World Cup number 1 and did thatA�turn outA�like you expected? We are betting there are a lot of people who were expecting a different podium to what we saw. Lets start with the juniors though, unfortunately they aren’t covered by the online footage so the live timing provided by the UCI is the next best thing. In the female class Tegan Molloy finishedA�21st (3rd in junior – an awesome result for her first World Cup) and Danielle Beecroft snapped her chain within the first 5 seconds of the track, she rolled down to finish 24th. A�We are sure in next weeks raceA�at Val di Sole we will see them climb higher up the rankings.
With Nathan Rennie and Jared Rando providing their years of wisdom and experience to the team we knew they could really deliver. In the end Dean Lucas grabbed a podium position in 3rd,A�Peter Knott 12th, Aiden Varley 13th, Luke Ellison 24th, Thomas Crimmins 29th and Brent Smith DNF. There were a few issues for some of the guys, Luke and Thomas crashed in their runs knocking them down the time sheet.
Next up and we move onto Elite…
Tracey Hannah was our sole entrant in the elite female class, her pre-season was less than ideal but she will improve no doubt. Check out the helmet cam run of one ofA�her practiceA�runs here. In the end Rachel Atherton broke her voodoo at her home race by taking the win by 10 seconds! Until this year Rachel had six 2nd place finishes at Fort William… Little did we know how her victory would set the scene for the elite men.
Still under glorious conditions the elite men kicked off, Rhys Atkinson was one of the first riders on course but had a “rubbish run” but with the crazy crowd and all the Aussies around was still happy and looking forward to next weekends race in Italy. Despite having a rough time during practice with crashes on the rough track Jack Moir finished 55th, no doubt he will climb the rankings as the season goes on. Bryn Atkinson and Jared Graves finished 36th and 37th respectively, we have no doubt Bryn wants to climb into the top 20 to get one of the coveted protected positions. Jared Graves just continues to impress with his flexibility between four cross, BMX, enduro, downhill and whatever else he chooses to do!
With a strong qualifying result Connor Fearon openly admitted he was hunting a top 20, his run was good and he went into the hot seat. In the end he finished 21st, his best World Cup result to date, despite not getting the top 20 he was looking for it is a positive sign for the rest of the season. As always we will be checking in with Connor for his Inside Info on the race. One position in front of Connor was Aaron Gwin, like an elephant in the room no one really knows what is going on with Aaron, he never looked dangerous all weekend. However, after dominating last season no one would have put him outside the top 5 let alone the top 10! It will be interesting to see what happens in Val di Sole as he destroyed the field by over 5 seconds there last year. Is it his new team? Was his injured hand re-injured? Who knows… One position in front of Aaron was Mitch Delfs, a top 20 is an awesome start for Mitch and we hope this form continues all year.
It was good to see Troy Brosnan back and racing at the highest level after a horror season last year. A highly respectable 12th shows TB is back in the game. Sam Hill came down and booted Greg Minnaar out of the hot seat by over a second. It was good to see Sam Hill back on fire, he held out manyA�a rider and was looking down the barrel atA� a top 5 finish in the end he finished 6th 2.13 seconds behind the winner.
One position ahead of Sam was Mic Hannah, just under 2 seconds shy of the victory. Up until now Brook MacDonald was holding the hot seat and looking comfortable, Stevie Smith nor fellow Kiwi Sam Blenkinsop couldn’t push the bulldog and hisA�flat pedals out.A�After her sister won early in the day Gee Atherton put a stormer of a run in to relegate Brook down one spot, with one rider left, Danny Hart, it was going to be a home town victory of sorts but who? In the end Danny couldn’t knock off Gee and the Athertons took out the double.
We can’t help but think this year will mark the changing of the guard, last year the big three, Gwin, Minnaar and Atherton seemed untouchable but already we have seen the new school of Smith, MacDonald and Hannah come out and make their mark. We will find out soon as the next round continues next week in Italy and as always we will bring you all the action.
Images: Phunkt