The 2014 world championships in Hafjell, Norway will go down into the history books for so many reasons. It was a day of unexpected events, crazy performances and some great riding. As usual it started off in the morning with practice, one thing to note from practice was the higher number of flat tyres we saw today, it’s highly likely that the track had blown out so much that is what was causing them. One omission from yesterday’s practice report was that Connor Fearon had a big crash in the rock garden and suffered some non life threatening but still serious injuries. An update from him earlier suggested he is okay and in hospital, best wishes from everyone here at Downhill247.com on your recovery!
Moving on from practice to racing, first up was the juniors and more specifically the females. After having a stellar world cup season taking the overall we knew Tegan Molloy was in with a good chance. Once Tegan came down we had a few more riders to wait to see where she would finish, as the last rider crossed the line Tegan became the 2014 junior champion! A well deserved winner.
Shortly after Tegan became the champion it was onto the junior men, Australia had a strong group of juniors so expectations were high. It was here in the junior men’s race we really noticed a few things, one how blown out the track had become and how much faster everyone was pushing. In fact the whole days racing we saw a large number of punctures and riders pushing just too hard and crashing. We initially thought it may have just been the juniors inexperience but as the day progressed we discovered this wasn’t the case.
The rest of the junior race, well what to say, it is fair to say that most of the favorites had issues, whether it be crashing or mechanical. That is part and parcel of racing, for some juniors they will get another chance next year in Andorra for others they will be making the move up to the senior ranks.
Next up the senior women. The crowd had now started to pour into the venue and up the hill, the sun was out and there was no chance of rain so conditions were good. 25 women started only one was going to get their hands on the gold medal! Tahnee Seagrave was on the hot seat as Tracey Hannah came down the hill cheered on by brother Mic. Tracey went into second place a few seconds behind Tahnee, we waited in anticipation to see what the rest of the field could do… It soon looked like it may be an all British podium with just Rachel Atherton left to come and Manon Carpenter on the hot seat. At the first split Rachel went fastest, the same green flashed on the timing board for the second interval, at this stage many people would have bet Rachel was going to take it. However, there was still a large rock garden and some big jumps before the finish, as Rachel crossed the line red flashed up on screen. Manon had won by 0.088 over Rachel in second, Tahnee third and Tracey in fourth.
With 90 riders on the start list senior men was always going to be a big day, Australia’s Graeme Mudd came down early due to the way that the ranking system works. Graeme crashed but still took the hot seat and ended up sitting there for some time, until Bryn Atkinson came down 30 or so riders later and the Australians were 1 and 2 on the hot seat.
As the top 10 came down the hill everyone stayed focused on the big screens, the gasp was audible as Sam Hill crashed. At this stage a lot of people were thinking Neko Mulally might possibly win… It is worth pointing out that Neko lost his chain out of the start gate before the first jump! Someone at Trek World Racing might have to answer for that!
Racing became a blur as rider after rider failed to get into the top spot, Brook MacDonald ended up 5th, Neko was still on the hot seat. Greg Minaar flatted, Sam Blenkinsop thought he flatted so he backed off on the last few corners but he didn’t actually have a flat! It left only a few riders to go, Troy Brosnan has had a really great season. He wanted the win here and has a good record at world champs as a junior, something he wants to continue in his senior year. Off at the splits Troy slotted in behind Gee Atherton who was on the hot seat with only Josh Bryceland left. Josh was up at the splits but the last jump didn’t go to plan as he over shot it by a long distance unfortunately shattering his leg/ankle/foot. This left the Athertons with another world title, a good day for that family indeed.
We have lots more to show you from Hafjell, check back soon.
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