Brook MacDonald Wins Val d'Isere World Cup!

Brook MacDonald has won his first World Cup race in Val d'Isere, while Aaron Gwin's fifth place finish was enough for the Trek World Racing rider to take the overall series title! Brook qualified second on Friday and upped his pace today to take his first victory as an elite rider.

Not only was this Brook's first win, it was the first win by a New Zealand rider, and the first time a rider other than Greg Minaar or Aaron Gwin has stepped on the top of the podium since 2010. Ahead of the race Brook had said that he loved this rough and natural track, and it certainly showed in his race run! Brook's aggressive riding style saw him up at the second split, and he crossed the line half a second up on Gee Atherton's time of 2:19.973.

After the race Brook said: “I can't even explain it in words! I had a solid run and I'm over the moon about this win. I've had a big struggle throughout this season, but I've changed a few things and it's paid off this week. This was a hard track with the high altitude and it's only two and a half minutes long so you can't afford to lose any time. I put it together, it was a good run and I'm so happy with it!"

This was Gee's first World Cup race with the Union Jack on his sleeve, having won the National Champs last weekend. Gee has been on every podium at every race this season, and kept things low and fast over the opening jumps. This tactic worked with Gee up on the first split and moving into the hot seat 0.372 seconds up on Minnaar.

While the weather was nice and sunny for the race, it was a different story for qualifications on Friday with heavy storms rolling in. The bad weather and tough conditions caught out a number of top riders with punctures and big crashes, Aaron Gwin of course taking a big slam and needing five stiches in his hand, so Gwin joined a few other big names being slotted in to the top 20 start times for today.

Gwin didn't let his injury hold him back and almost crashed into the hot seat as he crossed the line. When asked whether the cut on his hand had held him back Gwin said: “Yeah it ended up being ok. Yesterday it was pretty sore! It didn't hurt too bad, just felt a bit weak at the bottom.”

Team Lapierre Internaional's Loic Bruni has had an amazing season so far; leading the Junior series and claiming his first spot on the podium at the last race in Windham, every spectator trackside was cheering him on, wanting to see a repeat here today on home soil. Loic was under half a second back on Gwin's time at the second split and giving it his all but his front wheel just caught the edge of the track and sent him over the bars as he entered the final section.

Disaster also struck his compatriot, MS Mondraker's Damien Spagnola who had a big over the bars crash high up on the track. Nick Beer, who had qualified fifth, also had a huge crash on one of the top jumps, his bike almost sending him into a front flip as he took off.

As he left the gate Greg Minnaar knew that he had to win here today and put as much space as he could between himself and Aaron Gwin to stand a chance of taking the overall. A small dab high up cost him some time but Minnaar clawed it back to go half a second ahead of Gwin.

Minnaar may have beaten Gwin, but with Brook, Gee and his teammate Josh Bryceland finishing ahead of him, the points difference between the two wasn't enough, and the series overall title went to Aaron Gwin for the second year running!

Val d'Isere Elite Men's Top Five

1  Brook MacDonald 2:19.478
2  Gee Atherton 2:19.973
3  Josh Bryceland 2:20.155
4  Greg Minnaar 2:20.345
5  Aaron Gwin 2:20.844

Full results can be found here.

Aaron Gwin Wins Windham World Cup

There can’t be a better feeling than winning a World Cup Race on home soil with your friends and family waiting for you at the finish line. And Aaron Gwin should know, he’s done it two years in a row now! Gwin qualified fastest here without a chain on Friday. With no mechanicals in his race run there was nothing to stop him from dominating once again.

A crash on Friday left Danny Hart with 20 stitches in his arm, and saw him qualifying much lower down in the field than usual. A little bit of needlework did nothing to slow Hart down, and he sprinted across the line knocking Kona rider Mitch Delfs off the hot seat. Delfs’ time of 2:30.679 was enough to see him finishing just outside of the top ten in eleventh place, his best World Cup result to date.
Greg Minnaar hasn’t really had much luck in Windham. Missing out on the top spot here in 2010 gave the series overall title to Gee Atherton. Last year he finished twelfth and this year Greg had to settle for joint tenth with fellow compatriot Andrew Neethling.

Loic Bruni missed out on racing in Mont Sainte Anne last week, having to finish off his final school exams back in France. Loic’s had a great season so far and his good form continued here in Windham where he finished fifth, earning his first of what is bound to be many podium appearances.

Gee Atherton was the next man down the hill and had clearly put all the misfortunes from the previous week behind him, the first rider to be up on Hart’s time at the second split. Gee carried his speed through the final section of this short track, knocking Hart off the hot seat and going into the lead.
Whilst the track at Windham is relatively short, there’s a few nasty sections waiting to catch riders out; none more so than the rock garden in the woods. A few riders got a bit sketchy, but Brook McDonald took crashing to crazy new levels with one of the biggest slams ever seen. How Brook escaped unharmed is mad enough, but crazier still was seeing Brook jump back up, turn his bike around and continue riding at his usual, full throttle pace. Even with such a hard crash Brook finished thirty-fourth , just 12 seconds off Gwin’s time.

Brook’s team mate Damien Spagnola qualified third on Friday, his highest starting position this year and was having a great race run and no doubt would have podiumed. Even with a rear puncture Spagnola flew through the second split time in second place, but a hundred metres or so later admitted defeat and was forced to push his bike down the rest of the track.

With Gee still on the hot seat it loked like he could get his first World Cup victory since 2010. Only two riders were left at the top of the hill: Steve Smith and Aaron Gwin. Smith was down at the first split, but was super fast through the rock garden and went into the lead.

Just Gwin left then, and everyone knows where this is going. With crowd behind him and going wild Gwin laid down the perfect run, somehow finding nearly a second on Smith’s time, and claiming his signature spot at the top of the podium.

Gwin said: “Whether I won or lost today I knew the fans would have my back and be supportive of my racing, but there’s no doubt that the win here feels very special. You can hear the fans all the way down and it pushes you on. I actually took the chairlift quite late today and it allowed me to see what times the top guys were posting and I knew I’d have to be on it to win.

"I made a mistake early on where I hit 3 course marking poles and I know I lost time in the first sector but I was trying to stay cool and keep the pace right to the line. Walking out onto the podium here with the US flag here means a great deal to me.”

Men’s Top Five
1 Aaron Gwin 2:26.416
2 Steve Smith 2:27.374
3 Gee Atherton 2:28.127
4 Danny Hart 2:29.499
5 Loic Bruni 2:29.773

Full results can be found here.