Welcome to Mont St. Anne on the perfect race day, clear skies, the sun is shining, the excitement is building and the course dried off over night! We had an interesting qualification yesterday putting some new names at the top of the charts, not nessacerily new to the sport, just fresh as opposed to the likes of Gwin and Minaar. Would this mean another fresh winner for this world cup season? We will find out as the day progresses. As the track opened for practice riders flowed down slowly, making final inspections of lines they had chosen the day before, ensuring they were still useable, once decided there was a full scale attack on the course with a few high speed runs made and then it was time to relax and wait for the racing to begin. With the A practice drawing to an end many riders pushed hard trying their chosen lines and possibly to gain seconds with some larger lines, many were caught out on the last rock garden. There were plenty of crashes just prior to practice closing, most notable was Greg Minnaar taking a tumble and looking a little worse for wear, however he walked away and was sore but fine for racing.

Tracey Hannah drops in over the rocks

As racing begun the junior men were first, with our own Ben Hill coming down first. as more riders came down the times fell, with Jack Iles putting in a super run to claim the hot seat and remain there until the very last rider Luca Shaw. As Luca appeared over the drop it was going to be close, as he crossed the line he claimed the top spot again and finished off the racing for the junior men.

With the men complete it was time for the elite women and they brought some speed from the get go, however as the riders began to come down there were some big gaps that formed as the quicker girls stepped it up and put a good gap into the previous racers. Rachel Atherton put a huge gap of over 12 seconds into the field which seemed almost un-beatable, and as Manon came down the first split indicated this may be true, however by the second split Manon had drawn the gap in to be negligible. Manon crossed the line on top and continued to stamp her domination in the Elite Women category.

This left only the Elite Men to come down the hill. And come down they did! there was a fast pace set from the start with times coming in much quicker than qualifying. The times fall consistently with no large gaps being formed, luckily there didn’t seem to be a repeat of mechanical issues through the field with only a couple of punctures. As we entered the top 20 the times dropped again and the speed stepped up, Sam Belenkinsop stepped things up with a great run which looked as if it may be hard to beat, but next thing Troy Brosnan was posting past splits and crossed the line on top of Sam. Danny Hart put in another fast paced run, and we feel that he is only a few races away from claiming a victory. Sam Hill came down with more pace than we have seen in a long time, looking like the Sam of old and crossing the line on top with a huge smile on his face. This left just Josh Bryceland to try and claim the win, could he go back to back or would we have another fresh face on the top of the podium. As Josh made his way down the track everyone was holding their breathe, as he made a few small mistakes it appeared as if Sam had it in the bag, the splits were still close though, and the race wasn’t run until Josh crossed the line. As Josh appeared over the drop at the finish line we could see it would be very close! The clock stopped and Sam Hill had taken the win today! Hats flew in the air and a very happy Nigel Page hugged his team rider.

The finals results for the day were

Junior Men
1. Luca Shaw
2. Jack Iles
3. Loris Vergier

Elite Women
1. Manon Carpenter
2. Rachel Atherton
3. Emiline Ragot
4. Tahnee Seagrave
5. Tracey Hannah

Elite Men
1. Sam Hill
2. Josh Bryceland
3. Danny Hart
4. Troy Brosnan
5. Sam Blenkinsop

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

Welcome to Mont. St Anne for day two of racing, today we woe up to a different hill with clear blue skies and warm temperatures. While the day was clear last nights rain had washed away a lot of loose dirt and revealed some new rocks and left many little rocks on the edges and in water ruts all over the track, some of yesterdays ruts had gotten even deeper with the water running through them and the moisture was still in the ground leaving parts of the track very soft and slow. As the first riders starting coming down for practice the soft parts of the track were torn up and started to form new ruts. however by mid way through practice the track was drying out to the point where the open areas of the track that saw sunlight most of the morning were so dry dust was forming.

With the B group practice winding up and the A group practice beginning we saw many of the top pros coming out onto the track at top speed, almost putting together a qualifying run, much more confident on the dry track. Due to the clear weather we saw many more riders on track much more regularly. however we did look up and notice that the clouds were starting to roll in, woudl this mean rain for race runs or later on in the day? only time would tell!

Practice wound up and the Junior Men started rolling down the hill to qualify. Luca Shaw came down the hill first and looked on pace, he finished with a fast time and was not beaten the entire qualifying, finishing on top and scoring the last run of the Juniors tomorrow. Andrew Crimmins was also on a flier, impressing even the season world cup photographers like Sven Martin. Of the Aussie Juniors Andrew Crimmins, Ben Hill, Ben Dengate and Matthew McCorkell found themselves in the top 30 and ready for racing tomorrow.

As the women came down the hill we noted Manon Carpenters blistering pace, continuing her dominating season, we also saw that Rachel Atherton also seemed to be quite timid through teh rocks, but still wound up with a good time. Manon Carpenter ended up on the top of the board, continuing her amazing season this year.

Troy Brosnan came down first for the men, holding onto his top spot, though the clouds were low over us we didn’t receive much rain, however we heard report that the top of the hill was saturated with heavy rain. One thing to note was teh astounding amount of flat tires seen during qualifying, at least half the field finished at the bottom line with a flat tire. By the end of Qualifying Josh Bryceland stood at the top of the leader baord, followed by Troy Brosnan and the Andrew Neethling. How will tomorrow pan out? Will Ratboy break the trend and have a back to back win or will we see another new winner for this world cup season? Only time will tell! We hope you join us for all tomorrow action, on the hill or behind the screen! See you all race day!

Tune back for finals!

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

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