Good friend of Downhill47.com, crazy fast rider and all round good guy Troy Brosnan has been nominated for the 2015 people’s choice as cyclist of the year. We think it would be great if a downhiller could get it (no offence roadies…!), plus he has had a great year, all you need to do is vote using the link below and by doing so you can win prizes yourself! Go on do it…!
The 2015 South Australian state series wrapped up over the weekend with the state championships at Willunga. Initially slated to be held at Fox on a new track it looks like we will have to wait until season 2016 for that!
Plenty of serious set ups were spotted around the pits.Some more thought provoking than others…It was the action on the track we were really interested in!
Initially conditions looked good, as usual though the wind was the real issue. In fact over the weekend it was probably a major player in many of the crashes of which, unfortunately, there were a few! Healing vibes to everyone that had a dirt nap.
Never what you want to see at a downhill race (or anywhere for that matter)!
Back to racing and whilst there were delays due to the need to ensure injured riders were cared for, everybody was understanding – if you were in the same situation you would appreciate it! The track had a few minor alterations, most noticeably the ‘whoops’ jumps section (after a few crashes it was obvious they were definitely causing a few ‘whoops’ moments).
The whoops caught out plenty of riders, including Shelly Flood, who flew past us only to go down in a heap as she got to the whoops section.The corners just prior to that section were fun for riders….. and photographers alike!There were plenty of riders roosting the corner, Matt Taylor providing one of the best examples!
As always the results from the weekend can be found on the Inside Line website, we have a huge pool of images to show you thanks to RFPhotographics and Kaneophoto (their details are at the end of the article) so enjoy!
Kit on point!There were a range of bikes being ridden, from enduro bikes to full blown downhill rigs.Riding was hot across all the categories.It was great to see all the women tackling the track!Connor Fearon was giving out free lessons to anyone that watched him ride through the whoops.Jackson Davis is in Adelaide at the moment and came out to race, party shirt and all!Henry Blake hasn’t been doing as much riding lately as he would like but a 5th in elite shows he still has it!In some sections it was faster to tuck and cruise than pedal into the wind.Wide open.Practice was all about riding with your mates and having a good time.Line choice was something that had many riders redoing sections to find seconds.There wasn’t much shade on the hill it must be said!
Railing!There was a crowd on hand to watch riders as they took on the course and they were rewarded with some great riding.
Dropping into the finish arena!Wooosshhh!
Low and fast!
The views from the course were fabulous darling!A massive thanks to these two! Kaneophoto and RFPhotographics for their wizardry behind the glass!The rocks caused more than a few punctures!Ouch! Jackson Davis sent the final step down (on his little bike) and didn’t quite hold it, he was okay though!Connor Fearon was always going to be the rider to beat and comfortably took the 2015 state championship!
That wraps up the 2015 season and what a great one it was! Thanks to the club and everyone that helped out, roll on 2016.
Images: RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics) and Kaneophoto www.kaneophoto.com.auA�or on Instagram @kaneophoto and stock Downhill247.com images.
Get more content onA�FacebookA�orA�follow us on Instagram: @downhill247
The final round of the South Australian Graviy Enduro series was held at the new location of Mount Torrens aka Dazzleland. The land owners Darren and Carol are no strangers to the scene having raced mountain bikes for years. The location would be one many downhillers would remember as it has held numerous Inside Line state races.
Plenty of cool transport was on show.Style!Style plus 2!
The weather for the day was superb and that definitely helps the good vibes flow. As for the trails they were different from other races in the series, they were more single track and a little tighter in some spots. Overall the response was positive from the riders.
There were some tight corners on the hill.
There were lots of eyes focusing on the Elite Men’s race as a shootout between Cam Ryan and Simon Buzacott, there was plenty of good racing across the categories. Head to the Gravity Enduro SA (GESA) Facebook page to see the results in full.
Cam Ryan was on fire, taking the win.Simon Buzacott took second.Alex Waddicor always has a smile on his face, he smiled into 3rd place.
A great year of racing, we are keen to do it all again next time!
Images: RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
Get more content onA�FacebookA�orA�follow us on Instagram: @downhill247
The 26th World Championships were everything the ‘race of the year’ was billed up to be. Held in the Principality of Andorra, which is located in the Pyrenees, home of 85,000 people it was fair to say this was one event which had a lot of people talking about the place. The lead up to the race is always different from you regular world cups, there is no qualifying and the schedule looks different from what we are use to.
For the juniors especially World Championships’ was the race they were preparing for all year.
Legendary racer, turned commentator, Rob Warner was gauging the riders feedback all week and the overall consensus was that the track was definitely up to the task of holding a world championships. The weather was pretty average for the majority of the event, the sun was out on Sunday for the finals though.
Remy Morton shows us just how poor the weather was for a lot of the week as he bursts through the fog.
The majority of riders survived practice in the lead up to the event, only a few registered a DNS. Now as a spectator worlds is a stomach churning affair so you can only imagine what it is like for the racers, Rachel Atherton even had to vomit, that’s how much it means to these racers! Moving onto race day and it was the juniors off first, the junior women to be exact! For Australia it was Ellie Wale representing with a 6th place. Turning to junior men, in his first worlds foray Jackson Frew was Australia’s highest placed finisher taking the bronze medal. Australia’s most likely winner, Andrew Crimmins, who has had a stellar world cup season crashed and finished well down the order. It was his game plan of all or nothing, in this case he rolled the dice and the house won but have no doubt he will be back a stronger rider next year.
Next came the women and the track was drying out more but the wooded sections were still quite slippery and caught more than a few riders off guard. Moving up from last year saw Tegan Molloy racing the senior class, unfortunately a tumble saw her hopes of a win evaporate. After an up and down season Tracey Hannah finished on a high note with another bronze medal for Australia, Manon Carpenter got close but couldn’t hold onto the rainbow stripes from last year with a silver medal. In the end it was the dominant rider of 2015, Rachel Atherton, who took the jersey back to the UK with her.
Tegan Molloy crosses the line in the finals.Tracey Hannah has a bronze medal for the pool room after the weekend.
The tension had been steadily rising all day and when the men kicked off everyone was excited! Spectators lined the course, riders headed to the top with trainers, photographers checked their memory cards and like that we were racing! Coming down were some riders who wouldn’t normally qualify for world cups so it was great to see this mix. There were also plenty of crashes as wooden bridges, roots and the general steep nature of the track caught riders off guard.
David McMillan was one of the early riders on course.Jordan Prochyra was a little known name but put in a good result.
Sam Hill crashed in his race run, the same spot caught out many a rider.
Mic Hannah came down on a blinder and ended up with a 10th placed finish.Mic in the hot seat.Dean Lucas has had a great season…This race wasn’t quite the finish he was hoping for though.
Connor Fearon was next.We collectively held our breaths hoping he would stay upright after some offs recently!Held it he did!A solid time saw Connor walk away with 8th place.After another great season Troy Brosnan had high hopes for worlds. Unfortunately a crash saw his chance of winning dashed, three crashes in three races saw Troy’s mum joke they would super glue him to his bike!
After four second place finishes this year it was Loic Bruni who made his first win the most important one! He took the world championship jersey and with that a huge weight off his shoulders. Greg Minnaar and his Santa Cruz team mate Josh Bryceland were second and third respectively. For the other contenders it was a case of what could have been with names such as Atherton and Gwin crashing out.
That wraps up the 2015 international season, what a ride and what a great way to finish it off!
Off to Fox Creek for a day of bikes, pretty hard to beat if you ask us.
We headed out to Fox Creek for the South Australian Gravity Series over the weekend and thanks to the great guy and gals at GESA (Gravity Enduro of South Australia) we did something we don’t normally get to do, race! We aren’t going to tell you our results but what we can tell you is what the race was like! It was great, end of story… okay we will elaborate further but it was great.
Nature and that!
Being a legal network of trails in the Adelaide Hills anyone could ride there so as you can imagine Saturday before the race there were plenty of punters out practicing the course (which GESA had conveniently publicised prior). Roll on Sunday morning and after a riders brief (and a the odd sneaky course condition check) we were off!
Conditions were good all day.
If you don’t know this round was probably the most physical yet with some long climbs between stages (the downhills get used by Inside Line at the state downhill races) so just making sure you paced yourself was key. Off up the first climb to the first stage, as usual this is where the riders got split up into groups. It was the shortest stage of the day and got everyone focused on what they had to do, some slippery roots kept everyone on their toes. The slalom at the end was also a bit of fun!
No time to smell the flowers, there was racing to be had!
From here the riders got sent on predominately downhill courses; Bowl, Long and even Steep making a welcome return towards the end. A�There were also a few other parts, such as Green Smoothie that weren’t strictly downhill downhill but were great additions to the stages. If you raced elite you alos got the joy of doing another stage (6 instead of 5), which was ‘Pattos Curse’.
A good range of trails kept everyone chuffed.A few scrapes here and there, all part and parcel of the sport.
For the results head over the the GESA Facebook page and you will be able to find them there, for use we weren’t overly bothered with the results. A day on your bike riding with mates means you’re a winner regardless!
Steve Marsh on a different bike from the one we saw at the Eagle round but still going fast!There were plenty of photographers out snapping pics!Again it was great to see the girls out racing (and being the track sweep!)Some really good racing across all categories.There was the opportunity to find some creative lines, finding a second or two here and there.Shelly Flood took the women’s race.Simon Buzacott took the men’s win!
Winners are grinners!
The next round heads to ‘Dazzleland’ at Mount Torrens which is going to be another great event no doubt.
Images: RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
Get more content onA�FacebookA�orA�follow us on Instagram: @downhill247
It doesn’t even look real but Val di Sole (or the Valley of the Sun) is a very picturesque place! It also happens to be home to one of the most brutal race tracks on the planet!
There will be no more world cups until 2016! Seems crazy to write that because it feels like only last week we were racing the first round but it is the truth. Fortunately there is still the world championships to come but before we get ahead of ourselves, Val di Sole (VDS) and what a race it was for the finale. The overall competition for the juniors and the women had already been determined but the men’s competition was still Greg Minnaars to win and Aaron Gwins to lose! Of course there were so many other plots as well, could Loic Bruni snag his first world cup win? Could Troy Brosnan grab the win after crashing in Windham the race prior? Would we yet again see another fresh out of the juniors field rider grab their first elite podium?
Track walk is always interesting, this year there were many new features which meant riders couldn’t just go back to the lines from previous years.This was one of the biggest concerns, moisture… it was always there lurking but never had a big say in how the event turned out.Aptly named…The man getting all the attention!It was good to see Steve Peat back on a bike, his weekend didn’t quite go to plan scoring another injury, at least this one is a lot more minor!
Racing saw an Italian junior, Loris Revelli, step up to the plate and take away the coveted gold medal much to the delight of the home crowd! Andrew Crimmins was the highest placed Aussie in fourth place,he took home second overall a fantastic result!
Junior Men:
1st. Loris Revelli
2nd. Jacob Dickson
3rd. Laurie Greenland
Remy Morton had a promising first junior season, roll on 2016.
In the elite women it was the same story as it has been most of the season, Rachel Atherton took the win! Myriam Nicole showed that she can handle the technical tracks, a good sign before world championships. Third went to current world champion Manon Carpenter.
Tracey Hannah took the last place on the podium in 5th.Manon Carpenter looked to ramp up her title defence ahead of world championships taking 3rd.Myriam Nicole took second.
In the elite men all the attention was on the last few riders as they were the ones who had more to gain than just the race victory! Brook MacDonald was in the hot seat when Greg Minnaar started his run, it wasn’t long before he made an uncharacteristic mistake and sampled the Italian dirt, in the process he awarded the 2015 series to Aaron Gwin. Next up was Lolo aka Loic Bruni the young French man rode well displacing Brook MacDonald from the top spot. Next on course was Aaron Gwin, he rode a smart race and ended up just ahead of Loic’s time. This left fastest qualifier Troy Brosnan on track, he was fastest at split one but a crash/bobble/incident meant he broke his finger but still managed to charge home for third place.
You don’t often see Greg Minnaar crash, especially in a race run.Gee Atherton couldn’t repeat his world championships success here from a few years ago.Fastest qualifier translates to last rider down the hill. We now wait for the 2016 season.The race is won or lost, long before riders cross the finish line.2015 was a break through year for many riders including Tahnee Seagrave.Still no world cup wins for this maestro, hard to believe really!Rachel Atherton showed to be the class act of 2015 in a league of her own.What could have been…. emotion levels were high!Captain America takes his 14th world cup win and 3rd overall series.Aaron Gwin again showed he can handle a bike on a variety of courses to take the win here on a totally different track to the last race in Windham.
That wraps up the 2015 UCI downhill world cup series, what a great year it has A�been. Of course join us in Andorra for the world championships in a few weeks time.
