Welcome to Mont St. Anne, in Quebec, Canada, A�an all time classic track from the world cup scene, with timeless sections that we all know from the mountain bike films of past. Today we are taking our track walk with the future of Australian Downhill, let us introduce the Australian Junior DH Team.

The Juniors full of excitement ready to head down the track

For anyone who is un-aware of the Junior team, these are the most outstanding young riders Australia currently has to offer, from left to right, front to back they are; Ben Hill, Jackson Davis, Ben Dengate, MaxA�Warshawsky, Michelle Crisp, Jared Rando (Coach), Joel Willis, Matthew McCorkell, Nathan Rennie (Coach). Not Pictured are Andrew Crimmins, Aiden Varley and Tegan Molloy.

From the roll in we could see some changes in the track, with the top section having a remodel and changing it up a little, the dirt up here is very fresh and quite loose, so we suspect that there will be some ruts forming very early tomorrow in practice, but only time will tell. There have been a lot of rocks inserted into this new top section, again we feel that the loose soil won’t hold all the rocks and that this top section will change rather dramatically from todays track walk.

The newer section slowly faded out as the classic Mont St. Anne track returned, however that had been some changes in bunting with the track being moved a little off teh classic lines to add a slightly new challenge, but still have the classic Mont St. Anne high speed sections. One of the newer little insertions was a small hip jump, while we eyed it off many riders walked past eyeing off different tactics to not waste time in the air but the clear the small creek beneath.

As we entered some of the classic open sections we noted the bunting had move slightly in places, with some spots being very tight in a high speed line, we are sure riders are going to push the limit of how close they can get to the bunting poles. The classic open section we see on TV has had some work done to it, with a jump we think will add some spice due to its smallness being dropped in. The speed trap area is still very high speed and one to watch. The lower rock garden is still just as challenging as it ever was, with plenty of line choices still available. There are plenty of risky fast lines, but we feel if it gets wet many will revert back to the classic safer lines we have seen in the past.

From the rocks the track simply opens up and drops you out into the open where there is a drop and a double leading into the finish line. Come the end of the track we had some very excited juniors ready to ride tomorrow. We look forward to practice tomorrow and we hope you check back in here tomorrow for all the action.

If you would like to follow the Junior Team as they travel and race their world cup campaign you can do so on facebook by following the Australian Junior Downhill Team 2014.

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Report: Jason Stevens Photography.A�Facebook:A�www.facebook.com/jasonstevensphotographyA�or follow @jasonstevensphotogrpahy on Instagram

Race day has arrived here at Leogang, with the sun rising over another stunning day it would appear the race would be dry and un-interupted. As the track opened for practice riders began flowing down the track, looking so confident compared to the start of the week where through the roots the line choices were so timid and questionable. The riders were now on rails, so sure of the lines they had picked. Practice wrapped up and the track was closed for a moment as riders prepared for race runs. First up was juniors, we sat track side with the injured Aiden Varley and his mechanic, and dad Peter Varley, Aiden was disappointed to not being racing but we had a great chat about the junior racing. As the higher ranked riders started coming down the hill we noted there may be an upset on the cards with Amaury Pierron coming to sit on top and knock some of the faster riders off. Eventually with Amaury on top it was just Luca and Loris to come. As we watched the live feed on the board for the top sections of the track we noted that Loris had not come into view, over 20 secs off the pace we assumed he had crashed and the boards defaulted back to tracking Luca Shaw. We didn’t get a good view of the race from the screens, but as Luca appeared from the woods we noticed that Luca was only just in front of Loris. Luca crossed the line to claim 3rd place, we noticed Luca having a chat with the UCI, we thought he may of been held up from the assumed crash, however nothing came of the small chat and the results stood.

Next was the Elite Females, with quick times being set form the get go, the runs were mechanical free for the girls, a happy change from Ft. William I am sure, the only notable run that didn’t go to plan was Casey Brown who had a big off up track, she continued her run and finished but a long way off the pace. Jill Kitner set a super fast time which saw her in the hot seat for a little while, but as we saw the few girls roll down the hill her time tumbled. With just Manon on top of the hill Rachel Atherton was in the hot seat, could Manon continue her domination of this season’s world cup season? Time would tell, as Manon passed the first split time it was clear she was on a ripper run, however the split was still very close and a simple mistake would hand Rachel the win. Manon crossed the line and took the win by 2.69 Seconds, stamping her authority on this season, remaining the overall Elite Womens leader and also helping Madison Saracen to be the most successful team this world cup round.

This left just the Elite Men to come, and what a show it was going to be, the gap between all the qualifiers was only 14 seconds. The men started flowing down the track with times becoming very close from the start, by the time Sam Hill came down the hill we were seeing gaps of less that half a second between riders, this certainly was going to be a close one. We entered the ranks of the top 10 riders, the gaps increased and the riding stepped up. We watched as each rider came down the hill and topped the podium. Eventually it came to the top 5 qualifiers. We watched as Steve Smith made his way through the lower section, Steve appeared to be out of sync, finishing well off the pace, clearly disappointed with himself. It was then Andrew Neethlings turn, you could feel the excitement in the crowd, everyone was hoping Needles could pull a sweet result! At the first split he was up, not by much, but by todays standards it was quite a bit, though still less than a second, however by the second split he was down by quite a bit, with the whole crowd letting out a joined sigh. With three riders to go, who could take the top, Josh Bryceland came into view, on a fantastic time, and crossed the line to take the top spot, this left just Aaron Gwin and Loic Bruni to go. We watched as Aaron left the gate, a few moments later we noticed Aarons tire had come off in a flat, but he was still pushing, surely he couldn’t get a winning time with no tire, it turns out he couldn’t, crossing the line well back, but very impressive none the less. This just left Loic Bruni to come, he passed through the first split on top, and then through the second split, still on top, the pressure was mounting the crowd went silent! Loic appeared in the distance up the track, passing over parts of the course that had caught out riders earlier, one on of the final berms his wheel slid out, the celebration was explosive, Josh Bryceland takes the win, absolutely ecstatic with the result, he scored a free piggy back ride around the finish circle.

With Racing Complete the results were:

Junior Men:
1. Amaury Pierron
2. Taylor Vernon
3. Luca Shaw
4. Alex Marin Trillo
5. Steve Marietta

Elite Women:
1.A�Manon Carpenter
2. Rachel Atherton
3. Myriam Nicole
4. Emmeline Ragot
5. Tahnee Seagrave

Elite Men:
1.A�Josh Bryceland
2. Greg Minaar
3. Troy Brosnan
4. Brook MacDonald
5. George Brannigan

Images: Jason Stevens Photography (@jasonstevensphotography or on Facebook)

Facebook:A�www.facebook.com/downhill247

Instagram:A�@downhill247

Overnight we had some rain dampening the track and leaving it a little more tacky in some places, but also much more slippy in other areas, from the second the track was open we saw this slippery-ness catching out many riders. the dampness had aided slightly in the wooded sections though, with the track showing signs of much more rain than we were aware had fallen. A notable victim of the track today was Aiden Varley, who unfortunately has broken his wrist, fingers crossed it will heal up quick and in time for some of the North American races. He is in good spirits, getting inspiration from Sam Hill injury a few years ago where he raced one world cup post injury and won world champs.

The Sun was out today though, drying the track quite rapidly, and leaving the forested areas very loamy and loose, with some dust flying in the second woods, the first woods seemed to have a much more compressed dirt which ended up being very slippy with the moisture being draw in from the previous part of the track.

With the morning complete, timed practice begun, seeing riders come down quite spaced apart oddly, how ever as the sun beat down here in Leogang the rides began flowing. With only a short time to go in timed practice the dark clouds surrounded the track and the heavens opened, with light rain at first, but then much heavier rain, leaving the track slippery, muddy and very wet. With enough time left in practice many opted to do a wet run, to ensure they were practiced up in case race day was similar, however by the end of the timed practice the sun was back out and drying the track back out.

Images: Jason Stevens Photography (@jasonstevensphotography or on Facebook)

Facebook:A�www.facebook.com/downhill247

Instagram:A�@downhill247