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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How good is this?! Awesome news for Australian mountain biking.
Australian mountain biking has always stood apart from the rest of the world. As one of the flattest continents on Earth, we don’t have the luxury of 15 minute Garbonzo runs that you’d find in the US, Canada and Europe. Our trails are short, steep and gnarly – what we lack in distance and elevation we make up for with rough, technical trails that trained talent like Sam Hill (5x UCI World Champ), Rick Boyer, and Bryn Atkinson, as well as young guns like Troy Brosnan. In recent years Australia has consistently been a source of strong competition for the rest of the world, and now we get to challenge the world’s best on home soil.
2014 brings a new UCI world cup. Another series of amazing trails all around the world, each testing racers in different ways, to show who is truly the best in the world. In 2009, the nations’ capital held the UCI World Championships at Mt Stromlo for mountain biking and trials. The event was a success, though Canberra is one flat area. Cairns however, is situated in the temperate zone, surrounded by rainforest and tropical weather. North Queensland is also a mountainous area, brimming with keen local (and travelled) racers, who are over the moon after the QLD Premier’s announcement on the 18th of May that Cairns will host two future rounds of the World Cup circuit. We believe there is definitely a chance that Cairns may hold the 2017 World Championships, which they last held back in 1996. What does this mean for Australian Mountain Biking? It means the world. This event will not only spur a drastic increase in local support for mountain biking, it will attract mountain biking heroes and companies from around the world, to discover the true beauty of the Australian landscape and see what makes the Aussie riders such good contenders in the racing circuit. At this stage Cairns will hold the first round of the 2014 season, the track itself should be ready to go by September this year, we would love to see a National race or something along those lines held there first. All there is to do now, is mark your calendars, get a crew together and get to Cairns, to cheer our riders on and see the world’s best throwing down for the rainbow jersey. Downhill247.com will be there and let’s hope there are thousands of Aussies there supporting the race.
Connor Fearon looked strong on the track all week and was a definite favourite! Photo: Phunkt
We all know how well Connor Fearon did in Leogang but lets hear what he had to say about the week;
Well, well, wella�� The 2012 World Championships is done and dusted! For me I had a lot more pressure on me for this race than the rest of the season for a few reasons- Its world championships, ita��s my last year racing as a junior and unlike world cups there is a separate category for juniors so therea��s a good chance I could leave with a decent result!
For this race I stayed with the entire Australian junior team for the week. Wea��re all good buddies and Jared Rando was there to offer his wealth of experience. For me old Rando is a good role model and I trust him more than anybody in the MTB scene so having him around was a good for the team. We walked the track on Wednesday and it looked pretty good. The top section was made up of bike park turns and a few technical wood sections. The bottom was good with fast rooted and rough sections. Unfortunately there was a big pedal halfway which I didna��t like but felt I could make up for it in the tech sections.
Riders popped over this jump before they had to pedal a bit to get to the next tech section which was followed by another pedal! Photo: Phunkt
Practice and timed practice was a lot of fun. I got to ride with my friends from home and we worked as a team to figure out the lines down the track. In timed practice I place 4th which was a little disappointing as my goal all year was to come away with a medal. I knew my weakness was on the pedal and that seemed easy enough to changea�� just pedal harder, right?
Connor is always strong on the technical areas but in his own words he had ‘to pedal more’ in some parts for his race run! Photo: Phunkt
I had a good warm up before my race run I had my mechanic Matty and Rando both there to see me leave the start gate. My run was smooth I pedalled hard for the flat section mid way. Coming into the final sections I backed it off a little bit because I had crashed there that morning in practise. I came through the finish line in 1st almost 3 seconds up on Jack Moir a fellow Aussie junior from then on I got knocked down to 2nd, then 3rd and stayed there until the end! I was stoked to come away with a medal!
The goal of achieveing a medal complete! Now one more World Cup to finish off the international season for Connor. Photo: Phunkt
Ia��ve achieved a lot this year but ita��s not quite time to go home yet Ia��m currently sitting in my lodge at Norway waiting for the final world cup. I want to finish in the top 30 overall unfortunately for me Steve Peat is sitting right in front of me in the standings so ita��s going to be a challenging weekend for me!
There you go, straight from Mr Fearon himself! We will check back in with him after Norway, as always expect, all the coverage of the race on downhill247.com!
Marc Beaumont finished 14th, he was hoping for a better finish than that though.
We are still buzzing from the World Champs in Leogang! We thought we would put up a few more pictures from the week, enjoy!
Troy Brosnan was looking good and a lot of people ‘in the know’ had him tipped to do well. With racing though, nothing is guaranteed!There was a lot of amazing scenery surrounding the race track, we saw lots of animals to, we didn’t realise they had snakes in Austria!Beer, the other Beer! Matt Beer was fast all week and finished 43rd!The life of a World Cup photographer has plenty of highs but also plenty of challenging times, here Sven Martin ponders his next move whilst taking refuge from the weather!Our favourite ride from the Champs had to be Bryn Atkinson’s rig, maybe it was because of the way he was riding it?!What a view!Third place in Junior Women for Danielle Beecroft was an awesome result!Gee Atherton makes up one third of the ‘big three’, which also contains Greg Minnaar and Aaron Gwin, one them is always going to be in the mix! Second for Gee Atherton this time.When the rain came it felt like it wasn’t going to stop! The course held up well though with the builders all to aware of the amount of rain that can fall in the Alps.With the addition of new kickers, the jumps in the middle of the course were quite large! Not all riders were hitting them, Andrew Neethling shows us how it is done.Understandably Greg Minnaar had to have a good look at the jumps before he would send them!In the end though Greg got it right and to the victor go the spoils!
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!
