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 3rd 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 2nd
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 10th
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 4th
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 5th
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 24th and 34th
respectively but they didn’t look to challenge the top spots. Steve Peat riding
in his 20th World Champs, what other athlete can say that, was
running first but had a big crash and ended up in 36th, 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 14th, 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 12th 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
2nd section exactly and nearly the same again in the 3rd
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 2nd ahead of Stevie Smith in 3rd.
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 20th must have been great to be at.
Here’s a little audio about Peaty from that night a great listen.
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.
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