A�With the year coming to a close we thought we would look back at, undeniably, the race of the year. The 2011 World Championships in Champery Switzerland. While it may have been over three months ago it is still fresh in our memory. Have a read of how the week went down:
A�A� In the grand scheme of sports, mountain biking is still very young, todaya��s races, riders and results will one day be looked back on as history that formed, shaped and gave mountain biking its identity. Of these races, one will stand out from countless others, the 2011 World Championships in Champery, Switzerland, on the 4th of September.
A�A� The 21st World Championships was held on the infamous Champery track, words cana��t describe how steep this track is and ita��s unrelenting. Riders dona��t get the opportunity to sit down, take a break and roll sections, ita��s a 100% commitment all the way down. The average gradient is 37%, add to this switchbacks, rocks and jumps and you have a legendary course.
A�A� Australia came into the event with an extremely solid junior team, it was not unconceivable for Australia to walk away with three positions in the top five and the rest of the team were all capable of top twenty finishes. Helping the team again this year was Jared Rando, he was on course timing various riders on various sections. With the vast amount of line choice on this track, having Jared do this was a help for all riders. Still, Great Britain had a dedicated videographer on course filming all the different riders and their lines, sneaky! Senior men were spear headed by current World Champ Sam Hill, this would be his first race back after injuring his shoulder earlier in the year. Senior men has definitely seen a a�?changing of the guarda�� for Australia, for various reasons; gone are names like Kovarik and Atkinson, replaced with names such as Button and Willemse.
A�A� Practice was held in perfect conditions all week, with the exception of Friday, which also happened to be the timed session. After sunny skies, no wind and grippy dirt, the rain came on Thursday night and changed the whole situation. Now on one of the steepest tracks in existence, grip disappeared and it was a battle to stay upright. Furthermore, once you started sliding down the hill not much was going to stop you until you got caught up in the catch netting. The Aussie juniors all tried their first run of the day on dry tyres before realising just how much the track had changed. All week riders had been braking before jumps and scrubbing them, now that the mud was thick riders really had to work to get speed just to clear them. I have never seen so many riders blow tyres off rims as at Champery, they didna��t flat but the steepness of the corners on the course meant they just rolled clean off the rim. For junior seeding the track had dried up considerably, reigning World Champ Troy Brosnan came down and seeded third 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�� 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�? It was evident Troy was holding back and was quietly confident for race day. The other juniors all seeded well, Connor Fearon was fourth right behind Troy and all the other Aussie juniors, even with crashes, qualified no further down the field than 32nd. The mood in the camp was good and rightly so.
Unfortunately in senior men only four Australian riders would participate in the timed practice session. Josh Button caught a slower rider in his practice run and had to take some evasive action not to crash into them. Josh ended up crashing and damaging his knee, fortunately for Josh his SC-Intense team is actually sponsored by a Swiss hospital. Josh went straight into surgery under the watchful eye of the Swiss Olympic surgeon! It was no surprise to see Aaron Gwin top the time practice session, what was surprising though was how well French riders placed in both the senior and junior categories. Therefore, it wasna��t surprising to learn the French Cycling team had a team camp in Champery and had practiced on this track only a few weeks prior. For Australia, Mic Hannah was the highest placed rider in fifteenth 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 ita��s going to rain on Sundaya�?, no one was to know how true Mica��s words would ring come Sunday.
A�A� There was one more practice day before racing, for the riders this practice was just to confirm their lines and sort out any issues that they had in their timed run. I chose to look through the pits to see what riders were doing in order to gain that elusive edge. While there were some modifications, nothing was as drastic as we are used to seeing. Sam Blenkinsopa��s Lapierre had received the Silver ferns treatment in black and silver. His mechanic had organised to have 256 painted on the down tube, this is Blenkya��s lucky number, it was the number on his race plate when he won the Schladming World Cup and he has gone with it ever since. Besides paint jobs, the Syndicate team had ditched the flat crowns and were running the drop crowns with at least 20mm of headset spacers and two custom stem spacers to raise the front end up. That should be good indication of how steep the track was. A good indication for me on how steep it was, occurred when I put my backpack down on the side of the track, only to hear a crowd yelling, I turned in time to see a black blur cartwheeling down the hill. It went out of sight and into a tree, it was probably the fastest mover on the hill that day.
Race day dawned after a night of solid rain, the track was soaked. If you watched the race online it was hard to tell but the rain continued to fall the whole day. Everyone knew it was going to happen but not many knew how bad it was going to be. Juniors showed just what a difference experience can make, if you stayed upright and didna��t crash there was a good chance you would have placed in the top ten. Rider after rider kept crashing, unfortunately the Australians werena��t immune to this either, every junior bar Troy crashed at least once in their race run. None would finish lower than 34th, which is an amazing effort but still many felt opportunities had been missed. Everyone had to race in the same conditions but I can tell you, that you would never see this type of mud in Australia. When you combine the conditions with the roots and technical nature of the track all of a sudden Euro riding experience becomes invaluable. Add to this the fact you are racing for the World Championships and it makes the Aussiesa�� results that much more impressive, all factors considered. More has to be said about Troya��s run though, he won by over twelve seconds and would have placed second in senior men! A stellar end to the season, already you have to start thinking what is possible next year in Leogang.
A�A� Senior women was another case of a�?if you stayed uprighta�� chances are you were in for a good position. Crashes for both Tracey Mosely and Myriam Nicole in their final run really opened up the contest. The closest Australia had to being represented in senior women, was Claire Buchar, who was riding for her home country of Cananda and finished third. It was the French lady, Emily Ragot who claimed her second senior title by having a a�?conservativea�? run and finishing over fifteen seconds ahead of second placed Rachel Atherton.
A�A� Senior men were on track and it was still raining! All bets were off once riders started coming down the hill, no one knew who was going to stay upright. Brendan Fairclough put in a solid run to take the hot seat with the main favourites still to come, team mate and remaining Aussie hope Sam Hill came down and slotted in behind Brendan a�?I gave it my all and that’s all I wanted to do. Next year will be a different storya�?. Sam was the last Aussie down and would finish in 7th, for the rest of the guys Rhys Willemse summed it up well a�?the track was just wild but i was definitely enjoying it a lot more in the drya�?. Watching rider after rider come down and struggle was surreal, these are the best guys in the world and they looked slow! Damien Spagnolo came down on his Mondraker, the super slack head angle on that bike suiting Champery perfectly. Rider after rider could not go better than Damien, I remember thinking a�?any one that beats Damien is probably going to win!a��. After all, Damian had been training with Fabien Barel specifically for this race, remember Damien finished second here in the 2010 World Cup round. Then it happeneda�� When only a quarter of the field make it down the track without crashing, you know it is going to take a special rider to win. When you have a track such as Champery combined with the conditions that were experienced, photos, videos or words cana��t begin to explain how insane it was that Danny Hart did what he did. At this point Danny was pretty confident, as were most that he had it wrapped up, only one rider really caused Danny to get nervous; Aaron Gwin. Danny was glued to the screen watching Aaron come down, Aaron was slower at the first split, Danny was visibly relieved but still glued to the screen. When Aaron crashed everyone cheered! Partly because Aaron didna��t win, no offence to Aaron rather it meant the season wasna��t so predictable and one sided. Mainly though because Danny Hart had just proven to everyone, downhill racing is still just about letting it hang out the most!
What will next year bring?! The countdown begins…