Mont Sainte Anne – World Championships

The biggest race of the year, the one everyone wants to win, it can only be World Championships…. This year the honour fell to Mont Sainte Anne, the Canadian ‘ski’ resort in Quebec. Continue reading “Mont Sainte Anne – World Championships” →

November 15, 2019

Mont Sainte Anne – Day 2 – Qualifying

Thank you! Mother Nature listened and today was the polar opposite of yesterday, weather wise… blue sky and sunshine – all around! Qualifying was the name of the game, of course before that there was practice to be had. Continue reading “Mont Sainte Anne – Day 2 – Qualifying” →

August 11, 2018

Mont Sainte Anne – Day 1 – Practice

We landed in Canada today, all primed for the race – first we had a bit of a drive to get to the track, as we got closer, the clouds got greyer and greyer…. then came the rain! It really came down – as the French would say ‘merde’, we will let you google that (we are in French part of Canada after all!).

Continue reading “Mont Sainte Anne – Day 1 – Practice” →

August 10, 2018

Mont Sainte Anne World Cup

Sam Hill has won here numerous times, including the world championships here in 2010, not the same results for him this weekend though!

Self Balancing Scooter
Self Balancing Scooter Sale

Loic Bruni was back for this race after injury and whilst stating he was using it to get back up to speed 3rd in the finals show he must be pretty close back to 100%.[/caption]

With dry temperatures there was a lot of dust about, a storm did come through over night and there was a decent amount of rain with it but the track just absorbed it up. Qualifying saw the top 4 senior men match the world cup standings! 1. Gwin 2. Hart 3. Brosnan 4. Minnaar but with every race it is always the finals that matter.

After seeding first Jackson Frew finished 11th in junior men with the rest of the Australians putting in varied results. In the womens’ race we were ecstatic to see Tegan Molloy sneak into the top 10 (in 10th) and Tracey Hannah was second! It was Rachel Atherton who took the win and with it the overall series. Senior men’s finals saw Loic Bruni take the hot seat early, his time stood for a long time, what was obvious was that the length of the track meant that there were some large gaps between places. Loic would eventually go onto finish 3rd, with the top four left it looked like Luca Shaw might grab his maiden podium. Greg Minnaar couldn’t take the hot seat and with it guaranteed Luca a podium.

Luca Shaw scoring his first podium in 5th place.

Troy Brosnan came down and couldn’t best Loic who was still in the hot seat, next was Danny Hart and you could visibly see him pushing the boundaries of his tyres, drifting corners. He came through and the timing board was green! One rider left, fastest qualifer, Aaron Gwin, watching the splits it was close but in the end Danny Hart took his second consecutive world cup and denied Aaron Gwin the chance to take the overall series in Canada.

Troy Brosnan finished 4th keeping up his consistency.

Danny Hart dropping into the finish arena and with it taking his second career win, the confidence must be high after winning his first last round in Lenzerhide!

The overall series is still alive with one round to go!

With one round to go the men’s series is still alive! Tune back soon.

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August 7, 2016

World Cup 5 a�� Mont Sainte Anne a�� Finals

Wow what a great race! So many amazing performances. Just one facet of the race was the juniors on hand to hone their race skills before the world championships in Andorra.

You couldn’t have picked a more exciting race to celebrate the 150th UCI downhill world cup and the 25th year that Mont Sainte Anne have held a world cup/championships. There was plenty of action before finals with qualifying throwing up a few surprises of its own, Aaron Gwin was a DNF as he crashed in the first corner, Danny Hart and Marcelo Gutierrez were up at the pointy end of the field which was headed by Troy Brosnan. With rain falling during qualifying it was with baited breath everyone went to sleep. Race day dawned and it looked like we might have a clear day ahead of us, only time would tell.

Racing came around and it looked like the rain was going to hold off... — Racing came around and it looked like the rain was going to hold off…

There were a few crashes in the last practice session before racing, some more severe than others. Unfortunately it looks like Emmeline Ragot will miss out on world championships after breaking multiple bones in her leg and arm, healing vibes.

Getting into racing and the aforementioned juniors took to the track first, Remy Morton went into a tree with his front wheel but was still upbeat, Harry Bush finished 26th, Max Warshawsky came 12th, Jackson Frew 11th and Joel Willis was in 10th finishing the trifecta of Aussie results next to each other! Andrew Crimmins was the highest placed finisher with 3rd place as he battles for the overall junior title.

1. Laurie GREENLAND
2. Alex MARIN TRILLO A�+6.663
3. Andrew CRIMMINS +7.528

Remy Morton had an unfortunate excursion into a tree! A taco was his payment for doing so (wheel that is!).

Next up were the women and you have to say that Rachel Atherton is the lady to beat at the moment, the other riders gave it a real shake but Rachel went on to claim her 24th world cup victory. Unfortunately for Tracey Hannah she had an excursion into the ground during her race run and Tegan Molloy matched her number plate finishing 14th.

1. Rachel ATHERTON
2. Manon CARPENTER +3.417
3. Myriam NICOLE +3.617

The overall is now firmly in Rachel Atherton's grasp, solid riding by all the girls though means it is anything but guaranteed. — The overall is now firmly in Rachel Atherton’s grasp, solid riding by all the girls though means it is anything but guaranteed.

Moving onto the men’s race and there was drama, action and some amazing riding. For a track that was nearly 3 kilometres long the top times were extremely close. The rain came and went for the men’s final but in reality it didn’t noticeably change the results as it never came down hard enough to cause issues. A few notes; unfortunately for the locals Stevie Smith couldn’t repeat his victory of a few years ago, unorthodoxly he crashed in the same place as his qualifying crash, washing out on a steep corner. Fortunately Mark Wallace gave the locals something to cheer about in 6th, his team mate Dean Lucas racked up another top 20 finish in 18th. Connor Fearon went over the bars in one of the gnarly rock sections on course and finished way lower down the time sheet then he had hoped. We also saw the return of Mic Hannah to world cup racing, regaining confidence before world championships. It was also Sam Hills second world cup since returning from injury, he finished a handy 20th.

It was great to see Mic Hannah back from injury and racing again.

Aaron Gwin was on the hot seat after an early run when ironically Loic Bruni knocked him off with a bike that had its chain wrapped around the cranks thanks to a big impact further up the course. Everyone was wondering could it finally be Loic’s turn?! It would seem his tough luck of getting podiums but not winning (would anyone really complain about that though?! We know Loic isn’t) continues after getting knocked down right towards the end of the day. It was Josh Bryceland that did it, with a few riders left to go it was only Troy Brosnan who troubled Josh but in the end Josh held on by 0.2 of a second over Loic, just 0.025 seconds behind Loic was Troy! What a crazy time gap after 4.5 minutes of racing! Truly nail biting stuff.

1. Josh BRYCELAND 4.22.156
2. Loic BRUNI +0.200
3. Troy BROSNAN +0.225

Not the result Connor Fearon was looking for after his recent podium, it is just a matter of time and it won't be long! — Not the result Connor Fearon was looking for after his recent podium, it is just a matter of time and it won’t be long!

Danny Hart got wild off the drop into the final straight, almost leaving the course and collecting some spectators!

Troy Brosnan lurching for any time he can get!

So close, Troy knew world cup win number 2 was so close but there are more opportunities around the corner, next weekend in fact as we head to Windham.

Loic Bruni again just missed his first world cup victory,maybe his chain issue cost him? Then again maybe it helped him by keeping smooth when he was tired towards the botom?

The Rat is back! Josh Bryceland said his run wasn't perfect but at MSA it doesn't have to be for the win, it just needs to be the best. — The Rat is back! Josh Bryceland said his run wasn’t perfect but at MSA it doesn’t have to be for the win, it just needs to be the best.

Next weekend we head south into the US of A for the Windham world cup, tune in then.

Images: Zach Faulkner (Instagram: @zachfaulkner)

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August 3, 2015

World Cup Round 5, Mont St. Anne – Practice

Rachel Atherton was at top speed from run no.1

Today we woke up to an awesome day, with almost clear skies and the promise of a great day of riding. The first session of practice got underway and straight out of the gate there was plenty of speed, with many of the veterans of the sport like Rachel Atherton hitting top speed in plenty of sections first run. The new and loose sections of track started forming ruts even after only a few riders had passed over them. There were plenty of lines being tried early on, but by the end of practice everyone had their lines down and there were only a couple of distinct lines being taken.

Ben Hill, one of the Aussie juniors throwing in some style

As elite men started rolling down for their practice the hill seemed to be deserted with only a few riders coming down. Then the rain began and this diminished almost all riders, with only a couple coming down every few minutes. the slippery conditions caught a few riders out, especially in the open sections where the track became slick and muddy, The most notable crash we saw was Gee Atherton who came off and snapped his stem clean off, he walked away from the incident but was a little worse for wear.

We dont have much more to say about today, so we will leave you with a gallery of todays undetakings.