Medal Rush for GB on Day 5
Mountain Bike World Championships
Val di Sole, Italy, June 17-22, 2008
Report & Images: Rob Jones
Link: Mountain Bike Worlds Home Page
Day 5 - Downhill and Four-Cross
After a medal drought for the first few days, Great Britain's downhillers have taken a gravity assisted route to the podium with a stunning three golds and two silvers. Gee Atherton pipped his countryman, Steve Peat to the Gold medal in the men's competition, while sister Rachel Atherton kept it in the family by storming to the top step of the podium in the Womens. Josh Bryceland make it a brace of golds with a win in the Junior Mens downhill, with fellow GB rider Sam Dale taking silver. Today's stunning result marks the first ever Senior Mountain Bike World Championship Gold for a British rider, with Peat coming mighty close in the past with silver medal positions. Just like buses, you wait around forever and three come along at once.
Here's our report from on-site race reporter Rob Jones:
Saturday was Great Britain Day at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole, with the Brits winning world titles in three of the four downhill categories contested. The only one they didn't win was the Junior Women, which was swept by the French. However, GB didn't have any entrants in that race.
Downhill
Junior Women
The good weather that has blessed the area since Wednesday continued, making the downhill course dry and very, very fast. In the Junior Women's category, Canada's Miranda Miller was the early leader, eventually finishing fourth. She was knocked from the Hot Seat by the first of the French medallists, Myriam Nicole, who took the silver medal. Nicole's compatriot, Melanie Pugin, bumped Miller into third with the second fastest run, and then the last rider down, Anais Pajot completely trounced the field with a run nearly six seconds faster than Nicole.
Junior Men
On to the large (65 rider) Junior men's field. The qualifying was dominated by Commonwealth riders, with all but the fastest from Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. However, the fastest was the French rider Remi Thirion. Great Britain set the first fast time with Danny Hart halfway through the field. From that point on it would only be a British rider in the Hot Seat.
Above: Josh Bryceland (top) and Sam Dale (bottom) flying the flag for GB
Hart kept the Seat until Sam Dale came through seventh from the end, knocking a little under three seconds off the best time, and then Dale was in the lead until Josh Bryceland, the second last rider took a staggering seven and a half seconds off the top time to win Britain's first gold medal of the day. Thirion managed to slot into third for the bronze.
Above: A Brit-heavy podium in the Junior Mens competition
"I'm really, really happy," said Bryceland. "Last year I punctured, and who knows whether I could have won. It was so devastating, and this year makes up for it. My run was good, I had one little problem up at the top when I hit a rock, but after that it was smooth all the way."
Elite Women
The women were up next, and this was to be a battle between Rachel Atherton (Great Britain), the fastest qualifier, and defending world champion Sabrina Jonnier (France), who has been battling all season with Atherton in the World Cups.
Above: GB's Tracey Moseley (left) and Fionn Griffiths in the Elite Womens Final
Above: Left: Rachel in the process of putting almost 11 secs into (right) Jonnier
Canadian national champion Micayla Gatto set the first quick time, but was immediately eclipsed by American Melissa Buhl. From here it went down slowly, with Tracy Moseley (Great Britain) taking a brief turn in the Hot Seat. Jonnier, third from last, took an eight second jump into the lead, which her compatriot Emmeline Ragot could not match, so it was all down to Atherton to dethrone Jonnier.
Atherton did so with ease, finishing a whopping 12 seconds in the lead. At all intermediate time checks the young Brit was gaining time, and swept into the finish area to huge applause.
Above: An elated Rachel Atherton celebrates her World title
"I knew that I was on a pretty good run, but it's was funny - I had been really nervous all day, until I got into the gondola to go to the start. At that point my nerves went away. After I heard about Josh [Bryceland], it took some pressure off, I think, and I could treat it like a normal practice run. I couldn't believe it when I crossed the line, everyone went mental."
Elite Men
For the men's final, the last ten start spots were stacked with medal contenders, led by Gee Atherton (Great Britain), who qualified first. The only person missing was multiple world champion Fabien Barel (France), who had flatted in qualifying and rode midfield. Barel set the standard, at 3:17.92, and would eventually finish fifth.
Above: Gee Atherton (right) on his way to victory. Right - another silver for crowd favourite Steve Peat
The first to finally knock Barel out of the Hot Seat was crowd favourite Steve Peat (Great Britain). Peat took 2.2 seconds off the top time. However, defending two-time champion Sam Hill (Australia) was coming down three riders later, and was expected to smash that time.
He was on track to do that, a huge seven seconds ahead with one corner and a straightaway to go, when disaster struck: a crash on the loose gravel coming out of a corner and Hill was sliding down the track on his stomach, after smacking his helmet on the ground. Amazingly, Hill managed to grab his bike and still get to the finish line with a time quick enough to win the bronze medal.
"My back wheel slid a bit, and then I caught my front wheel and went over," explained Hill.
There were four riders left between Peat and the only award missing from his medal case - the rainbow jersey. Justin Leov (New Zealand) could only manage sixth, and Greg Minnaar (South Africa) slotted in behind Hill, leaving just Gee Atherton.
At the intermediate checkpoint he was two seconds ahead of Peat, and he managed to add another half a second in the lower portion, to give Britain their third gold medal of the day.
Peat was visibly disappointed at missing out at the title again, but happy to see another Brit win. "On the first corner down I made a mistake, so I didn't think my time would stick. But then Sam went down, and I started to think that this could be my year. It's so hard to have to wait for the last man. I'm really happy for Gee, but I think it would have been better the other way around for me!"
Atherton revealed that he struggled a bit at the top of the run. "It was a course where you had to be on the gas all the way down, and still be consistent; there was no margin for error. My run wasn't perfect, and I made mistakes. My rhythm was a little off at the top, but I managed to find it at the bottom."
4-Cross Report
Only a couple of hours after the Downhill finished it was time for the second gravity event of the weekend. This turned in some very unexpected results, with many of the top favourites crashing out or making mistakes. Spain's Rafael Alvarez de Lara Lu took the men's title, while Melissa Buhl salvaged American hopes with a win in the women's competition.
The course made for some of the most exciting racing at recent world championships. Usually, the race for first is decided within the first two corners, however, this year spectators saw passing as late as the final corner.
The women's race progressed as expected, with all four top seeds advancing to the final. World Cup leader Anneke Beerten (Netherlands) was the clear favourite, with only Jana Horakova (Czech Republic) expected to offer competition, and the final heat began that way.
Beerten shot into the lead, followed by Horakova, with Buhl a distant third and Romana Labounkova (Czech Republic) fourth. Going into the second last corner Beerten went wide and Horakova slid through on the inside. The Dutch rider went down, the Czech had to come to an almost complete stop, and Buhl squeezed through an open slot to suddenly find herself with an unbeatable lead. Horakova managed to keep going for silver, followed by Labounkova.
Britain's lone entry in the women's race, Fionn Griffiths, finished 10th.
The men's final saw only one of the favourites present - Jared Graves (Australia), who has been blazing fast ever since his return from BMX Olympic qualifying. Defending champion Brian Lopes (USA) went out after the semifinals, caught in traffic and unable to pass. Cedric Gracia (France) suffered a similar problem in the quarterfinals, while World Cup leader Guido Tschugg (Germany) crashed in his quarterfinal.
Joining Graves in the final were Alvarez, Roger Rinderknecht (Switzerland)and Mickael Deldycke (France). Alvarez was a virtual unknown until is surprise win at the first round of the World Cup in Maribor (Slovenia) earlier this year. The Spaniard was having a good day, as witnessed by his fast starts in each heat.
This served him very well in the final, when he jumped into the lead before the first corner. Behind, Graves, Deldycke and Rinderknecht all tangled and went down, leaving the Spaniard to literally cruise down the track to the world title. Rinderknecht was the first to untangle himself and getting going for silver, followed by Deldycke.
Scott Beaumont was Britain's top finisher, coming in just behind Brian Lopes in the consolation round for sixth.
Results
Elite Men Downhill
1. ATHERTON Gee GBR 3:12.12
2. PEAT Steve GBR 3:14.74 +2.62
3. HILL Samuel AUS 3:15.27 +3.15
4. MINNAAR Greg RSA 3:17.34 +5.22
5. BAREL Fabien FRA 3:17.92 +5.80
6. LEOV Justin NZL 3:17.96 +5.84
7. PASCAL Mickael FRA 3:20.12 +8.00
8. CAMELLINI Julien FRA 3:21.31 +9.19
9. PEDEMANAUD Fabien FRA 3:21.46 +9.34
10. OULEGO MORENO Ivan ESP 3:26.86 + 14.74
14. FAIRCLOUGH Brendan GBR 3:29.06 + 16.94
26. CATHRO Ben GBR 2:50.93 59.90 3:33.74 + 21.62
Course length : 2250 m / 1.40 Mile - Average Speed : 42.16 Kmh / 26.20 Mph
Elite Women Downhill
1. ATHERTON Rachel GBR 3:49.92
2. JONNIER Sabrina FRA 4:01.91 + 11.99
3. RAGOT Emmeline FRA 4:07.03 + 17.11
4. PUGIN Floriane FRA 4:10.25 + 20.33
5. UEMASA Mio JPN 4:11.68 + 21.76
6. MOSELEY Tracy GBR 4:12.30 + 22.38
7. PRUITT Kathleen USA 4:19.66 + 29.74
8. GRIFFITHS Fionn GBR 4:20.10 + 30.18
9. HAGEN Scarlett NZL 4:20.14 + 30.22
10. BUHL Melissa USA 4:20.38 + 30.46
Course length : 2250 m / 1.40 Mile - Average Speed : 35.23 Kmh / 21.89 Mph
Junior Men Downhill
1. BRYCELAND Josh GBR 3:23.55
2. DALE Sam GBR 3:31.06 +7.51
3. THIRION Rémi FRA 3:32.13 +8.58
4. BARRETT Aari NZL 3:32.47 +8.92
5. MACDONALD Brook NZL 3:32.77 +9.22
6. HART Danny GBR 3:33.71 + 10.16
7. COLOMB Yannick FRA 3:35.23 + 11.68
8. O'CONNOR Shaun AUS 3:36.24 + 12.69
9. WILLEMSE Rhys AUS 3:37.40 + 13.85
10. TETZLAFF Boris AUT 3:39.58 + 16.03
Course length : 2250 m / 1.40 Mile - Average Speed : 39.79 Kmh / 24.73 Mph
4-Cross
Mens
Big Final
1. ALVAREZ DE LARA LU Rafael ESP
2. RINDERKNECHT Roger SUI
3. DELDYCKE Mickael FRA
4. GRAVES Jared AUS
Small Final
5. LOPES Brian USA
6. BEAUMONT Scott GBR
7. SALADINI Romain FRA
8. MILAN Ross USA
Womens
Big Final
1. 3 USA19820125 BUHL Melissa USA
2. 2 CZE19830904 HORAKOVA Jana CZE
3. 4 CZE19890427 LABOUNKOVA Romana CZE
4. 1 NED19820707 BEERTEN Anneke NED
Small Final
5. 8 AUS19901024 BUCHANAN Caroline AUS
6. 11 SUI19810926 OETJEN Lucia SUI
7. 5 AUT19801112 MOLCIK Anita AUT
8. 7 JPN19830401 SUEMASA Mio JPN
10. 9 GBR19820827 GRIFFITHS Fionn GBR
