Old faithful Willunga… It seems like we are reporting on a downhill race here every second month or so! We aren’t but fortunately everyone seems to like it. We headed about an hour south of Adelaide for round 3 of the South Australian state series and were met with a fun course and reasonably good weather.
Ah those views! Not that the riders got to take them in as they were riding, at least the local residents could!There is always a good turn out for the local races and riders seem to enjoy themselves whatever they are riding!
The track this round had a few slight changes, mainly in the way that it was bunted. Feedback from riders was that initially the bunting changes weren’t favoured but after a few runs and riders had things dialled then it was actually quite fun!
You can actually see the majority of the track from near the bottom as it winds up the hill.Sorry Steve but the puppy appears to be more popular!The pits were loaded with boys and there toys! (there were some females racing too which was great to see!)
In regards to racing, there were a few crashes but the main challenge for riders seemed to be punctures! This definitely resonated true through the elite men’s class with Matt Taylor, Simon Buzacott, Cam Ryan and Ngari Jenkins all getting final run flats!A�That’s part of racing though… The Elite Men’s winner, Curtis Dowdell, kept his good form up and it looks like he will A�be making a serious charge for the overall title. All the results from the weekend can be found here;A�http://www.insideline.com.au/index.php/results/2015-race-results/race-3-willunga-2015
Crashes and flats were the order of the weekend!Things were serious in the pits…. at least by the looks of this photo they were!Out on track tucking was the name of the game for the lower half of the course.The middle section of the course was where the drifting was to be had…… And the top part of the course was the rocky sections!It really was quite wild watching riders through the middle sections.Ian ‘Buffalo’ Jones snagged second the weekend after recently stepping up to the 650B world.Sion Buzacott throws some horns.607 on the plate, 7 on the gate…It almost rained, a few sprinkles came down after finals fortunately that was the extent of the rain!Conor Clancy comes into the final arena at warp speed!The camber and wide open turns near the top had people going sideways!Elite men’s winner Curtis Dowdell charging the rocks.Those views!The Adelaide Independent Racing guys run a type ship and lift the profile of the sport here in South Australia.Andy Murnane has been racing for what seems forever, he still has speed though!Considering there has been a bit of rain recently the track was quite dusty in sections!Just you and your bike…Lurking in the trees.Skills!Keeping it low for the dough…Race weekends seem to blur past sometimes.A few changes in the track kept riders on their toes.The Elite Men’s podium.These races are always good for riding with your mates.
After the racing most people went home for round 2, the World Cup in Austria. Our coverage from that race will be up soon! Meanwhile we will have some more photos from Willunga to show you so check back soon.
Images: Downhill247 and RFPhotographics (FacebookA�hereA�or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
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Coming off a devastating result at the first World Cup at Lourdes I really wanted to get a good result in Fort William. In the past I’ve done pretty well there and last year I was inside the top 15. Everyone who follows the world cups knows that Fort William is the roughest and longest track of the year. It has technical woods, flat out rocky sections and the infamous highway at the bottom where you have to pedal the last 45 seconds of the track. By the end your physically exhausted that’s for sure. This year there was a new woods section that had no shortage of slippery roots.The worst part about this race was the terrible weather. It rained non stop and was insanely windy. Especially the top half which is completely exposed as there’s no trees what so ever .
The top half of the track saw riders battling headwinds before having to use even more energy on the lower parts negotiating the ‘highway’ section.
Practice and Qualifying was average for me. With the high winds it was hard to feel good on the bike. The whole top half felt really slow battling a head wind the whole way and also added to the exhaustion because sections of the track you could usually roll with quite some pace everyone had to be pedalling hard to maintain speed. Due to the high winds qualifying and practice was cancelled on Saturday. This meant that qualifying and racing would be held on Sunday, starting at 6:15am!
Sunday was a big day for everyone with the pits coming alive at about 5am. The weather didn’t seem much better although the rain had died out a bit the wind was still terrible. My practice runs where better on race day. I kept changing springs on my shock and never got comfortable on the Friday but I felt like I had it right finally. Most people only got to do one practice run in the morning due to the changed schedule. Since I was out of the top 20 I wanted to have a smooth run to guarantee me a spot in the finals. I must have hit something pretty hard because I broke about 8 spokes in my rear wheel about a minute from the finish. I could feel the wheel slapping both sides of my frame so cruised it to the finish to avoid the wheel collapsing. I still qualified 25th which came to a surprise. Still disappointed because if I hadn’t broken the wheel I could’ve got points for qualifying in the top 20.
My race run started out great I was riding all my lines fast and confident. My improved fitness was also helping me in the more technical sections because I wasn’t as fatigued as the last few years. I noticed my front tyre starting to go flat about halfway and I was devastated. It held enough air to ride but slowed me down significantly and was completely flat by the last section of the track.
Footout, Connor can swap between flats and clips as needed, handy! Look closely at that front tyre and see if you can spot an issue…
I finished 34th still which means I at least got a few points. The last two races have been really disappointing for me because I know I had potential to do really well at them. The next race is Leogang which I’ve done great at in the past so I’m really hoping i’ll have a clean race there!
Thanks to everyone that helps me race- Kona bikes factory team, Fox head, fast twitch training centre Adelaide, Yakima rack, HT components
Follow Connor on Instagram @connorahoyhoy and we will check back with him after Leogang this weekend.
Images: Isac Paddock follow on Instagram @_paddock
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We just witnessed a history making day in more than one way among the testing conditions of the Scottish highlands. Rewinding A�a day to Saturday and 60kmph plus winds meant there was no practice or qualifying, the weather meaning the organisers would have to run it before the race Sunday morning.
Saturday saw a lot of ‘down time’ with not much to do except wait for Mother Nature to come to the party.Troy Brosnan found something to smile about!This is what the riders had to face, not to mention everyone else at the event. It would be the downfall (no pun intended) of many.A combined practice/qualifying/race day was draining for everyone. Riders had to be smart and learn their lines with minimal effort as they still had to qualify and race (if they made the cut).
So once qualifying was done there was little time for the riders (and mechanics) to be ready for racing, the crowd had started to pour in. As always there was a huge turn out of passionate fans, not fussed by the weather.
Fort William always draws a big crowd, whether that is at the venue or watching the live stream online.There was entertainment on hand for the crowd when there was breaks in the racing over the weekend.
Racing kicked off under better conditions and first on course were the junior riders, always a hotly contested category. As usual crashes were a feature in the final results. The win was taken by Martin Maes who is proving to be a force to be reckoned with in both enduro and downhill, he just edged out local and 2014 medal winner at the world championships’ Laurie Greenland (who had the crowd cheering him home) and Alex Trillo finished third. A tougher day for the Aussies, Andrew Crimmins the highest placed finisher in 9th, Remy Morton 11th, Max Warshawsky 14th and Jackson Frew 21st.
Junior Men Finals.
Next on course were the female riders, with both Tegan Molloy and Tracey Hannah representing for Australia hopes for a strong showing were high. In the end a solid result with Tegan in 11th and Tracey finishing 7th after a crash mid run. It was almost a British white wash on the podium with 4 out of the 5 places going to locals. 4X rider Katy Curd showed she can handle any sort of bike and took home 5th place, Manon Carpenter had a huge over the bars experience but still managed to grab 4th place, Emmeline Ragot continued her strong form after winning round 1 and took 3rd, second place went to the very pink Tahnee Seagrave in her best world cup result to date and the winner was Rachel Atherton who noticeably looked the fastest and smoothest of all the ladies.
Women Finals.The pink worked for Tahnee Seagrave who took her best result to date in 2nd place.There was no stopping Rachel Atherton who once again showed her excellent bike handling skills to take the win.Four out of five positions went to British riders.
Heading on to the men and it really felt like this race was wide open, a lack of practice and the track conditions were sure to ensure that anyone could win! We saw Stevie Smith back after a horrendous run of injuries, Sam Hill was absent and is rider who has won here before. After qualifying a few ‘lesser’ known riders such as Mike Jones showed they were up to speed and in the mix.
Men’s finals and the crowd was pumped and the sun shining.
George Brannigan took the hot seat early and enjoyed it for a while, Wyn Masters and Bernard Kerr had good results in 11th and 14th respectively. Mike Jones couldn’t back up his second place qualifier and finished just outside of the top 10 in 12th.
Wyn Masters best world cup result to date in 11th place.Riders were trying not to use too much energy at the top of the course, with the race won or lost in the middle woods.Mud on the riders kit was a sure way to tell they had an issue in their run.
Aaron Gwin came down on a stormer and went ahead by almost 7 seconds, everyone was questioning whether he had done enough to win his second race in a row this season. When Gee Atherton came down with a sloppy run but was only a few seconds off Gwin it looked as though his time may be beaten, Greg Minnaar came down and took the hot seat by over a second. Now with only a few riders left on course it looked as if it would require a Troy Brosnan like effort (he is the only rider to win his maiden world cup at this course). Speaking of Troy he had a bobble in the woods and finished 6th just off the podium. Last man on the hill Loic Bruni couldn’t put a run together to claim the victory finishing 7th, this left Greg Minnaar to take his 17th world cup victory, an all time record equal with team mate Steve Peat. Aaron Gwin finished second and takes the overall lead, Marcelo Gutierrez took his best ever result with third and is the first Columbian to step onto a world cup podium. Gee Atherton ended up finishing 4th with a sore wrist he has been nursing for a while now. Rounding out 5th was Sam Blenkinsop.
Men FinalsDropping in to the final area saw riders doing 60kmph plusTaylor Vernon, a local with high hopes on his shoulders.Unfortunately Josh Bryceland didn’t figure in the finals as he missed out on qualification.Fastest qualifier, Loic Bruni, finished seventh. You feel a win is going to come soon for the Frenchman.Second place for the American Dream, Aaron Gwin.A smiling Greg Minnaar took the victory, after damaging a tendon at Crankworx Rotorua it was a slow start to the season for Greg at round 1.Anyone that questioned Greg’s speed lately has been emphatically shown he still has it. 17 World Cup wins ensures his status as a great is assured.Who picked this result?
A rather different race weekend but run and won! Next weekend the circus heads to Austria for round 3.
Images: Isac Paddock follow on Instagram @_paddock
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Welcome to sunny Fort William! At least Tahnee Seagrave is bright as there wasn’t much else that was.
Welcome to Scotland, Fort William has been a fixture on the calendar for years now… in fact only Mont Sainte Anne has hosted more World Cups. If you have been paying attention to the lead up of this race you’ll have noticed that there have been some local races being held on the course . Unfortunately they have been plagued by bad weather and it seems as of this weekend is going to be the same… conditions were horrible at best. The track has been beat up by years of abuse and now the rain has come through and washed out what was left of the soil around the rocks and created some real bog holes in other places.
Troy Brosnan raced a local race here just a few weeks ago, is he keen to back up last years win here?! You bet he is!Brook MacDonald sending it in a rare moment of clarity where it wasn’t raining or fogged out!Gee Atherton had a solid crash during practice, he is okay. Josh Bryceland was another rider who said hello to a tree mid run, the rat will be back on it no worries!
The big question hovering over everyone’s head at the moment is whether Saturday practice will go ahead at all…. with the weather forecast questionable at best the gondola uplift may be shut down and practice/qualifying pushed back. Time will tell and this could have a big effect on the outcome of the race.
We don’t know how Joe Smith had the time/skill to go styling this jump we’d be struggling to even jump it in these conditions!Jacob Dickson laying it over towards the higher end of the track where it is still in the open.Josh ‘The Rat’ Bryceland had a dig during practice and winded himself but he’s tough and will be looking to grab a win here this weekend.
Check back soon to hopefully see practice/qualifying images and results but that is really up to Mother Nature.
Images: Isac Paddock follow on Instagram @_paddock
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Connor Fearon and his Kona Operator are going to be heading off to the Fort William World Cup very soon.
Connor Fearon has been with Kona Bicycles for many years now and over that time he has had some good looking and not to mention fast bikes! What you are looking at here is his current World Cup bike, details are scarce, often what you see riders on are prototype bikes and the technology filters down to the production models. Whilst the most obvious difference between this bike and the publicly available Operator is the 650B wheels we believe this bike won’t be what is released to the public.
We snapped some pictures of the bike at a recent South Australian state race.
Flat pedals, Connor will ride flats or clips depending on the situation.Titanium rear spring is pretty standard in the effort to lose weight.
A 7 speed set up at the rear.650B rolling equipment.These get plenty of use, not because Connor is a grandpa but because of the speed he rides they are required!Connor and Stevie Smith (his signature bars are Connor’s pick) are friends, often riding together at World Cups.Man and machine.
That was a brief look at Connor Fearon’s A�Kona Operator, next time we see it in action will be the Fort William world cup.
Images: A big thanks toA�www.kaneophoto.com.auA�/Instagram @kaneophotoA�andA�RFPhotographics (Facebook here or follow on Instagram @rfphotographics).
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