The first world cup for season 2014 is done and dusted, this finals report from South Africa also happens to be the 300th article up on downhill247.com happy days all round! The crowds came out and lined the track with most down towards the bottom section where riders had to it big jumps after 3.5 minutes of flat out pedalling and exhaustion further up the track. The day kicked off with the junior classes, whilst it is great the juniors get recognised in their own category it means they don’t feature on the live broadcast. So if you’re not lucky enough to be trackside you can’t see just how fast these riders are going and believe us they are flying!
It was young American Luca Shaw who took the victory and the overall leaders jersey followed by Loris Vergier and in third Amaury Pierron. For the Aussie contingent it was AidenVarley in fourth who got everyone back home in Australia off their seats! Aiden matched his qualifying position, a great result for Aiden.
Junior Men
1. Luca Shaw 4:15.267
2. Loris Vergier 4:17.257
3. Amaury Pierron 4:23.668
4. Aiden Varley 4:27.376
5. Benjamin Boutie 4:29.731
Next up we saw the women divisions hit the course, there were three Aussies to watch out for, one junior and two senior riders. By default as the only junior rider to line up and take on the track here in South Africa Tegan Molloy claims the overall leaders jersey. Her race run didn’t quite goes as planned with a crash in the rock garden but she dusted herself off and finished her run. Moving onto seniors and Danielle Beecroft just missed a top ten in 11th place. The best Aussie result goes to Tracey Hannah in 6th place, no doubt she will be looking to do a lot better than that in Cairns in 2 weeks.
In the end a fresh new face grabbed her first world cup victory, after a successful transition from juniors Mannon Carpenter showed that she has made the jump and is now a contender in seniors too. Rachel Atherton did well to beat her sickness into second place and Jill Kintner put her 4X/BMX background to good use to take 3rd.
Senior Women
1. Manon Carpenter 4:34.923
2. Rachel Atherton 4:38.831
3. Jill Kintner 4:44.041
4. Myriam Nicole 4:44.651
5. Emmeline Ragot 4:44.662
6. Tracey Hannah 4:48.045
7. Tahnee Seagrave 4:52.285
8. Morgane Charre 4:52.400
9. Emilie Siegenthaler 4:58.117
10. Fionn Griffiths 5:00.973
The last class of the day Senior Men, with 80 riders battling it out it was set to be a good afternoon and it didn’t disappoint! We watched the Green To Gold team race their first Senior Men’s race, with Chris Barlin and Brent Smith finishing 68th and 65th respectively it was a successful debut. Dean Lucas cracked the top 50 in 49th with Jack Moir a few positions ahead in 46th, finishing just ahead of Jack was second fastest qualifier Josh Bryceland who lost his chain and couldn’t pedal, he ended up a not too shabby 43rd. Brook MacDonald and Brendan Fairclough have had better days in the office with 35th and 37th placed finishes respectively. Nick Beer crashed aboard his custom Devinci and finished 29th one place ahead of Danny Hart in 28th.
Moving up the results we see Connor Fearon in 25th, a solid result and as usual we will have his Inside Info for you all – watch this space! Bryn Atkinson was less than 0.5 of a second ahead in 23rd, with such close times a second could easily move you up 5 positions.
Home town rider Andrew Neethling was 17th one place behind Steve Peat, an honourable mention to Cam Cole in 12th who is a coming back from a A�nasty run of injuries but showing he still has it. Whilst South Africa has never been his strongest track we were surprised to see Gee in 10th, not a bad result but after 2013 double digit results are rare! One place ahead and the highest flat pedal finisher was Sam Hill. By this stage it was still Mic Hannah who was in the hotseat as he came down earlier on in the day, with a lot of heavyweights not getting close to his time it looked like this might finally be his day… The young guns of Loic Bruni, Troy Brosnan and Sam Blenkinsop couldn’t displace him and finished 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. Greg Minnaar, arguably the danger man here for Hannah came down and looked fast but even with the crowd egging him on couldn’t knock Mic out of the seat. Had he finally done it, with just one rider to come Mic was still on the hot seat. Aaron Gwin was up at the first split and the second and as he blasted into the finish area he was up there too. Proving a point to his doubters Gwin is back, Mic finished second, so close! We are sure Mic will get one back next round in Cairns.
What a race and it answered many questions but created a few new ones too! Will Gwin be unstoppable? Can Mic use this to win in Cairns? Will Stevie Smith be back in time to shake things up? Will a young Aussie such as Connor or Troy bring something exceptional out of the bag and show the world how Aussies ride on home soil?
Senior Men
1. Aaron Gwin 3:59.344
2. Mick Hannah 4:01.381
3. Greg Minnaar 4:02.168
4. Loic Bruni 4:02.237
5. Troy Brosnan 4:02.675
6. Samuel Blenkinsop 4:03.387
7. Sam Dale 4:05.347
8. Neko Mulally 4:05.705
9. Sam Hill 4:06.195
10. Gee Atherton 4:06.243
Tune in for Cairns where we will be going all out for our home world cup, Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Before then there is still plenty coming up on the site.
Images: Phunkt.
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