes were focused on Tahnee Seagrave. Richie Rude jr had cased a jump in practice pretty hard so maybe wasn’t quite as up to speed as he’s have liked and Loic Bruni took the win ahead of him. In the Women’s race it was down to Tahnee and Canadian Danielle Beecroft with Danielle taking the win over Tahnee by 8 seconds.

Unlike the previous year the weather was glorious and with a good but pedally track it was going to make for some exciting racing. Up early the Canadian riders put in a great performance at one point holding the top 5 positions obviously liking the Bike Park nature of the course, however in came the British and the French to spoil their party. First Tracy Mosely, former World Champion came down having semi retired from downhill last year, she put in a solid performance to break up the Canadian top 5 but coming 10^th in the end. Then came the young Morgane Charre putting 10 seconds into Micayla Gatto’s top time with 6 girls left to come. First to challenge Charre’s time was Pugin after an injury riddled season, 0.765 back at the first split but then 2 seconds back at split 2 left her off the pace finishing 4^th overall. Next up was the UKs Manon Carpenter also having had a big injury in the year managing to be 0.369 up at the top but losing time in the second section ending up with the Bronze medal. The final 2 to come down were the most likely to beat Charres time Emmeline Ragot coming down 0.079 ahead of Charre on the first section but again losing time lower down taking home the Silver. As Rachel Atherton came down the course, a back injury was obviously causing her problems and she never challenged Charre’s time coming in 5^th overall. Which gave Morgane Charre a shock World Championship victory which seemed to surprise the young French girl as much everyone else.

From winners to losers and what has to be the most embarrassing crash in World Champs history. http://dirt.mpora.com/news/shortest-world-champs-race-run-ever-before-crashing.html

The men’s race kicked off with Mic Hannah having posted the fastest training time, but expectations of that time being blown apart. The British had fielded a strong men’s team with two former World Champions and a former junior World Champion in the mix, last years defending Champion Danny Hart was out with a shoulder injury.  Solid runs by Matt Simmonds and Joe Smith put them 24^th and 34^th respectively but they didn’t look to challenge the top spots. Steve Peat riding in his 20^th World Champs, what other athlete can say that, was running first but had a big crash and ended up in 36^th, Peatys team mate Josh Bryceland also was putting in a great run until he also a big crash putting him out of contention. Marc Beaumont also couldn’t put a great run in to challenge the top riders and came 14^th, Sam Dale on the other hand managed to put a good run together which saw him in the top 3 for a long time but ending up 12^th and the second fastest Brit.

Troy Brosnan returning from life threatening injury had another big crash which saw him out of the race and back into hospital, although he was ok in the end. Andrew Neethling was putting a really good time in when he lost control off a wall ride carrying a lot of speed but held it together just managing to finish up in joint 18th, Mic Hannah came down with a storming run to go into first but was followed by Canadian Steve Smith desperate for the win, slower on the first section but coming down to go into first by just under a second. 

With only Gee Atherton, Greg Minaar and Aaron Gwin to come down Steve Smith must have been on tenter-hooks, Gee put together an almost perfect run to go into the hot seat and looked hard to beat, then came Minaar putting 0.5 seconds into Gee’s time in the top section matching his 2^nd section exactly and nearly the same again in the 3^rd section going into the lead with only Gwin to come, however it was not to be Gwins year as an early brake problem destroyed his run so he just styled his way down giving Minaar a well deserved second World Championship win, his last 9 years ago. Gee came so close in 2^nd ahead of Stevie Smith in 3^rd.

A lot came down to line choice on some jumps at the top whether to hit the big jumps and really create some speed or keep pedalling and take the safe line this is what seemed to separate the top 5 from the rest, both the men’s and women’s races were fantastic to watch and had thrilling finishes, it was a shame Gwin’s run was spoilt but the after party for Greg Minaar mixed with a special party for Peatys 20^th must have been great to be at. Here’s a little audio about Peaty from that night a great listen.

http://dirt.mpora.com/news/victors-world-champs-finals-gallery.html#slide-11

Oh and worth a mention was Claudio Caluori, Scott 11 manager coming out of retirement to nearly win the Swiss Champs in order to be selected for their Worlds team, as one of his riders was out injured and Brendan Fairclough hadn’t qualified for the British team having been injured for a lot of the season. In the end he punctured about half way but finished the course riding it out on the rim.

Full Results: http://www.uci.ch/templates/BUILTIN-NOFRAMES/Template1/layout.asp?MenuId=MTY1NjI&LangId=1

Old Skool vs New Kit

I’ve been slowly up grading my bike for the last 12 years since I snapped the handle bars while doing my paper round.  A couple of months ago I changed the last part that hadn’t been replaced, the saddle leaving my original frame and upgrades from 2000 to today, however by now the front end of my bike is rather outdated, so it’s time to start all over again… Or is it?

I have been running Marzochi Z4 Flylight Airs from 2000 and I haven’t had them serviced once and they are still in great condition, I also have a Planet X Beam Me Up Stem and Club Roost Go Fast bars which attract a load of attention, kids stop me and ask what the bracer bar is for and adults stop me to say they haven’t seen them in years. It’s a great way to start a conversation, I’m used to that set up and there’s nothing wrong with the components. It’s also hard to find a new stem which matches the current geometry of the one I’m running now and as the frame is too small for me I use a longer and steeper degree stem to add some extra reach and height.

On the other hand I’m gripping the end of the bars and there’s a lot of talk of wider and wider bars and the a general improvement in materials weight and strength and my current bars have taken some abuse over the years and having snapped one set while riding I’m not keen to repeat it.

Until I replace the frame, which won’t happen unless I snap it, it’s never going to be a high performance bike it’s just a hobby to keep putting new and different parts on it to keep it going, I’m looking to buy a very nice full sus in the next year or so to be my race bike but I’ll always keep this one going. The question is do I keep it as an Old School machine or keep upgrading as and when needed/when I have the money.

The decision has actually already been made as it may be a while before I can afford the bike I want and I want to keep my current bike running as best as possible. I’ve retired my old bars and stem, originally just looking to change the bars I couldn’t find ones with a small enough size at the clamp so the hunt began for a new one, this lead to me specially ordering a Ritchey stem that will appear at some point and in the mean time buy a cheap Da Bomb Stem with an extra spacer on the head set. It seems to be working pretty well and the bars are making a huge difference to my riding.

The old Club Roost bars sit in my room with the Planet X stem awaiting the day when perhaps I rebuild the bike again as an Old School machine for the hell of it, most likely when I can afford to have a new ful sus and a new hardtail and keep my old frame.