Who would have known walking around in the pits earlier in the day what was going to unfold on this legendary mountain in Italy?
In many cases Val di Sole was a weekend of; what ifs, crashes, new names, stunning riding and everything that is quintessential downhill at its best! A hot day dawned, rain whilst possible didn’t factor into racing, what if it had? Let’s kick off the proceedings withA�the junior females,A�Danielle Beecroft claimed second place and Tegan Molloy fourthA�in hot conditions. In the Elite Women’s race Tracey Hannah just missed the top ten in eleventh place.
Tracey Hannah is always a threat but didn’t trouble the top 5 today.The French ladies did well but again Rachel Atherton shows she is the rider to beat.
Junior Men, one of the highlights of the season so far! Despite the lack of online coverage, we are sure many Aussies were tuned in to the live timing to watch Dean Luca claim his first World Cup victory. Simply amazing, in Dean’s words “Last year I came to Val Di Sole to race my first World Cup, I ended up crashing out on the first day and sat on the sidelines watching all my hard work go down the drain, this year it all changed a bit and I ended up the fastest Junior and 22nd out right!” Fair to say Dean is a happy guy right now!
Large and in charge! All we need now is for Dean to continue his winning ways for the rest of the season.Kudos to Dean on a calculated ride which saw him push it just enough.
There were strong results for the other juniors too, Luke Ellison showed his fifth placed qualifying time was no fluke in 9th place, Peter Knott came 31st on his birthday, Ben Hill 35th in his first World Cup, Aiden Varley 37th and Thomas Crimmins 52nd.
A handy 9th place for Luke Ellison.
After an epic junior competition hopes were high for an Aussie double when the big boys set off down the hill on their way for victory. Mixed finishes sums up the results, 61st for Jack Moir who had some issues in his run, 56th for Sam Hill was definitely not what he was hoping for. Furthermore, he was fastest at split 1 and his time indicated he was on for a top 3 spot.
What could have been…? A line that rings true to Sam Hill at Val di Sole more than many other places! Fastest at the first split before it all went wrong. Image: Friedrich Simon KugiThe weekend wasn’t all bad news for Sam though, his distinctive pink bike and kit are being sold to the public to raise money for charity. Image: Friedrich Simon Kugi
Connor Fearon brought home 31st, a solid result but not to what he was hoping for, a few mistakes and an off the track excursion ruining a possible top 20. Mic Hannah in 9th was one of the two Aussies in the top 10 and stoked on is result, this year being consistent is going to be critical for the overall series.
9th place and more points for the overall, a good day in the office for Mic Hannah.
In another highlight for the weekend Troy Brosnan showed he’s back and grabbed a spot on the podium in fifth!A�After a disastrous season (if you could call it that) last year this shows Troy is winding up to full speed, he was successful here in 2011 with another fifth pacing so odds were he would do well, still a sigh of relief that he did!
TB is back! No longer is he ‘baby faced Brosnan’ sporting a nice beard for the occasion. One of the youngest riders in the field and fastest Australian on the day, he is happy with that! Image: Friedrich Simon Kugi
It was a dominant Gee Atherton taking the win by over a second from Stevie Smith, Greg Minnaar put Fort William behind him and claimed third. Loic Bruni showed he has made the transition from the junior ranks with ease in fourth and just behind Troy was his team mate Aaron Gwin in 6th. A few big crashes took out other possible contenders, namely Brook MacDonald and Danny Hart. All in all the weekend delivered another memorable race.
From day one practice Gee looked good, victory by a second proved this.Two from two for Gee Atherton and with that he rounded out the Atherton Double-Double! Talk about race proven for GT and their new bike!
Next stop for the World Cup circuitA�is Andorra but that’s not for a few weeks yet, we have plenty of coverage from the race still to come before then though.
To show you guys our thanks we have partnered up with Callum Morrison, one of Australia’s fastest up and coming junior riders, to give you guys a chance to win some great gear. All you have to do is ‘Like’ Callum Morrison MTB and Downhill247.com on Facebook, then like the competition photo (same as above) and share it. that simple!
Terms and Conditions; Competition finishes midnight Sunday the 23rd of June 2013. The chain device in the photo is for illustration purposes, the winner will receive a Gamut P40 chain device with bashring, ISCG05 mounting, a downhill247.com t-shirt and some stickers! Downhill247.com retains the right to withdraw the competition at any time and our decision is final. Entrants must have a deliverable Australia PostA�Australian postal address.
We are still getting use to some of the new kits getting around, no missing Pom Pom and her Fox/Commencal set up!
Val di Sole is a totally different race/track location/everything, pretty much you name it and it is different from last week’s race at Fort William. One of the biggest changes was the practice time and qualifying times, qualifying occurred on Friday. If you didn’t get a ticket to the big show then you sit out Saturday and Sunday, essentially group B riders got 4.5 hours of practice over 2 days, tough gig on the beast of the track that is Val di Sole! Lighting was tough on the riders as they would change from bright sunny into the shaded dark areas of the track at warp speed (and any one who is trying to get photos of this!). As you can imagine the first couple of runs saw riders trying to get their feet before getting up to pace. This course is very rough, there areA�roots, rocks, no berms and some corners already shot after practice because the ground is very soft and loose in bits.A�With all that in mind the juniors did well and the results looked like so; Luke Ellison 5th, Dean Lucas 9th, Aiden Varley 18th, Peter Knott 23rd, Ben Hill 53rd andA�Thomas Crimmins 55th.
Ben Hill had a nice trip over the bars at Val di Sole it didn’t stop him from riding though, 53rd in qualifying something he can easily improve on come finals.
Fastest Aussie junior during qualifying, Luke Ellison in 5th place!
Braaappp! 9th for Dean Lucas.
Moving our attention onto the females and Tracey Hannah came in 7th, she will be wanting at least a top 5 this weekend! Our junior girls, Danielle Beecroft and Tegan Molloy came in 36th and 37th respectively.
Qualifying yielded 7th for Tracey Hannah.
Finally a huge field of Elite men tried their hand at qualifying, Gee Atherton showed he is the man to beat again this weekend in first, in second place back from the nether regions and with a larger bike, was Aaron Gwin. The next three riders, Smith, MacDonald and HillA�all looked capable of a victory here, it is going to be a good race.
Elite Men:
1. ATHERTON Gee 3:15.475
2. GWIN Aaron 3:16.837 + 1.362
3. SMITH Steve 3:17.482 + 2.007
4. MACDONALD Brook 3:18.741 + 3.266
5. HILL Samuel 3:19.406 + 3.931
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12. HANNAH Michael 3:23.850 + 8.375
19. BROSNAN Troy 3:25.370 + 9.895
36. FEARON Connor 3:29.021 + 13.546
54. MOIR Jack 3:33.139 + 17.664
83. VEJVODA Joe 3:38.046 + 22.571
84. McMILLAN 3:38.233 + 22.758
93. DELFS Mitchell 3:39.859 + 24.384
123. ATKINSON Rhys 3:46.545 + 31.070
143. McKILLOP 3:55.167 + 39.692
148. McCARROLL Sean 3:56.272 + 40.797
152. BARLIN Chris 3:58.731 + 43.256
ATKINSON Bryn DNS
GRAVES Jared DNS
Gee Atherton, he is no stranger to victory here having taken out the World Champs here back in 08, with the fastest qualifying time he increased those credentials to take the win again.
Second and with a point to prove Aaron Gwin.
Sam Hill charged into 5th on a track we know he enjoys!
Mic Hannah will be the first to admit this course isn’t his most successful but after qualifying 12th it looks like a change might be on the way.Connor Fearon felt he was going faster than his 36th position in qualifying indicated but so long as he is going fast for the run that counts!
Mitch Delfs describes this track as his nemesis track.. After 19th last weekend he was relived to think he would be protected come qualifying but the UCI had something to say about that. He missed the cut and continues his battle racing here at VDS!
Bryn Atkinson had a nasty crash in practice, he is okay but decided to sit out this weekend.
Rachel Atherton is the girl to beat, we must admit her colour scheme ties in well with our own here at downhill247.com!
Phil Atwill was the fastest male junior, it is hard to know who is fast when these guys are on track because you are not as familiar with them as the elite riders.
More practice is on the cards before Sunday’s finals, check back soon!
The first World Cup of the year is always the first real indication of how your off season training went (not to mention everyone else’s). Connor had some specific goals heading into this season, read on…
Connor Fearon gives us the Inside Info onA�the first World Cup race of the yearA� at Fort William where he claimed his highest World CupA�finish to date in 21st;
Sunny conditions all weekend for the first time in how long? Here Connor looks right at home…
31st in qualifying, with a few issues, set the scene for Sunday.
Race day and yet again Mother Nature smiled down on to the highlands with beautiful race conditions.
World Cup number 1 and did thatA�turn outA�like you expected? We are betting there are a lot of people who were expecting a different podium to what we saw. Lets start with the juniors though, unfortunately they aren’t covered by the online footage so the live timing provided by the UCI is the next best thing. In the female class Tegan Molloy finishedA�21st (3rd in junior – an awesome result for her first World Cup) and Danielle Beecroft snapped her chain within the first 5 seconds of the track, she rolled down to finish 24th. A�We are sure in next weeks raceA�at Val di Sole we will see them climb higher up the rankings.
With Nathan Rennie and Jared Rando providing their years of wisdom and experience to the team we knew they could really deliver. In the end Dean Lucas grabbed a podium position in 3rd,A�Peter Knott 12th, Aiden Varley 13th, Luke Ellison 24th, Thomas Crimmins 29th and Brent Smith DNF. There were a few issues for some of the guys, Luke and Thomas crashed in their runs knocking them down the time sheet.
Next up and we move onto Elite…
Check out the head cam run with Tracey Hannah down the Fort William Track in our previous post.Tracey Hannah reflecting on the past few months which have been riddled by injury…
Tracey Hannah was our sole entrant in the elite female class, her pre-season was less than ideal but she will improve no doubt. Check out the helmet cam run of one ofA�her practiceA�runs here. In the end Rachel Atherton broke her voodoo at her home race by taking the win by 10 seconds! Until this year Rachel had six 2nd place finishes at Fort William… Little did we know how her victory would set the scene for the elite men.
The spectators (and marshals) at Fort William always get praised by the riders, this year was no different. Some marshals have been to every World Cup held there, taking the usual marshalling spot to boot!
Still under glorious conditions the elite men kicked off, Rhys Atkinson was one of the first riders on course but had a “rubbish run” but with the crazy crowd and all the Aussies around was still happy and looking forward to next weekends race in Italy. Despite having a rough time during practice with crashes on the rough track Jack Moir finished 55th, no doubt he will climb the rankings as the season goes on. Bryn Atkinson and Jared Graves finished 36th and 37th respectively, we have no doubt Bryn wants to climb into the top 20 to get one of the coveted protected positions. Jared Graves just continues to impress with his flexibility between four cross, BMX, enduro, downhill and whatever else he chooses to do!
First World Cup of the year and Connor Fearon claims the best result of his career in 21st place. This result will set him up for the rest of the year.
With a strong qualifying result Connor Fearon openly admitted he was hunting a top 20, his run was good and he went into the hot seat. In the end he finished 21st, his best World Cup result to date, despite not getting the top 20 he was looking for it is a positive sign for the rest of the season. As always we will be checking in with Connor for his Inside Info on the race. One position in front of Connor was Aaron Gwin, like an elephant in the room no one really knows what is going on with Aaron, he never looked dangerous all weekend. However, after dominating last season no one would have put him outside the top 5 let alone the top 10! It will be interesting to see what happens in Val di Sole as he destroyed the field by over 5 seconds there last year. Is it his new team? Was his injured hand re-injured? Who knows… One position in front of Aaron was Mitch Delfs, a top 20 is an awesome start for Mitch and we hope this form continues all year.
Flat tyres and crashes claimed a few victims, Matt Beer, Harry Heath and Matt Simmonds all succumbed to one or the other.The jumps this year were big, really big! With many a rider struggling to clear them all, especially after the punishing top section of the track.
It was good to see Troy Brosnan back and racing at the highest level after a horror season last year. A highly respectable 12th shows TB is back in the game. Sam Hill came down and booted Greg Minnaar out of the hot seat by over a second. It was good to see Sam Hill back on fire, he held out manyA�a rider and was looking down the barrel atA� a top 5 finish in the end he finished 6th 2.13 seconds behind the winner.
Always a crowd favourite, Sam Hill finished 6th but we know it is the numero uno spot he really wants!The serious end of the day… Danny Hart heads up to the top.
One position ahead of Sam was Mic Hannah, just under 2 seconds shy of the victory. Up until now Brook MacDonald was holding the hot seat and looking comfortable, Stevie Smith nor fellow Kiwi Sam Blenkinsop couldn’t push the bulldog and hisA�flat pedals out.A�After her sister won early in the day Gee Atherton put a stormer of a run in to relegate Brook down one spot, with one rider left, Danny Hart, it was going to be a home town victory of sorts but who? In the end Danny couldn’t knock off Gee and the Athertons took out the double.
A strong Mic Hannah, one who has lost considerable weight over the off season and is looking lean and mean claimed 5th.Winner of round one, his first World Cup win since 2010, Gee Atherton. A dream debut for the new GT Fury too.
We can’t help but think this year will mark the changing of the guard, last year the big three, Gwin, Minnaar and Atherton seemed untouchable but already we have seen the new school of Smith, MacDonald and Hannah come out and make their mark. We will find out soon as the next round continues next week in Italy and as always we will bring you all the action.
