Early in the day there were clouds about and the top of the hill was covered in fog, it had everyone wondering whether we would be in for a wet race. Fortunately, racing took place under sun for most riders.
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.
Perfectly white background is not due to Photoshop but the fog at the top of the hill, Loris Vergier in morning practice.The crowd were hungry for racing action!
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.
Andy Crimmins swinging off the back and into 13th place.
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.
Rachel Atherton took the win today in elite women.
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
Not everything went to plan today for all the riders…13th on the day for Connor Fearon.And 20th in the overall…Troy Brosnan in the mornings practice.It wasn’t his day though, third for the overall and his first world cup win means it was a successful season.Greg Minnaar didn’t have the finish for the season he had hoped.Loris Vergier took both wins today, the day and the overall!Gee Atherton looked good early before eventually getting displaced off the hotseat.The crowd was going nuts for Bryceland and he delivered!With a wild style on and off the bike Josh Bryceland was a deserving winner of the overall.The Syndicate were all smiles for Josh!Sam Hill scouting for lines with his team mates.It looks like Sam has been sharing more then just lines with his team mates!But today the winner was Sam Hill!“Where are your clothes mate?” Typical Sam Hill humor!But there were smiles all round!Season 2014 done and dusted! Well until World Champs in 2 weeks…
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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Who would have known walking around in the pits earlier in the day what was going to unfold on this legendary mountain in Italy?
In many cases Val di Sole was a weekend of; what ifs, crashes, new names, stunning riding and everything that is quintessential downhill at its best! A hot day dawned, rain whilst possible didn’t factor into racing, what if it had? Let’s kick off the proceedings withA�the junior females,A�Danielle Beecroft claimed second place and Tegan Molloy fourthA�in hot conditions. In the Elite Women’s race Tracey Hannah just missed the top ten in eleventh place.
Tracey Hannah is always a threat but didn’t trouble the top 5 today.The French ladies did well but again Rachel Atherton shows she is the rider to beat.
Junior Men, one of the highlights of the season so far! Despite the lack of online coverage, we are sure many Aussies were tuned in to the live timing to watch Dean Luca claim his first World Cup victory. Simply amazing, in Dean’s words “Last year I came to Val Di Sole to race my first World Cup, I ended up crashing out on the first day and sat on the sidelines watching all my hard work go down the drain, this year it all changed a bit and I ended up the fastest Junior and 22nd out right!” Fair to say Dean is a happy guy right now!
Large and in charge! All we need now is for Dean to continue his winning ways for the rest of the season.Kudos to Dean on a calculated ride which saw him push it just enough.
There were strong results for the other juniors too, Luke Ellison showed his fifth placed qualifying time was no fluke in 9th place, Peter Knott came 31st on his birthday, Ben Hill 35th in his first World Cup, Aiden Varley 37th and Thomas Crimmins 52nd.
A handy 9th place for Luke Ellison.
After an epic junior competition hopes were high for an Aussie double when the big boys set off down the hill on their way for victory. Mixed finishes sums up the results, 61st for Jack Moir who had some issues in his run, 56th for Sam Hill was definitely not what he was hoping for. Furthermore, he was fastest at split 1 and his time indicated he was on for a top 3 spot.
What could have been…? A line that rings true to Sam Hill at Val di Sole more than many other places! Fastest at the first split before it all went wrong. Image: Friedrich Simon KugiThe weekend wasn’t all bad news for Sam though, his distinctive pink bike and kit are being sold to the public to raise money for charity. Image: Friedrich Simon Kugi
Connor Fearon brought home 31st, a solid result but not to what he was hoping for, a few mistakes and an off the track excursion ruining a possible top 20. Mic Hannah in 9th was one of the two Aussies in the top 10 and stoked on is result, this year being consistent is going to be critical for the overall series.
9th place and more points for the overall, a good day in the office for Mic Hannah.
In another highlight for the weekend Troy Brosnan showed he’s back and grabbed a spot on the podium in fifth!A�After a disastrous season (if you could call it that) last year this shows Troy is winding up to full speed, he was successful here in 2011 with another fifth pacing so odds were he would do well, still a sigh of relief that he did!
TB is back! No longer is he ‘baby faced Brosnan’ sporting a nice beard for the occasion. One of the youngest riders in the field and fastest Australian on the day, he is happy with that! Image: Friedrich Simon Kugi
It was a dominant Gee Atherton taking the win by over a second from Stevie Smith, Greg Minnaar put Fort William behind him and claimed third. Loic Bruni showed he has made the transition from the junior ranks with ease in fourth and just behind Troy was his team mate Aaron Gwin in 6th. A few big crashes took out other possible contenders, namely Brook MacDonald and Danny Hart. All in all the weekend delivered another memorable race.
From day one practice Gee looked good, victory by a second proved this.Two from two for Gee Atherton and with that he rounded out the Atherton Double-Double! Talk about race proven for GT and their new bike!
Next stop for the World Cup circuitA�is Andorra but that’s not for a few weeks yet, we have plenty of coverage from the race still to come before then though.
Race day and yet again Mother Nature smiled down on to the highlands with beautiful race conditions.
World Cup number 1 and did thatA�turn outA�like you expected? We are betting there are a lot of people who were expecting a different podium to what we saw. Lets start with the juniors though, unfortunately they aren’t covered by the online footage so the live timing provided by the UCI is the next best thing. In the female class Tegan Molloy finishedA�21st (3rd in junior – an awesome result for her first World Cup) and Danielle Beecroft snapped her chain within the first 5 seconds of the track, she rolled down to finish 24th. A�We are sure in next weeks raceA�at Val di Sole we will see them climb higher up the rankings.
With Nathan Rennie and Jared Rando providing their years of wisdom and experience to the team we knew they could really deliver. In the end Dean Lucas grabbed a podium position in 3rd,A�Peter Knott 12th, Aiden Varley 13th, Luke Ellison 24th, Thomas Crimmins 29th and Brent Smith DNF. There were a few issues for some of the guys, Luke and Thomas crashed in their runs knocking them down the time sheet.
Next up and we move onto Elite…
Check out the head cam run with Tracey Hannah down the Fort William Track in our previous post.Tracey Hannah reflecting on the past few months which have been riddled by injury…
Tracey Hannah was our sole entrant in the elite female class, her pre-season was less than ideal but she will improve no doubt. Check out the helmet cam run of one ofA�her practiceA�runs here. In the end Rachel Atherton broke her voodoo at her home race by taking the win by 10 seconds! Until this year Rachel had six 2nd place finishes at Fort William… Little did we know how her victory would set the scene for the elite men.
The spectators (and marshals) at Fort William always get praised by the riders, this year was no different. Some marshals have been to every World Cup held there, taking the usual marshalling spot to boot!
Still under glorious conditions the elite men kicked off, Rhys Atkinson was one of the first riders on course but had a “rubbish run” but with the crazy crowd and all the Aussies around was still happy and looking forward to next weekends race in Italy. Despite having a rough time during practice with crashes on the rough track Jack Moir finished 55th, no doubt he will climb the rankings as the season goes on. Bryn Atkinson and Jared Graves finished 36th and 37th respectively, we have no doubt Bryn wants to climb into the top 20 to get one of the coveted protected positions. Jared Graves just continues to impress with his flexibility between four cross, BMX, enduro, downhill and whatever else he chooses to do!
First World Cup of the year and Connor Fearon claims the best result of his career in 21st place. This result will set him up for the rest of the year.
With a strong qualifying result Connor Fearon openly admitted he was hunting a top 20, his run was good and he went into the hot seat. In the end he finished 21st, his best World Cup result to date, despite not getting the top 20 he was looking for it is a positive sign for the rest of the season. As always we will be checking in with Connor for his Inside Info on the race. One position in front of Connor was Aaron Gwin, like an elephant in the room no one really knows what is going on with Aaron, he never looked dangerous all weekend. However, after dominating last season no one would have put him outside the top 5 let alone the top 10! It will be interesting to see what happens in Val di Sole as he destroyed the field by over 5 seconds there last year. Is it his new team? Was his injured hand re-injured? Who knows… One position in front of Aaron was Mitch Delfs, a top 20 is an awesome start for Mitch and we hope this form continues all year.
Flat tyres and crashes claimed a few victims, Matt Beer, Harry Heath and Matt Simmonds all succumbed to one or the other.The jumps this year were big, really big! With many a rider struggling to clear them all, especially after the punishing top section of the track.
It was good to see Troy Brosnan back and racing at the highest level after a horror season last year. A highly respectable 12th shows TB is back in the game. Sam Hill came down and booted Greg Minnaar out of the hot seat by over a second. It was good to see Sam Hill back on fire, he held out manyA�a rider and was looking down the barrel atA� a top 5 finish in the end he finished 6th 2.13 seconds behind the winner.
Always a crowd favourite, Sam Hill finished 6th but we know it is the numero uno spot he really wants!The serious end of the day… Danny Hart heads up to the top.
One position ahead of Sam was Mic Hannah, just under 2 seconds shy of the victory. Up until now Brook MacDonald was holding the hot seat and looking comfortable, Stevie Smith nor fellow Kiwi Sam Blenkinsop couldn’t push the bulldog and hisA�flat pedals out.A�After her sister won early in the day Gee Atherton put a stormer of a run in to relegate Brook down one spot, with one rider left, Danny Hart, it was going to be a home town victory of sorts but who? In the end Danny couldn’t knock off Gee and the Athertons took out the double.
A strong Mic Hannah, one who has lost considerable weight over the off season and is looking lean and mean claimed 5th.Winner of round one, his first World Cup win since 2010, Gee Atherton. A dream debut for the new GT Fury too.
We can’t help but think this year will mark the changing of the guard, last year the big three, Gwin, Minnaar and Atherton seemed untouchable but already we have seen the new school of Smith, MacDonald and Hannah come out and make their mark. We will find out soon as the next round continues next week in Italy and as always we will bring you all the action.
