You are hereForums / General Discussion / BMORC Chat / Mt.St.Anne Downhill world cup / Finals

Mt.St.Anne Downhill world cup / Finals


BM Epic's picture

By BM Epic - Posted on 26 June 2012

Another round of the world cup, and another spectacular day of racing, this was the 4th round and the racing is getting tight and awfully exciting, with soem unbelievable highlights.
: Aaron gwin riding perfect and loose and fast.
:Sam Hill getting quicker by the round without seeming to take too many risks.
: A lot of top 10 riders taking huge risks to try and keep up with Gwin.
: some vey serious crashes, Neko Mullaly crashing off a fast jump, he looked very bad, Damien Spagnolo having a big off in the rock garden, it could have been sooo much worse, the luckless Matti Lehikonnen coming off again, this guy has literally broken every bone in his body, the sport is getting faster and faster!
: Mick Hannah coming in at 15th whilst losing his whole chain at the halfway point, it was an insane effort, he would have been top 10 easily!
: Danny Hart really running at the edge of madness, it is a fine line between triumph and disaster!
: The race course itself, it is such a brutal place, high speed, lots of rock and plenty of chances for big crashes!
So the results went:

1..Aaaron Gwin
2..Greg Minnaar
3..Danny Hart
4..Gee Atherton
5..Sam Hill
6..Brook Macdonald
7..Steve Smith
8..Andrew Neethling
9..Sam Blenkinsop
10..Justin Leov
...............................
15..Michael Hannah
26..Mitch Delfs
28..Connor Fearon (amateur)
29..Bryn Atkinson

The ladies was a bit predictable, excepting for rachel Atherton exerting her authority over the field with a dominant ride, Tracey Hannah came in a dissapointing 7th, and Danielle beecroft not qualifying high enough!

1..Rachel Atherton
2..Miriam Nicole
3..Emmeline Ragot
4..Emilie Siegenthaller
5..Micayla Gatto
6..Someone Brown
7..Tracey Hannah

We are looking forward to the next round at Windham in the united states, will Gwin continue his domination, can Hill now step it up, and what of the rest of the field?

moggio's picture

Just watched most of it... Was wondering has Gwin had any really bad crash+injuries in the last few years or is he running psychologically clean? No bad memories to hold him back and give just that extra little advantage in that area? It is funny with him that he is so good and under control he is a reasonably uninteresting rider to watch comparitively.

Shame Danielle Beecroft didn't get a run....

BM Epic's picture

Watching his run closely, he is very clean pshychologically thats for sure, he hasnt had a big off yet, his run at MSA had some very hairy moments, very much like Hill at the peak of his powers, interesting that every body seems compelled to take big chances, one exception is Hill, he is slowly starting to look like the rider of old, nailed the bottom section(split 3), i think he was fastest through there!
Gwin is very interesting to watch, his time gains seem to be everywhere, little time gains all the way down, if you can get some footage of Gwin and Hill and Brosnan riding Moto together you can see why technically nobody comes close to them.
as for when Gwin has his first big stack, then we will see how he comes back from it, Hill had 2 years of horrendous injuries, and he is only now coming up to speed, Brosnan will be interesting to see how he comes back, the one that worries me is Danny Hart, he seems to be a major crash about to happen!
Did you see Mullally's stack Mark?, it was bad, and he was not well after it, Gee Atherton's in practice was big as well, these guys are pushing whats possible so far that its scary!
One thing is certain, the footage was awesome this time, and the racing is unreal!

moggio's picture

Yeah Danny looks ripe for pushing it that bit far. Gwin looks comfortable at his pace but I guess sometime something is going to go wrong when things are pushed that close to the limit. Still the guys just behind seem to be going all out and just not quite pulling him in. Last rounds will be good to watch... especially the Worlds when they can go nuts on the one race.

BM Epic's picture

Yeah i agree Mark, we should organise a viewing night, the feed is great now, unless Gwin has a big stack, he will be very hard to beat, it will take something special from someone like Sam to knock him off, dont think Sam is too worried asbout the overall, nor he should be, he just seems to be finding his feet gradually, i sus pect we will see the old Sam coming into the final rounds then worlds, i think worlda will be Hill and Gwin, would have been great to have seen what Brosnan could have done!..so onto Windham, New York!

moggio's picture

Yeah a viewing party would be fun for this stuff... maybe on a night when its not at an insane start time! Watching repeats is never as much fun.

I am hoping Sam just pulls out all the stops at one race and just goes bugger it.. like he did at the Wolds when he won after the injury. He really is lurking in the background and watching the others desperately chase Gwin.

Kingy's picture

Gwins ability to ride the best lines was evident, Hart is a fruitloop, Minnar ever consistent, Hill looking like he's back to form with only more to come, Atherton fantastic, the reason Gwin is so fast is his aero position and his sneaky pedals in between tech sections, did anyone notice he didnt put in as many pedals as any one else in the start ramp yet looked to enter the forrest quicker, he really is a surreal rider

BM Epic's picture

He treated the first 100 metres as a warm up literally, they have done testing at val di sole, and found that he doesnt make up chunks of time, he makes it up incrementally all over the run, that being little pedal strokes, and absolutely NO resting, where as other riders do have a rest on the race run, you could see in a couple of spots he was at the very edge of mortality, both times through the rock sections, both times his rear wheel skipping out and almost sending him, i do like this bloke, because he is clean cut and has a wonderful image, i think downnhill racing needs somebody like this, for too long it has had the party animal image, now with Gwin it has an alternative, especially with Johnny Tomac guiding him, he cant go wrong!

moggio's picture

That's true about the image thing, its nice to have a change from the beer guzzling bad boy party image. I do find the bible study immersion maybe a bit much personally, but he seems to be a really genuinly nice chap. (As opposed to someone like Gee who comes across as a real tosser)

Its also cool that he is making up time by his own approach which as you guys say is something very conrolled rather than just taking risks and going out of control.

ChopStiR's picture

2012 World Cup #4 2:09:04


http://youtu.be/1UABRLTk6w0

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Best Mountain Bike