DHI Elite Women

UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships: Great Britain Dominates Downhill.

The good weather that has blessed these Championships continued, but the dry conditions made the Downhill track rough and full of loose gravel sections, with many riders flatting or crashing.

American Jill Kintner set the first sub-four minute time for the women, which would be good enough for fifth. Kintner’s time stood up through one rider before Tahnee Seagrave (Great Britain) knocked four seconds off it to take the Hot Seat. Seagrave held the lead until Manon Carpenter came down second from last and took the lead below 3:50. However, the defending champion, Rachel Atherton (Great Britain) was setting new fast times at each split and looked to be on her way to another win, until a mistake near the bottom of the course cost her the win by a mere 88-thousandths of a second.

“I didn’t expect this win,” said Carpenter, “I was struggling to go fast on this track. But I wanted to do my best, and I expected it to be a close race. I had an almost perfect run, so I knew that I had done the best that I could. It was really close, and I had resigned myself to being second, even as Rachel was crossing the line, so it’s pretty bonkers to win.”

DHI Elite Men

The men’s race saw a steady drop in the leading time as rider after rider chipped away at the top time. Australian Bryn Atkinson was the first to go under 3:30, but faster riders were coming. Brook MacDonald (New Zealand), with 15 riders to go, set a time that stood until American Neko Mulally came through nearly a second faster, despite having to ride the entire course with no chain after his broke in the start house. Mulally finished fourth, but surely would have been in the medals without his mechanical problems.

Former champions Sam Hill (Australia) and Danny Hart (Great Britain) crashed, as did defending champion Greg Minnaar (South Africa), who also flatted. Gee Atherton, riding fourth from last, managed to avoid the mistakes made by others to knocked 2.2 seconds off the leading time.

Second from last, Troy Brosnan (Australia) managed to finish within 0.566 seconds of Atherton, leaving Josh Bryceland (Great Britain), the World Cup champion, as the only rider who could possibly beat Atherton. Bryceland was faster at both time splits, but mistimed a landing on the final jump, fracturing his foot but, remarkably, still managing to cross the finish line second to Atherton.

“World championships is always a special race, and everyone steps their game up,” commented Atherton. “You can’t afford to do a steady and smooth run, you have to keep pushing faster and faster. My run was okay, it was messy, there were some mistakes, but I think it’s that kind of track. I wasn’t pleased with the run, but I made it to the bottom, and that’s all you can ask for. I wasn’t confident, but you couldn’t tell until the other riders came down. Sure enough, it was fast enough to take the win.”

Bryceland was eventually brought to hospital to undergo surgery.

France topped the nations table with 12 medals, followed by Switzerland (8) and Great Britain (7).

Trials 26

UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships: Trials competitions end with Gilles Coustellier’s fifth title

Jack Carthy’s success was no surprise; since Meribel he has led in the UCI World Cup trials! In second place was the Spanish rider Sergi Llongueras, who was the only rider capable of maintaining a minimum of suspense. He finished with 7 points more than the World Champion. The third place result became clearer in the last moments, following the zero count between the German rider Dominik Oswald and the Frenchman Nicolas Vallée. In the end, it was the German who got up on to the third step of the podium, which enabled him to pick up his third medal in this World Championship (Nations World Champion with Germany and Junior Men 20 World Champion).

In the Elite Men 26, Gilles Coustellier moved ahead in the first sections. Strengthened by this excellent start, he continued to increase his lead, finishing with 16 points on the most physical sections. He thereby gained his 5th title, which makes him the most titled rider in history. His countryman Aurelien Fontenoy occupied the 2nd step of the podium. In spite of the fatigue resulting from the previous day’s final, he rode impressively, calling on his reserves of strength. After the silver in the Elite Men 20 last year, he is now Vice-champion in the Elite Men 26.

The Belgian rider Kenny Belaey, who is used to being on the podium, won the bronze medal, despite having a very poor start.

Vincent Hermance, who had won the title last year, finished just off the podium.

Trials 20

UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships: Germany, Janickova, Oswald and Ros don the rainbow jersey

In the afternoon, there were two finals in the 20-inch category. In the Junior Men 20, it was the German rider Dominik Oswald who came out winner after a race of very high intensity and quality. After two errors in his first section, he got the bit between his teeth and rode to victory, thereby gaining his first world title. He was followed by the Spanish rider Oriol Roca, who fell at the most difficult obstacle of the race. This was enough to deprive him of the title! On the third step of the podium was the Frenchman Alex Rudeau, thus repeating last year’s performance, and coming in three points ahead of the German, Sebastian Krell.
In the Men Elite 20, the battle for the rainbow jersey involved – as expected – the two Spanish riders Benito Ros and Abel Musiteles. This was a real hand-to-hand scrap which, section after section, thrilled the crowd. Until three sections from the end, the two men were on an equal footing, and it was impossible to predict the result. Benito Ros finished his section 4 without error, and as he was preparing to begin the next section, Abel Mustieles committed a fatal error by falling. This effectively enabled Benito Ros to take the title of World Champion. This impressive duel will remain a highlight in the history of this discipline. In third place was the German Raphael Pils, who after having won two World Champion titles stepped up onto the Elite podium. A great performance for this rider, who is leading the upward push of the rising generation in this discipline.

Women’s Trials

In the final of the Elite Women, the Slovakian reigning champion already stood out in the first lap, during which she completed the sections perfectly, while her rivals had problems in negotiating the Lillehammer obstacles. At the last-but-one section, Tatiana Janickova was able to celebrate her second consecutive title. With only four points gained, she now has an 11-point advantage over the runner-up, the young German rider Nina Reichenbach. It was the multiple World Champion Gemma Abant who completed the women’s podium. The Australian Janine Jungfels, one of the favourites, already lost hope on the first lap, and finished five points adrift of the podium.
At the end of the Women’s race, the Nations title was awarded to Germany. It’s the first victory for Germany since 2005. With 850 points, the German team got in front of France (830) and Spain (820), who had dominated the rankings since 2006! Great-Britain (574) finished in fourth place, in front of Switzerland and Japan.

XCO Elite Women

UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships: Absalon Takes Fifth Title & Pendrel Wins Her Second Title

The weather continues to favour the Championships, with summer-like conditions bringing out thousands of fans. The local Norwegian spectators were hoping to see home favourite Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa win her fifth title, but the mountain biking legend could only manage ninth.
Catharine Pendrel, who won the title in 2011, dominated the six lap women’s race from the start, opening a 17 second gap on Irina Kalentieva (Russia) and Maja Wloszczowska (Poland) in the first lap. Wloszczowska gradually fell off the pace, with Kalentieva holding Pendrel to a 35 second lead over the next few laps. Behind, Lea Davison of the United States had steadily worked her way up to sit in third with two laps to go.
Pendrel’s lead was up to 43 seconds on the final lap when she became the latest of many riders to suffer a flat on the sharp rocks scattered throughout the course. Luckily, she was close to a technical zone and had a quick wheel change, to maintain her lead and finish 21 seconds ahead of Kalentieva. Davison took third, 43 seconds back.
“I like to race from the front,” confirmed Pendrel, “and when there’s an opportunity to take the lead you should go for it. That’s always the kind of racer I have been. If you want to win the Worlds you have got to be willing to take some chances and go out strong. When I came through the finish line after the first lap and saw that I was 20 seconds faster than my Team Relay lap, I was pretty happy, and I felt that I could maintain it.”
“I knew Irina was coming behind me, and I knew that she had won here the year before [at the World Cup], so I had to stay on the gas. Then, with half a lap to go, I got a front puncture and I was lucky to have amazing technical support, and the fastest wheel change ever, and get back on the bike to win the world championship.”

XCO Elite Men

UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships: Absalon Takes Fifth Title & Pendrel Wins Her Second Title

This year has been a season-long battle between the two top ranked male riders in the world – Julien Absalon and defending champion Nino Schurter of Switzerland. Schurter had his usual fast start, and after the first lap in the seven lap race was nearly 30 seconds ahead of his French rival.
However, Absalon, who was using a full suspension bike in competition for the first time, steadily chased down Schurter and caught him in the fourth lap. One lap later, and Absalon was 17 seconds clear, proving to be much stronger on the climbs. He pulled away over the remaining two laps to win by nearly two minutes, completing a near perfect season that has seen him the French national title, the European title, the UCI World Cup title and now the rainbow jersey of UCI World Champion.
Schurter hung on for second, with Marco Fontana (Italy) overcoming a flat tire to beat Moritz Milatz (Germany) by five seconds for the bronze medal.
“I am very happy to win this rainbow jersey for the fifth time,” said Absalon. “It has been a long time since the last time, in 2007. Today it was almost perfect. I did a bad start and had a little crash in the wood section but I kept going and tried to go step by step to catch the lead. When I got on Nino’s wheel I was able to pass him on the climb.”
“I made a really good choice to use a full suspension bike because it is such a bumpy track, but it was a little risky because this was my first race with a full suspension bike. So it was a risk, but a good one.”

Categories: Mountain Bike Racing

Tags: Cross Country, Downhill, trials, UCI, World Championships