Last minute practice for riders before finals! Check out the drop to the finish line, that’s steep!
Wow who picked that?! World Cup number three delivered a huge range of highs and lows, a classic race and one that really stood out. Lets rewind a little to Sunday morning, the weather A�was inclement and people were still unsure what would happen with it later in the day, as it turned out conditions were near perfect.
Sunnies on! Bryn Atkinson was just a spectator – which as a racer is never the best but with an injury at Val di Sole he was sub par in the health department and at this level being less than 100% means you might not be in the big show come Sunday.
It was the juniors who kicked proceedings off, a shame that there were no Australian Junior females present and only a few males but such are the demands of racing a whole season it is just not viable.
Tahnee Seagrave taking the Junior Female win and sporting the World Cup leaders jersey as she does so.Junior Men’s winner – Michael Jones kept it upright which was half the battle for the junior riders, some stacking literally insight of the line…Loris Vergier may have been the unlucky junior to crash literally within an arms length of the finish beam… Well yes it was him, devastating for him considering he was second by less than half a second!Our juniors still did us proud, Luke Ellison pulled a strong 7th place and after catching two other riders Dean Lucas finished 9th. Dean retains the overall leaders jersey heading into round 4.
The Elite Men put on one heck of a show, there were a few moments that were not nice to see, the most notably Cam Cole crashing hard and having to be airlifted out. Cam is a nice guy, with time for everyone and has had a bad run of luck with injuries over the past few seasons, we wish him all the best! Mic Hannah scored a flat up on course and as he said the realisation that your tyre is deflating when you are giving it everything is never nice! Big news of course is that Cedric Gracia chose his home World Cup to retire, a true legend but one we will still be seeing more of in the future outside of the World Cup circuit.
A bit of style off the end of what must be one of the best quality construction pieces in a World Cup for some time!Yeah David! 58th for David McMillan against the best racers in the world is pretty awesome for a privateer giving it a real go!Unstoppable! Rachel Atherton was really pushed by Manon Carpenter but still took the win, three from three – can anyone stop her?!Aaron Gwin finished 10th on his bigger bike but after the domination he has shown in the past two season that is a low result by his standards – crazy a top ten at a World Cup is a low result but it shows the pressure these guys are under.Another threat at any race, in any condition, on any track – Greg Minnaar, one spot off the podium in 6th place.34th for Connor Fearon, a strong result but the weekend didn’t quite go to plan for him, wait for his Inside Info where he will give you more insight to his race.The crowd were crazy! So were the media – in their own special way, it is a huge mission to bring you guys the coverage we do believe us!So close! Last rider down and the rider many picked to take the win! Sam Hill missed out just, 3rd place but steadily climbing up the rankings every race and with Troy Brosnan rounding out the podium in 5th place it was a good race as far as us Aussies were concerned.Qualifying proved it wasn’t our eyes playing tricks on us, Remi Thirion was the fastest! What a result for the young Frenchman, congratulations.Cedric Gracia showing the love! Nice one all.
Elite Men:
1. Remi Thirion 4.13.66
2. Gee Atherton 4.15.016 + 1.350
3. Sam Hill 4.15.422 + 1.756
4. Steve Smith 4.15.939 + 2.273
5. Troy Brosnan 4.16.142 + 2.476
The next round in a few weeks time is the infamous Mont Saint Anne – join us there!
