Cairns was one of the best races for some time and so we thought we would dedicate some more screen time to it, have a look at these pictures and reminisce on a great event, enjoy:
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We are Australian so we might be a little biased but the Cairns world cup was one of the best we have witnessed in some time! There were some truly amazing highs (as well as a few lows – after all that is racing), the day kicked off with a short practice session in the morning before the crowd started filing through the gates and lining the course.
The juniors kicked off proceedings and there was high expectations with a large number of riders all keen to impress at their home race. In the end impress they did with 4 out of the top 5 spots going to Australians. In 5th was Josh Clark, 4th was Jackson Frew, 3rd was Harry Bush and 2nd was Remy Morton. The win went to Matt Walker from Great Britain.
Next up were the senior females and it was evident who the crowd was cheering for, the home town Hannah! In this case Tracey, she put down a stomping run and finished second, it was Rachel Atherton that took the win but boy was the crowd lapping Tracey up!
At 2pm it was time for the men to start their race runs, 80 riders, one winner! Here are some observations from the afternoon;A�Stevie Smith got a flat front tyre, Greg Minnaar commented he didn’t have any issues with his run but still had a result that wasn’t up to his standards, much the same for Gee Atherton and Sam Hill was battling an illness in the week leading up to the race finishing 28th.
Without doubt one of the highlights of the weekend for us was the result of one man – Josh Button – after having stepped away from racing World Cups since 2012 Josh has been keeping things low key, until Cairns that was! He put in a stomping run to claim the hot seat from Graeme Mudd and he was sitting there for a very long time…At first we were hoping he wouldn’t get knocked out of the top 20, then the top 15 before finally the top 10… then we began to dream, a podium?! We all knew JB had the skills, then sure enough there were 4 riders left and Josh was in range. In the end he did claim one – 5th place, JB you’ve done it again!
There were still 4 riders to go, Loic Bruni was on the hot seat with AAron Gwin unable to better his time, there were just 2 riders left, both Australian. Sik Mik Hannah knows Cairns like the back of his hand having grown up here, with sister Tracey coming close in the women’s everyone was hoping mic could finish one step higher. He put in a cracking run but ended up in second place. This left Troy Brosnan as the last rider on course, the whole way down the times were so close, it looked like he might have done it just before he crossed the line where the timing board showed he was just 0.493 seconds down! In the process this handed Loic his first ever world cup win.
We have a smorgasbord of images to show you guys from the week so check back for those soon.
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With the sun shining and the birds chirping (they were mimicking the course marshal’s whistles’) today was qualifying day and what A�a day it was. The track had some noticeable lines starting to appear down the course for riders to take but the rock garden near the top was still catching people out, much like the whoops mid way down.
We have listed the top results in class below as well as some shots from the day, enjoy:
Junior Men:
1. Matt Walker
2. Harry Bush
3. Remy Morton
Senior Women:
1. Rachel Atherton
2. Manon Carpenter
3. A�Tracey Hannah
Senior Men:
1. Troy Brosnan
2. Mik Hannah
3. Aaron Gwin
Tomorrow is the big day, check back for our finals report soon.
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Photos: Jason Stevens Photography and stock images. Facebook:A�www.facebook.com/jasonstevensphotographyA�or follow @jasonstevensphotography on Instagram
Here we are, Cairns in far North Queensland, for the second round of the UCI World Cup series. Everyone remembers 2014 and the mud bath that was… After a dry track walk everyone was positive. Unfortunately there was some rain that fell during the day that made the rocks super slippery. The track itself hasn’t changed much from last time we were here but the forecast is looking positive for a drier race.
There were a few crashes over the day that meant practiced was put on hold and time on the bike was shorter than expected but let’s look at the action.
Check back for qualifying tomorrow!
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Racing is back and more specifically the highest form of racing in our sport – World Cups. It was Lourdes, France that played host to round one just as it did last year. Being the first round meant that we were still adjusting to all the team reshuffles that have occurred during the off season.
Overall the track itself was similar to what we have seen in the past but the weather this year really made the event interesting. Large amounts of rain made the track very slippery – during practice and qualifying it seemed as if there were more people crashing during their runs then those staying upright! By the finals, for the senior men anyway, most of the moisture had disappeared meaning their first run on a dry track was the run that counted!
The juniors is always an interesting race, especially at the start of the season, you never know who is going to come up on top. It was Finn Illes who was victorious, no doubt we will see more of Finn this year but there are plenty of other fast juniors, including Aussies who will be in the mix.
The crowd in Lourdes was just crazy, even over the live feed you could hear them let a lone track side. This amped things up even more come finals.
Some random musings we noticed were; a few fast (relatively unknown) Frenchman putting in flyers to finish strongly, mainly Flo Payet in 12th and Amaury Pierron in 5th! Riders who took a chance either crashed or got rewarded with a strong finish.
The next round sees riders heading down under to Cairns and boy are we excited about this!
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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