The race here inA�Norway ran to a different scheduleA�compared to the six previous World Cups.A�With it being it the last race of the season apparently the decision was made to hold the finals on Saturday allowing spectators to party on Saturday. The flip side of this is that crowd numbers were possibly a little less as the locals had to work on Friday!
Elite Men:
1. Steve Smith 3.31.76
2. George Brannigan 3.32.16 + 0.40
3. Greg Minnaar 3.33.90A�+ 2.13
4. Gee Atherton 3.34.05 + 2.29
5. Nick Beer 3.34.90 + 3.13
…
7. Sam Hill 3.36.51 + 4.75
11. Mic Hannah 3.37.41 + 5.64
20. Bryn Atkinson 3.39.06 + 7.30
38. Connor Fearon 3.43.12 + 11.36
47. Mitch Delfs 3.46.50 + 14.73
55. Josh Button 3.48.25 + 16.49
Next to wrap up the race and the series for 2012 we will bring you Connor Fearon’s Inside Info from the race, stay tuned.
Today was the first day of practice here at Hafjell and it was a long day with an open practice session in the morning before the top 80 men/top 20 women had their own practice session. It was a fun day on the course though, the general consensus from the riders is that the track is a whole lot of fun and a good race track to boot!
Lets take a run through today’s proceedings;
That wraps up the first day of practice, tomorrow the riders have another practice session followed by qualifying.
The final World Cup is upon us, Hafjell Norway gets the honours of closing out season 2012. The overall men’s series may be decided but there will still be lots of action!
We hit up a track walk with Connor Fearon, Mitch Delfs, Luke Strobel and Kyle Sangers, plus a few other riders here and there, so lets check out the track;
Practice starts tomorrow with most riders pretty keen toget out on the track.A�The race is actually on Saturday, we will keep you covered all week long!
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.
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?
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!