Michael O'Brien - Firecrest MTB

For the Trail Maintenance article in the new issue of IMB I needed a few photos of someone riding downhill up at Aston Hill. Ian at Firecrest MTB had a coaching session booked with young rider Michael O'Brien and said I was more than welcome to come along and get some snaps, so I did!

It's cool to watch a Firecrest coaching session, and see the improvements that can be made in just an hour or two! As well as a freelap timing system to get accurate times for marked sections, Ian uses an app on his iPad that allows him to instantly record, play-back and pause all the action to give improved feedback to the rider, which you can see in the photos.

 You can view more photos from the morning here.

Steve Smith Wins Hafjell World Cup!

Steve Smith has won his first World Cup round in Hafjell, Norway! The Devinci Global Racing rider, decked out in his home nation of Canada’s colours stormed ahead of his team mate George Brannigan who also had his best result to date!

 
Markus Pekoll was sitting comfortably in the hot seat, his time seeing off challenges from both team mates Damien Spagnola and Brook MacDonald. It wasn’t until Cam Cole flew past the line that Pekoll had to move over, his time proving enough to finish just inside the top ten.

With the overall title in Gwin’s bruised and battered hands, the fight for second place between Gee and Greg was on. Gee hadn’t had the qualifying run he’d been hoping for and so was up first and went into the lead almost two seconds up on Cam’s time. Gee was the only rider to never be outside the top four all year, no doubt helping GT Factory Racing win the team standings.

Sam Hill was up next, going for some style points manualing into the final of the start jumps and throwing some tweaks in the rock gardens. He was super tucked through the speed trap, closing in on Gee’s time, but crossing the line in third place. Nick Beer was looking fast, taking a different line through the rock garden to the rest of the field, but just missing on on beating Gee’s time.

This was Minnaar’s first race since winning the World Champs in Leogang, and there’s no doubt he was looking for another win. Minnaar was sixth at the first split but cam through the speed trap so tucked he made Sam Hill look sloppy, hitting over 70kph and clawing the time deficit back to just half a second. He sprinted over the line just 0.155 seconds ahead of Gee’s time, securing second place in the overall standings.

Josh Bryceland was the fastest qualifier out of the Santa Cruz guys, and in some races this year, their youngest rider has had the best results out of the team, but today wasn’t Josh’s day and he had to settle for eight place. Still, sixth overall is a great result for Ratboy!

Third in qualifying was George Brannigan’s best result so far as he set off from the start hut. The young kiwi rider on the Devici Global Racing team was eleventh at the first split but had jumped up to just .6 seconds behind Greg by the second split and stormed past the finish line 1.7 seconds up on Minnaar! This was Brannigan’s first top ten finish all year and he was doing it in style, with a guaranteed place on the podium.

Just two riders remained, Rob Wallner and Steve Smith. Swedish rider Wallner became the 2010 European Champion here two years ago and had been looking great in practice and qualifying. The Scandinavian crowd was going wild for him, but something wasn’t going right for him and as he cooled off in the finish pit it became clear that he’d been having trouble with his brakes. Don’t worry Rob, it happens to the best riders. Just ask Gwin…

So just Steve Smith remaining, would Devinci be able to go one-two on the podium? Easily! Smith was looking pinned from the word go, up at the first plit and holding his time all the way down. Steve took the same right hand line through the first rock garden as his team mate Nick Beer, and then seemed to just skip through the second rock garden before sprinting to the finish line like a mad man to finish nearly half a second up on George Brannigan, meaning all three team riders were on the podium!

As soon as he’d caught his breathe Steve said: “I’m so happy right now! I’ve never won a World Cup before and this has been a dream of mine for so long! It was so hard with the wind, but it was the same for everyone. I can’t believe I finished first, I’m so stoked! This is insane all three of us are on the podium today and it’s George’s first ever podium and Nick’s first podium this year so the whole Devinci team is so stoked right now!”

Men’s Top Five
 

1 Steve Smith 3:31.76

2 George brannigan 3:32.16

3 Greg Minnaar 3:33.89

4 Gee Atherton 3:34.05

5 Nick Beer 3:34.89

Full results can be found here.

Aaron Gwin was unable to race on Saturday after injuring his hand during practice. This was the same hand an injury Gwin suffered in Val d’Isere, but this time was far more serious. However, with such a lead coming in to the final round Gwin already had the series wrapped up.

Men’s Final Overall Standings

1 Aaron Gwin – 1260

2 Greg Minnaar – 1162

3 Gee Atherton – 1123

4 Steve Smith – 930

5 Sam Hill – 735

6 Josh Bryceland – 699

7 Brook MacDonald – 650

8 Danny Hart – 699 (missed two races due to shoulder injury)

9 Mick Hannah -632

10 George Brannigan – 604

Aaron Gwin On His World Champs Race Run

The official word from Trek World Racing regarding Aaron Gwin’s race run:

“Race favourite Aaron Gwin saw his hopes of taking a ‘bonus’ title this year come to an end around 1min 20secs into his final race run, when inexplicably both his front and rear brakes failed, resulting in a crash. Shortly after the crash Aaron pumped the brakes to try and get some pressure going but it was insufficient to complete the course safely at speed, and he cruised to the line disappointed he was unable to throw down a run on the three and half minute course.

At the World Championships there is no qualifying round or seeding run, but a timed practice session where riders can check their general race speed against official timing. Aaron was happy with his fourth in timed practice and as race day drew nearer, and the sun came out drying the track dramatically, all was set for a classic Aaron Gwin run. Unfortunately the brake failure, something he has never experienced before and in fact is his first mechanical in a race run since joining the team, really took him by surprise.

Aaron said at the finish line: “I really don’t understand what happened. I warmed up as usual, tested the brakes as usual at the top, walked down the course to have a look at how the track was running, went into my run, brakes working fine for the first minute or so, and then bang, nothing. I crashed and got up as soon as I could, pumped to see what was there, but it wasn’t enough, and knew my day was run”.

The brakes have been taken back to Japan for further analysis as there was nothing immediately evident from the post-race inspection, and nothing new was done to these brakes that Aaron and the team has run for most of the season.”

I think what it’s important to note here how calm and humble Gwin remained about the situation. Having crashed and lost the use of his brakes he could have easily thrown a trackside tantrum and refused to ride the rest of the course, but instead he put on a show for the thousands of fans that had come out to watch the race.

Unlike some sports there was no trash talking other riders or claims of “what if” had his brakes been working. Equally Greg Minnaar showed incredible sportsmanship in his victory, commenting on Gwin’s troubles that this was “not the best way to win”. In fact both riders had nothing but kind words to say to each other on twitter.

And that ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls is how you recover from a nightmare situation.

Greg Minnaar Wins The 2012 Downhill World Champs!

Greg Minnaar has won the 2012 UCI Downhill World Championships in Leogang, his second World Championship victory!

Minnaar proved once more that he is one of the greatest downhill riders the sport has seen, looking his usual composed self as he tore down the Austrian mountain side. This was Minnaar’s second World Championship victory, having first claimed the rainbow stripes back in 2003.

Speaking after the race Minnaar said: “It was tough. I was super nervous! I tried to nail the top section, made a few little mistakes but I managed to come back”. When asked about Gwin’s run Minnaar showed nothing but respect for the American racer saying this was “not the best way for me to win” adding “I can hardly believe I’ve won this!”

As it came down to the top 15 elite men Great Britain’s Sam Dale was sitting comfortably in the hot seat with a time of 3:28. Steve Peat, in his 20th World Championship race was up on Dale’s time and looking fast. Too fast in fact as he came into a corner with too much speed and crashed out. But Peaty is such a huge legend of the sport he could roll down on a kids tricycle and still get the loudest cheer from the crowd. Today was no exception and the Austrian fans went wild for him.

Back in May Troy Brosnan had a huge crash at the iXS race held in Leogang. The internal injuries he suffered put him out for the season and this was his first return to the world stage. Unfortunately it seems Leogang just isn’t Troy’s track, and last year’s Junior World Champ took another big slam and was unable to finish.

Andrew Neethling looked to be having a great run, the first rider to go seriously big on the tabletops. Like massive big. The momentum from these gave him an extra boost of speed but Needles just couldn’t control it on the bike park corner. How the wallride survived is anyone’s guess.

Mick Hannah was the fastest rider in Saturday’s timed practice with a 3:26. As I’ve said before, Mick is an incredibly powerful rider and the track at Leogang is perfect for his riding style. Mick crossed the line nearly two seconds faster than current leader Florent Payet and went into the lead.

Steve Smith was the next rider down, hot off three massive wins at Crankworx Whistler, including the Canadian Open DH. Smith was a second and a half back at the top section, but clawed the time back in the technical section on-board his Carbon Devinci Wilson to go into the hot seat and eventually take the bronze medal.

Josh Bryceland didn’t have much luck at the World Champs last year, going over the bars coming out a corner and having to watch his V-10 spiral down the Swiss mountainside. Bryceland suffered more heartache yet again, his front wheel clipping a tree and sending him over the front.

Sam Hill didn’t have the best start, getting a bit too loose in one of the opening corners and dabbing a foot. Hill was 8.66 seconds back at the first split, yet somehow managed to get that down to just two seconds as he crossed the line, doing enough to finish fifth. Brook MacDonald also didn’t have the run he would have hoped for finishing in eighth place.

Gee Atherton won the World Champs in Val di Sole back in 2008 so knows exactly how it feels to earn those rainbow stripes, and what it takes to win them. Gee wasn’t the cleanest rider through the tabletops but was pedalling more than anyone else and went into the hot seat just over half a second up on Steve Smith’s time. With just two riders left Gee was guaranteed a medal round his neck for the return journey.

But this wasn’t to be Gee’s day and Minnaar put in an impeccable run finishing half a second faster than Gee. As Gwin approached the tabletops it was clear something was wrong and the first split confirmed it. The 2012 World Championship tilt e belonged to Greg Minnaar, and he couldn’t have been happier!

1 – Greg Minnaar 3:21.790
2 – Gee Atherton +0.581
3 – Steve Smith +1.214

Full results can be found here.

Photos by Ale di Lullo