The 2014 UCI world cup season wrapped up today in Meribel, the race turned into the perfect climax for the season. The day started off a bit murky, grey clouds hung over the hill and the fog limited visibility to 10 metres at the top of the track. Morning practice saw riders check their lines again and again, today a lot was on the line.
Finals kicked off with juniors, the competition has been see-sawing all day but in the end the hometown advantage came out to play and Loris Vergier took the win. Having stood trackside all week it would have been a brave soul that betted against him, he looked fast and in control. To add to the day he ended up taking the overall too.
Elite womens’ was another class were the victor had a chance to take the overall, Emmeline Ragot took the hotseat to the locals delight. This left Manon Carpenter on course but she couldn’t beat the locals time, there was one rider left on the hill, Rachel Atherton. She came down and pushed hard, snatching the win from Emmeline, in the overall series results Manon Carpenter held on for the win.
The crowd was going crazy for elite men, Marcus Pekoll came down and took the hot seat early, Greg Minnar came down but after a rough week he went into third, Connor Fearon came down and slotted in just behind Greg in 4th. Connor would go on to finish 13th and 20th overall. Sam Blenkinsop couldn’t use his knowledge of the track to take the hot seat. Gee Atherton took the hot seat and for a while it looked like he might take the race, Aaron Gwin couldn’t get a spot on the seat when he came down. Sam Hill was down at the last split but put in a stomping performance in the bottom sections to grab the lead by about a second. Last man on the hill was Matt Simmonds and he was up at the final split on Sam but couldn’t convert it to a win coming second. Now there were two riders that needed good days, unfortunately one of them, Troy Brosnan, didn’t have one, he washed his front higher up the course and crashed. The other person who needed a good day was Josh Bryceland and he had one, finishing third and taking the overall to boot!
Elite Men
1st a�� Sam Hill
2nd a�� Matt Simmonds
3rd a�� Josh Bryceland
4th a�� Loic Bruni
5th a�� Gee Atherton
Elite Women
1st a�� Rachel Atherton
2nd a�� Emmeline Ragot
3rd a�� Manon Carpenter
4th a�� Tracey Hannah
5th a�� Tahnee Seagrave
Junior Men
1st a�� Loris Vergier
2nd a�� Luca Shaw
3rd a�� Taylor Vernon
4th a�� Ferran Prats Jorba
5th a�� Luca Shaw
Well that wraps up the world cup, we still have images to share with you guys and of course the world championships in Norway to come!
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