So instead of all these photos from the World Championships’ in Hafjell gathering dust on hard drives somewhere we thought we would do a bulk upload for this Pick of the Pics, many are caption your own but regardless enjoy!
Sam Hill.Sending it.
Finding lines and gaps!
Danny Hart dropping a foot.
Sometimes the media get bored and/or hungry.
Always emotions at World Championships, the tears roll down Rachel’s cheers.Delivering the good news.So much emotion.Happy days.
Even though it was World Championships there was still time for some fun in the morning practice, Danny Hart throwing a whip coming into the finish.
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.
After dominating the season it was good to see Tegan take the rainbow stripes.Winning bike and rider! A happy Tegan Molloy.
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.
First Australian down the track was Jackson Davis. The former West Australian finished 21st.Ben Dengate was a few positions ahead of his team mate finishing in 19th, his Bilt bike was certainly the only one here in Norway!Ben Hill had a crash, he certainly wasn’t the only rider that did. He still finished in 41st.Andrew Crimmins crashed in his first practice run but thought he had it figured for his race run, turns out he crashed in finals in the same place, he still finished 17th.Aiden Varleys’ year was interrupted by an injury in Leogang, he bounced back today to finish 7th.Max Warshawsky was the best placed of the juniors, initially it looked like he was podium bound. As the day panned out he was one place off in 4th.
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.
Taylor Vernon was one of the favourites on the day. He succumbed to the pressure and crashed, along with Martin Maes and Luca Shaw.What a year… Loris Vergier took the junior overall world cup title and stamped his authority on the 2014 season by winning by 4.99 seconds.
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.
Up at the first two splits, it’s never over until it’s over though! Second fro Rachel Atherton this time.Joy! A feeling only a few riders ever get to experience, being the world champion!
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.
You can see the dust on Graeme’s clothing despite the crash he still went fastest.Look at the grimace on Bryn Atkinson’s face, he charged into the hot seat. He ended up 18th on the day.What a performance! Essentially a privateer Jack Moir was one of the standouts for us, he took the hot seat and stayed there for a long time. He ended up the day in 10th, we hope a pro team picks him up for next season.Mic Hannah during early morning practice. He washed out higher up the course in his race run and finished 81st.3 seconds up at the last split but took a hard crash in the final rocks. Sam Hill got to the bottom and stayed slumped over his bars for 30 seconds or longer. Don’t be fooled on just how emotional this sport is…
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.
Troy Brosnan has had an amazing season, topped off with a third place today! An emotional support group (family) were on hand, unintentionally Troy Brosnan is often shadowed by his team mate but we think he should stand alone based on his ability, not to mention everything else!Not the picture we want to show you of Josh Bryceland and his second place but he over jumped the last jump on the track and did some serious damage to his leg. He was immediately taken by team mates to be looked after by a medic. Not the ideal way to finish his stellar season, was the 0.407 gap enough for the win?!Gee Atherton in practice putting in a bit of style during practice.Hugs all around, Gee didn’t have the best run and wasn’t even sure if it was going to be enough for the win. As it turns out it was! Such was they day where some results were really unexpected.
We have lots more to show you from Hafjell, check back soon.
Another beautiful day in Norway. The day was much clearer then yesterday.
Today was a short day, practice was very minimal across all classes and seniors got a timed practiced run to give them some gauge of their speed on the track. Alternatively not all riders chose to do their timed run at full pace or even near their race speed which always means you have to take the rimes with a pinch of salt! First of all back to practice, in fact back to yesterday, there was some unfortunate news AustralianA�Matt McCorkell won’t be competing in this years race due to his crash but we wish him all the best on his recovery! On that rather down note it was also sad to see Emeline Ragot walking down the track during practice, her bike being wheeled, a crash higher up the course resulted in an injury to her wrist that saw it plastered up!
For those that made it through practice it leaves a long gap between the end of practice and tomorrows racing (there is a short practice session beforehand). Nothing like a long period of time to get the nerves going…It was the females who drew the short straw and had the early training session, half an hour from 7am!It meant everyone was still a little blurry eyed!Fortunately Tegan Molloy is still in the junior category so she got more of a sleep in!
It was timed practice for the senior guys and girls after the short morning practice, both were topped by the reigning champions, Rachel Atherton and Greg Minnaar. As we said earlier though it can’t be considered a definitive indication of everyone’s pace, Aron Gwin for example was 24th but we expect that to improve on race day.
Senior Women
1. ATHERTON Rachel 3:53.538
2. CARPENTER Manon 3:57.266 +3.728
3. NICOLE Myriam 3:57.480 +3.942
4. SEAGRAVE Tahnee 4:02.651 +9.113
5. KINTNER Jill 4:04.220 +10.682
…
7.A�HANNAH TraceyA�4:08.557 +15.019
Senior Men
1. MINNAAR Greg 3:27.399
2. HART Danny 3:28.214 +0.815
3. ATHERTON Gee 3:28.279 +0.880
4. BRANNIGAN George 3:28.981 +1.582
5. BROSNAN Troy 3:29.621 +2.222
…
6.A�HILL SamuelA�3:29.899 +2.500
11. ATKINSON Bryn A�3:31.494 +4.095
15. FEARON ConnorA�3:32.904 +5.505
23.A�HANNAH MichaelA�3:35.248 +7.849
25.A�MOIR JackA�3:35.778 +8.379
27.A�MUDD GraemeA�3:36.065 +8.666
Fastest during tied practice was reigning champion Greg Minnaar!George Brannigan was in 4th, definitely flying under the radar for a low of people!5th for Troy Brosnan.Foot out flat out! 6th for Sam Hill.9th for Josh Bryceland who is a favourite for the win according to a lot of people.Loic Brunni rounds out the top 10.11th for Bryn Atkinson who is looking comfortable on course.12th for Brook MacDonald, lifting over the rocks clearly helped!15th for Connor Fearon who has been doing some runs with Bernard Kerr (Bernard isn’t racing here he is course sweep).17th for the ever reliable Steve Peat who got pulled over in practice earlier this week by Rob Warner to be shown a video about road bikes of all things!23rd for Mic Hannah, a podium at last years world championships something he is no doubt chasing here.25th for Jack Moir, seen here practicing with fellow Aussie Graeme Mudd.27th for Graeme Mudd who achieved qualification after his top 30 result at the Cairns world cup.
In a slightly different move to normal world cups the juniors came after seniors for their training, we spotted lots of ‘helpers’ on the side of the track from different countries all looking to give their juniors the advice that might be the edge to winning!
Ben Dengate during practice.Max Warshawsky conquering the rocks!The rock gardens here are the size of small countries… Andrew Crimmins showing his passport on the way in!Ben Hill just after crashing, it was nothing too serious a cut to his hand but he’s tough and will be okay!
There is only one more day left, the most important one of all! Check back once there are new world champions crowned!
Eject now! Some riders may have still been asleep early in the morning, some of the media and marshals were!
Today here in Hafjell we had junior seeding early in the morning before practice for men and women afterwards. It was a day of contrast with Mother Nature showing two distinctly different sides, the early morning junior time slot saw much of the mountain covered in fog before the day evolved into blue sky and sunshine.
Early morning up on the hill was a fog festival!
With junior practice out of the way and no major incidents to report it was onto seeding. Seeding at world championships is not qualifying so therefore it is just an indication of riders speed as long as a rider starts their seeding run they are eligible to race in the finals.
It was the junior females that started off seeding, Australia’s own reigning junior world cup champion Tegan Molloy hit the track first, she seeded third we hope come finals she will move up a few spots and don the rainbows!
Tegan Molloy hunting rainbows!
The top 5 junior men was made up of some familiar faces, these riders are well known and have been at the pointy end all season.
Junior men seeding
1. Loris Vergier
2. Taylor Vernon
3. Amaury Pierron
4. Martin Maes
5. Luca Shaw
We will have a further look at the junior seeding results and more specifically the Australians.
The highest rider during seeding was Andrew Crimmins in 7th.Next down the time sheet was Aiden Varley in 13th.Max Warshawsky was hot on Aiden’s heels in 14th.Ben Hill came in 31st place, just outside the top 30.Ben Dengate negotiating the mist for 33rd place during qualifying.Jackson Davis in 47th, conditions for the juniors were changing all morning.Unfortunately Matt McCorkell was a DNF, he crashed literally 10 metres from us during seeding. Initially holding his wrist we hope it is nothing too serious…
With seeding out of the way it left elite practice for the rest of the day, at this stage the cloud started to lift and the sun came out! Most riders took advantage of today’s reasonably long session and notched up the runs. No real big dramas, a few flats, some stand out riders and most of all some crazy riding. The track here in Hafjell (pronounced huff-yell) has a bit of everything, big jumps, corners, fast sections and technical areas, whoever wins on Sunday will be a deserving winner.
As the day progressed the weather improved…And this made everyone even happier, photographers included!It was the women on track first, Casey Brown has style didn’t you hear!Emily Ragot looking fast, picking a winner for the womens is going to be just as hard as the men!Tracey Hannah was talking to herself as she went past us at one point, impressive considering the track she was riding on!Josh Bryceland finished practice early today, so early that he was up walking the track in casuals before practice had even finished!Gee Atherton is always fast, no matter what the track Hafjell is no different!All the action wasn’t just between the tape, a certain British rider, who isn’t racing, was out having fun on his bike!Vintage Steve Peat in the rocks and roots.Danny Hart looking for world championships number 2!Spot the rider… With plenty of new kits it was a case of figuring out who some riders were!Cam Cole, always a dark horse and on the way back from injury.Aron Gwin has never made it to a finals here in Norway so he is a real unknown come race day.Aaron’s team mate has the support of friends and family from back home here with him this weekend. A lot of racers do, if there is one race where the extra support comes in handy it is worlds.One of the nicest guys in mountain biking but also one of the fastest! Marcelo Gutierrez of Colombia.Connor Fearon was the first rider on track during practice to go past us! No mucking around, quoted as the fastest rider through the rocks gardens by Steve Peat too!The crowds really like Sam Hill everywhere he goes! Looking fast and on point in the rock garden today.Brook MacDonald in the sunshine, it is hard to believe this shot was taken the same day only hours apart from the juniors pictures!
Today was a big day, the morning practice session was filled with juniors and women before we moved onto the men in the afternoon. As we headed up in the gondola early in the morning there was till quite A�a lot of low lying cloud but this eventually disappeared leaving behind a beautiful Norwegian summers’ day! Fortunately there were no big crashes so all the main players are still in the game.
The big jumps at the top of the course were getting suitably styled already on day 1.Tegan Molloy popping out of one of the super fast turns and looking comfortable.Tracey Hannah looked comfortable on the big jumps, check out a short video of her we took up on our Instagram now @downhill247.The Aussie juniors were looking good early on.Rachel Atherton looked super quick out on track today, she is the only GT rider with a British paint scheme as the other frames weren’t ready in time!The junior competition is going to be as tight as always, aside from the riders who have been battling all world cup season, such as overall winner Loris Vergier pictured here but also young Martin Maes who generally races enduro but has shown he is no slouch on the downhill front.The juniors weren’t afraid of putting on some style, Neil Stewart giving her some.Neither were the ‘old’ riders though, Aaron Gwin putting in for the (media) crowd.‘Merica! And proud…Myriam Nicole heads into the lower part of the course.Troy Brosnan representing the green and gold.More green and gold, this time being worn by Connor Fearon.Green and gold, plus a few other colours! Reigning world champion Greg Minnaar flying the flag for South Africa.Ratboy – Josh Bryceland sporting some pretty out there colour patterns!Bryn Atkinson going through the rocks. Bryn was looking super fast across the top section of the track, last time he raced here he was the second fastest rider to split one…Sam Hill and his gold bike, no doubt he wants some more gold come the end of the weekend.Brook MacDonald crashed today in the rocks but got up and was okay.Not the best photo as we weren’t expecting it but that white smoke looking substance in the air was this riders rear tyre blowing up as he railed one of the biggest berms on the course at full speed.Jill Kintner in the early morning sunshine and dust towards the bottom of the track.Team Lapierre were still riding together despite the fact world championships is more focused around nationalities rather than trade teams.
There’s another big day of practice tomorrow, join us again soon as we bring all that action to you!
Stereotypical Norway shot, grass on the roofs of houses. In case you’re wondering it is cooler in summer and warmer in winter with grass roofs.
Hafjell, Norway, home of the 2014 World Championships and today was track walk day. For most of the elite riders today was pretty standard, especially as they have seen the track before because it has been used for two world cups now. However, a lot of the junior riders have not been here and for them it was their first look at the track. Not a lot has changed since the world cup last year, to be simple we can break down the track into two sections roughly, the top is bike park and the bottom is natural. It’s a good mix though, you won’t hear riders complaining about the overall nature of the track.
Looking up to the start hut across some of the biggest jumps on the circuit, who will be the style champion here?The bike park corners here mean riders are going to hold speed, as we walked down riders were saying the speeds will be higher than any race here previously, possibly up to 70km/h!We talked to Wyn as we made our way down the track and he informed us the gentleman who built the bobsled track here had a part in the downhill track as well, hence the luge smooth corners that are banked super high!Of course the track isn’t all just bike park corners and jumps, it has some teeth! The shoes should indicate just how big some of the rocks here are, this one goes well out of the frame of the picture too…G – Spot! This tree decided an overall world cup series, named as Gee Atherton shouldered this tree in the 2013 finals effectively giving Stevie Smith the overall title.This wooded section features a mix of rocks and roots, if it rains this will be even more wild!This is the aptly named ‘No Brakes’ a high speed left hander out in the open on the grass.There is a campaign to keep the Hafjell bike park open as the owners are planning to shut it down which would be a real shame.Those views… Not that the riders will have much time to be taking them in.
The first day of practice will be upon us soon, check back soon.
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