The highlight of the day for us at downhill247.com was seeing Connor Fearon claim a thoroughly deserved third place! We have been long time supporters of Connor and know how much work he has done for this one race.
Another World Championships in the bag and what a race in so many ways! After a week that could best described as average, in terms of the weather, Mother Nature smiled on us and brought the blue sky and sun out for finals. The morning practice session was still very muddy and talking to the riders after their finals run, many said conditions on some areas of the track surprised them after a wet practice session.
Once practice was over and finals started the countdown was on…The fans were out in force, obligatory support signs included!This World Champs was Justin Leov’s last one after 10 years on the circuit.If there was no action on the track you could count on some spectators to serve up some action. This corner at the bottom was Hecklers Rock style with Aussies and Kiwis partying! Their partying went well into the night with various degrees of success!
JuniorA�Women started the day off and it was Canadian Holly Feniak that upset hot favourite Tahnee Seagrave to take the win. After dominating the junior World Cup circuit Tahnee was displaced by the Canadian who had not raced any World Cups and was unknown to many. Third place was Australian Danielle Beecroft, this result was definitely not a surprise as we were aware of her speed from her racing exploits back home.
Danielle Beecroft started the day of well for Australia with the bronze medal, here she hits one of the more technical chutes on the track.
Junior Men were next on track and Australia had a real chance to stack the top ten positions with riders. In the end we had a very good result and lost out on the overall number one junior ranking by a single point to France.
A disappointed David McMillan crashed twice in his race run and finished 64th.Luke Ellison jumping his way into 37th.Thomas Crimmins came home in 31st place, while Joey Vejvoda, above, took 21st place.Dean Lucas brought home 12th place and was happy with his result.Jack Moir in his first World Champs placed 5th, a super impressive result, look out for him next year in South Africa!Connor Fearon said he gave it everything and was happy with his run.He took the hot seat at the bottom and had a nervous wait to see how his time would hold up.The tension at a World Champs is always high but with two juniors having to do re-runs the tension was even higher.In the end there were smiles all round for Connor’s third place and the collective efforts of the team! Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!
Junior Women
1.A� Holly Feniak 4.01.62
2. Tahnee Seagrave 4.09.72 + 8.10
3. Danielle Beecroft 4.19.57 + 17.95
4. Geraldine Fink 4.22.63 + 21.01
5. Chloe Gallean 4.22.86 + 21.24
Junior Men
1. Loic Bruni 3.29.14
2. Richard Rude Jr 3.32.26 + 3.12
3. Connor Fearon 3.34.08 + 4.94
4. Noel Nieder 3.35.17 + 6.03
5. Jack Moir 3.36.98 + 7.84
…
12. Dean Lucas 3.40.72 + 11.58
21. Joe Vejvoda 3.43.13 + 13.99
31. Thomas Crimmins 3.46.80 + 17.66
37. Luke Ellison 3.49.82 + 20.69
64. David McMillan 4.04.21 + 35.07
With juniors finished Elite Women hit the course and in what is one of the feel good stories from the Champs, relatively unknown privateer Morgane Charre took the victory ahead of the biggest names on the circuit. It was a surprise but good to see.
Surprise! One that doesn’t happen often in this sport but happened in both Junior and Elite Woman this year, a relatively unknown rider upset the established names on the circuit. We would like to think Morgane could secure a factory ride now!
Elite Men was a really strange race, the feeling at the bottom when it became apparent Aaron Gwin had problems was an odd one. Many people wanted to see what he could do on this track. Gwin wasn’t the only one with problems, Steve Peat crashed on a flier of a run, as did Josh Bryceland who said he will looking back on this racing thinking ‘what could have been?’. Troy Brosnan’sA�horrendous overseas season and run of terrible luck here at Leogang continued, crashing within the first 100m of the track dislocating his shoulder.
Troy Brosnan in the morning practice, immediately after this drop is where Troy crashed in his race run.Whoops, that shouldn’t do that! Aaron Gwin’s prototype brakes failed spectacularly on the most important run at the biggest race of the year! The mood at the Trek team was a very somber one.With his race done Josh Bryceland put in for the crowd and the assembled media.Steve Peat may have crashed in his race run but he still got his hands on a rainbow jersey, the UCI presented him a special edition Leogang World Championship jersey to honour his 20 years of racing World Championships. When Peaty spoke people were waiting to here news on his retirement but he dashed these claims by saying he still thinks he has a few more years left in him.Bar Troy Brosnan’s crash Australia had another solid World Champs. Jared Graves powered home for 32nd place.It was awesome to see Josh Button Crack the top 20 with 20th place, likewise for Mitch Delfs who tied with Andrew Neethling for 18th position. Bryn Atkinson who was looking fast all week charged home for 13th place and Sam Hill who had a lot of family support here in Leogang finished 5th, just 3.41 seconds off the win.Timed practice showed what everyone could see, Mic Hannah had speed on this track. In the finals he came down and took the hot seat, he missed out on a podium spot by under a second finishing 4th.Stevie Smith had a few loose moments in his run, including this corner at the bottom where he ran wide and almost snagged a pedal on the ground! It must not have slowed him down too much, third place at the end of the day.One of the most consistent men in downhill racing, Greg Minnaar, finally took the top spot after last being there in 2003.Once he knew he had won Greg Minnaar had a smile on his face that would stay there for the rest of the day and night!
Elite Women
1. Morgane Charre 3.50.65
2. Emmeline Ragot 3.51.85 + 1.20
3. Manon Carpenter 3.52.14 + 1.49
4. Floriane Pugin 3.52.27 + 1.62
5. Rachel Atherton 3.56.55 + 5.89
Elite Men
1. Greg Minnaar 3.21.79
2. Gee Atherton 3.22.37 + 0.58
3. Stevie Smith 3.23.00 + 1.21
4. Mic Hannah 3.23.93 + 2.14
5. Sam Hill 3.25.20 + 3.41
…
13. Bryn Atkinson 3.28.58 + 6.79
18. Mitch Delfs 3.29.77 + 7.98
20. Josh Button 3.29.99 + 8.20
32. Jared Graves 3.32.41 + 10.62
DNF. Troy Brosnan
With the 2012 World Champions crowned manyA�riders actually head to Norway inA�two weeks time for the final World Cup, expect full coverage from downhill247.com on this event too!
One thought on “World Championships – Day 4 – Leogang”
Brilliant pics,thanks for the race coverage.