Champery 2nd September World Championships – Timed Practice

downhill247.com — Things got serious with today's timed session! Still, a lot of the juniors had time to add some style to their runs.

Today was the official timed session and it brought with it a few surprises. First of though was practice, this was held in the morning before the timed session. The whole practice session (and timed session) was held on a drier track than yesterday, in fact, no rain fell the whole day.

Unfortunately Josh Button has damaged his knee and will require surgery, obviously not participating in practice or the timed session. We hope to see Josh back up to speed soon, it seems his crashed may have been caused by a slower rider in front of him, nothing is more frustrating than crashing when it is not your own fault! For the rest of the Australian contingent practice was a smooth affair.

For unknown reasons the juniors do their timed run in ranking order with the highest ranked rider going first, whereas the elite riders, do it highest ranked rider last. Juniors started proceedings off and it was Troy Brosnan first on track. The Junior results are below, along with how the riders rated their runs.

1. Faustin Figaret (FRA) 3.39.04

2. Bruni Loic (FRA) 3.39.14 + 0.09

3. Troy Brosnan (AUS) 3.41.39 + 2.35

4. Connor Fearon (AUS) 3.45.15 + 6.11

5. Reuben Olorenshaw (NZL) 3.45.72 + 6.67

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14. Brandon Yrttiaho (AUS) 3.58.09 + 19.05

17. Phil Piazza (AUS) 3.59.41 + 20.36

19. Dave McMillaan (AUS) 4.01.75 + 22.71

25. Joe Vejvoda (AUS) 4.04.85 + 25.81

32. Ben Power (AUS) 4.08.52 + 29.48

a�?I didna��t know it was a timed run until 2 hours before so that was a bit of a surprise! I wanted to throw down a smooth run and have fun with it and thata��s what I dida�� I got all my linesa��2-3 seconds off the pace isna��t that bad, I know I can bring that back on Sundaya��try and do a time like one of the big boys.a�? Troy Brosnan

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a�?My run was pretty cruisey, I hit things a bit slower than I should have and ended up in 4tha��I know I have a lot of room to improve my time so I am hoping I can jump a few positions in the finalsa�? Connor Fearon.

a�?Run was going really well at the top, than I got to this left hand corner with a slab of rock going into it, everyone has been struggling with it, I went in slow just to get through it and get a good time. I ended up flipping somehow and got stuck in the nettinga�? Brandon Yrttiaho.

a�?My run was pretty good, pretty smooth and not too bad, I came to a bit of a stop in a few of the turns but it was pretty smooth. Hopefully for racing I can put together a better runa�? Phil Piazza.

a�?Pretty good run but I was just being a bitch on the brakes the whole way down when I could have been punching turns, so I can definitely go better for finalsa�? Dave McMillan.

a�?Pretty good run, I took it kind of cruisey but I didna��t realise how much conditions had changed, had a few little slides but kept going, other than that it was gooda�? Joe Vejvoda.

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a�?My timed practice run was pretty good except I penguin dived in one of the top corners and landed in the following turna��a�?. Ben Power

Elite Men threw up a few results that had some people scratching their head, no surprises seeing Aaron Gwin on top of the list by over 5 seconds. I was fortunate to see Aaron hit a super steep tight left hand corner in practice and what I see confirmed he is definitely the man to beat. He came into the corner so fast and did not grab brakes like every other rider had, he was noticeably faster and in a league of his own. Third place Remi Thirion and fifth placed Lorenzo Suding are two riders who had very impressive runs and are not normally so highly placed in the field. The flip side to this was seeing Greg Minnaar in 59^th and Gee Atherton DNF, Gee crashed in practice and was supposedly taking it easy as he just had to start his run to qualify for the finals. Already though, talk around the pits, was that riders may have been having slow runs so that they had an earlier start time for the finals on Sunday. Generally the rain arrives later in the afternoon leaving the possibility the finals may be dry at the start and wet at the end, just like the 2008 World Cup. Results as follows:

1. Aaron Gwin (USA) 3.28.07

2. Danny Hart (GBR) 3.33.14 + 5.08

3. Remi Thirion (FRA) 3.35.71 + 7.67

4. Brendan Fairclough (GBR) 3.36.13 + 8.07

5. Lorenzo Suding 3.37.92 (ITA) 3.37.92 + 9.86

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15. Mic Hannah (AUS) 3.43.93 + 15.86

16. Sam Hill (AUS) 3.44.86 + 16.79

22. Shaun O’Connor (AUS) 3.46.95 + 18.88

44. Rhys Willemse (AUS) 3.56.04 + 29.72

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a�?I have had a tough season even getting into the top 20 and I went down in that run, lost a couple of seconds and ended up in 15th. I hope ita��s raining for practice tomorrow as its going to rain on Sundaya�?. Mic Hannah

Sometimes you get in the right place at the right time (with the bunting in the wrong place!)

Here Sam was trying to hold a tight inside line that many were sticking wide on...

Drifting like only he can...

It looked like he might have had it...

But that just wasn't the case!

It's not often you see Sam Hill have a crash, especially not one like this!

Would he normally have held this if he hadn't been on the sideline due to injury for the past few months?

Saying that, after injury last year and a un-convincing timed session, Sam came out and won the World Championships in Mont Saint Anne, never count him out.

a�?It went pretty well, I had a plan to just keep it smooth and not crash, make too many mistakes or break anything on the bikea�?. Sean Oa��Connor

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a�?I was having a pretty sweet run through the whole top section, hitting my lines nice, I got to the easiest part of the track and decided I would jump off for a bita��still not too far off the pace so hopefully I will be able to pull something out for Sundaya�?. Rhys Willemse

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Walking down the hill late in practice it was surprising to see a third of the field stopped on the track…

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It soon became obvious why though, unfortunately Cam Cole had a nasty crash hurting his arm badly and requiring surgery straight away. The helicopter is the easiest way to access most areas of the track it's that steep! I have never seen so many tyres being rolled off rims at a track, the steepness of the course just peels them right off. YES! Yes for Josh Bryceland, 6th place today. A� Undeniably the man to beat, the rain is coming but will that slow him down? A� There is one more practice day of practice left before race day is upon us, what will the weather bring?

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