Downhill World Champs 2011

Danny Hart has cemented his place in the history books, winning the 2011 World Champs by an incredible 11 and a half seconds! Champéry is without a shadow of a doubt the steepest and most technical track out there and conditions could not have been any worse. Rain poured down the mountainside for the entire race, and the fog and mist made it almost impossible for the riders to see more than a few feet in front of them.


Brendan Fairclough was the first contender for the World Champion title, and was up at the first split onboard his new carbon-fiber demo 8. Fairclough has had a pretty tough season, after seriously damaging his knee in the opening round of the World Cup at Pietermaritzburg. Fairclough opted to have his ACL removed so he could be back on his bike as soon as possible, his sole aim for the season to do well here in Champéry. He crossed the line in 3:55.124 putting him in the hot seat and earning him fourth place. Not the result he would have wanted, but still a great performance none-the-less.

Fairclough’s MES team mate Sam Hill was also a serious contender for getting the gold. Hill may have missed out on the final rounds of the World Cup series after aggravating his shoulder injury in a crash whilst training, but as he proved last year he’s never one to rule out, especially on a track as steep and technical as this.

With his title to defend Hill put on one hell of a show, picking some crazy lines and looking seriously fast. But it wasn’t to be enough and he crossed the line just over two and a half seconds behind Fairclough, but still taking a top ten finish. Hopefully next year Hill will be able to stay injury free throughout and make a return to form.

According to the rumor mill the French team has been training at Champéry ever since the final round of the World Cup at Val di Sol. However true that may or not be, any time the French riders had been putting in, it certainly paid off, with Damien Spagnola and Mickael Pascal finishing in second and fifth place respectively. Fellow countryman Fabien Barel was waiting to congratulate both of them as soon as they crossed the finish line. No doubt his racing experience played a huge roll in the team’s success.

Josh Bryceland was hotly tipped to do well, however after taking the high line on a berm early on in the track he crashed out over the bars and his carbon V-10 sailed passed the crash net and down the side of the mountain, leaving him unable to finish his race run and understandably devastated.

Kiwi rider Sam Blenkinsop was also tipped to do well here and he didn’t disappoint. Blinky seems to really excel on tracks such as this and he proved that once again today finishing in third place. Like so many other riders Blenkinsop was caught out by a blown out berm that also trapped many others.

Blenkinsop’s former team mate and fellow New Zealander Justin Leov is a solid rider and top ten regular but he crashed out and ended up finishing 23rd. Andrew Neethling and Brook Macdonald were also unable to beat Spagnola’s time.

All eyes were on Danny Hart as he set off from the start gate. At just 19 years old Danny has had the season of his life and he was looking to end it with another stellar performance. Hart was the first and only rider to tackle the blind log drop putting him over four seconds in the lead at the first split. Riding his incredible, all-out loose style Hart was in a different league to everyone else and went up an incredible 10 seconds at the next split! Coming into the final section, Danny pulled an insane whip and sprinted across the finish line over eleven seconds faster than anyone else. No question about it, Danny absolutely destroyed the competition.

Only three riders could knock Hart off the top spot, and Gee Atherton was one of them. A former World Champion himself, and winner here last year in similar conditions, if Gee held it together the title could be his once again. Gee hadn’t had the best couple of days in the run up to the race, knocking himself out in a crash in practice, and the nightmare continued for him today, crashing twice in his race run and ending up way down in the field.

Minnaar can always be relied on to succeed, but he just couldn’t put everything together, and although he put in a great run, he just couldn’t match Hart’s time and finished in eighth place.

Just Aaron Gwin left. Could he be the first American rider to win the World Champs since 2000? Gwin exploded onto the race scene with a top ten finish in his first World Cup race at Mont Sainte Anne, and this season with a new team and a new bike he’s had a second wave, winning five of the World Cup rounds and taking the season overall. Gwin seems to find time where no-one else can, so if anyone could beat Hart it would be him.

At the first split Gwin was just under a second behind Hart’s time. With so much of the track left Gwin had every chance of making that time up and taking the win. But a crash nearing the final second handed the title to Hart. Today Danny truly is the champion of the world!

1st Danny Hart (GBR) – 3:41.989
2nd Damien Spagnola (FRA) – 3:53.688
3rd Sam Blenkinsop (NZL) – 3:54.982
4th Brendan Fairclough (GBR) – 3:55.124
5th Mickael Pascal (FRA) – 3:56.631

Of course it would be impossible to talk about today’s race without mentioning Fabien Barel. After finishing fourth at La Bresse at the start of August, and on home soil, Barel announced that he would be retiring from racing and that the World Championships would be his last race.

A few days later, whilst on a training ride Barel crashed and broke four ribs leaving him unable to compete at the final round of the World Cup in Val di Sol. Barel was one of the most determined and focused riders on the circuit and has come back from injury before. Riding clipped in pedals and with his ribs still broken Barel sprinted across the finish line and finished 10th.

No doubt bikes will continue to play a huge part in Barel’s life, but he will be sadly missed from the race scene. All the best Fabien, and thank you for being one of the best riders out there, both on and off the track.

Leogang World Cup

Please somebody tell me they also got confused by the whole time difference thing and missed out on an hours racing!

After a month of waiting we've been spoilt with two back to back weekends of top notch World Cup racing. Trek's Aaron Gwin has now won two of the three races this season after beating second place Gee Atherton by just over two seconds.

Brook Mcdonold was looking for a repeat of last week's success at Fort William and once again found himself on the hot seat watching the rest of the field coming down trying to better his time. Sadly Brook's hadn't done enough this week but he still finished in an impressive tenth place.

It was Sam Hill who knocked him off the top spot and went on to finish fifth, giving the Monster Energy Specialized rider his World Cup podium since 2009. Team mate and fellow Australian Troy Brosnan finished 15th after a small crash on a corner that caught out many. Brendan Fairclough came in a disappointing 31st on a track that many thought would suit his riding style.

Danny Hart really excels on these steep tracks and was surely hoping for another spot on the podium. He was the fastest rider down in Friday's timed practice so knew he was capable of something special. Hart looked much more in control of his bike this week and almost seemed to float over the roots strewn across the course. Hart came so close to Hill's time and ended up finishing in sixth place.

Blenkinsop is another rider who laps up the steeper technical courses. Blinky finished fourth here last year after qualifying first but just couldn't find it this year and ended up in ninth place.

Last year's winner and next man down Greg Minnaar was up on Hill's time at the first split and took the lead by three and a half seconds. Justin Leov couldn't catch Minnaar's time, then Andrew Neethling and Fabien Barel crashed in their race runs, guaranteeing Minnaar a spot on the podium.

Steve Smith's first split time placed him in 21st but he went on to put down a solid run and earnt himself a place on the podium finishing in fourth. Gee Atherton was absolutely flying down and looked faster than anyone. Atherton proved exactly why he's the defending World Cup champion and finished three and a half seconds up on Minnaar's time.

All eyes were now on Aaron Gwin who had once again finished first. Even with a crash at Fort William Gwin finished fifth. How would he cope today, would the pressure of being last rider down get to him again? Well, the short answer is no! Gwin looked to be in a league of his own and was up at the first split by five seconds. A slip on the pedals cost him time but he still won with a two second lead!

1st Aaron Gwin - 3:44.181
2nd Gee Atherton - 3:46.294
3rd Greg Minnaar - 3:49.902
4th Steve Smith - 3:52.123
5th - Sam Hill - 3:53.406

Gwin's win means that he is once again heading up the overall standings, with a lead over Minnaar of 46 points. There's now a three week break before racing continues at Mont Saine Anne, Canada; home to last year's World Champs race won by Sam Hill.

Full results as well as press releases from all the teams can be found here.

Fort William World Cup

Santa Cruz Syndicate's Greg Minnaar and Trek World Racing's Tracy Moseley have now made it an incredible five wins each at Fort William after an afternoon of some of the most exciting racing ever seen on the world cup circuit.


After a bad start to his World Cup Season in Pietermaritzburg, and a disappointing qualifying run Mick Hannah was keen to make amends and promptly did so, getting himself onto the hot seat.

Few riders came close to Hannah's time but no-one seemed able to match the power Hannah put down in the final part of the track. Josh Button managed to knock Hannah off the top spot, closely followed by Scott 11 rider Fabien Pedemanaud. Then Brook McDonald smashed Pedemanaud's time by over seven seconds, really putting the pressure on every at the top of the mountain.

McDonald's time was untouchable and it wasn't until Minnaar crossed the line that he was knocked off, but with only three riders left McDonald was guaranteed a place on the podium.

Danny Hart was the next rider down and was getting seriously wild on the top section of the track. He was over the moon placing third in qualifying but would he be able to step it up on his race run? He crossed the line greeted by the loudest roar from the crowd just over a second behind Greg's time.

Next rider down Gee Atherton was under so much pressure after winning here last year, but as he crossed the finish line it was clear that something wasn't quite right. In fact Gee's rear wheel was smashed to pieces yet he was still able to ride to the bottom of the course and finish in fourth place.

All eyes were on Aaron Gwin as he set off from the starters gate. After winning the first round and the US open many people were expecting Gwin to walk away with first place again today. Gwin's time at the second split would have put him in first place, but a small mistake cost him dearly and he ended up finishing in fifth, allowing Minnaar not only to win at Fort William for the fifth time, but also to take the overall lead.

1st Greg Minnarr - 4:43.854
2nd Danny Hart - 4:45.153
3rd Brook McDonold - 4:45.788
4th Gee Atherton - 4:46.858
5th Aaron Gwin - 4:47.047

Full results here.

Pietermaritzburg World Cup

What a start to the season for Trek World Racing with Aaron Gwin and Tracey Moseley both taking the win at Pietermaritzburg, South Africa!

Peaty set the standard for the day smashing his qualifying time and looked more than comfortable in the hot seat. It was so good to see Peaty back on form and back on top, especially after the trouble he had last season.

Devinci's Steve Smith came close but just couldn't catch Peaty's time. Sam Hill was up at the first split but lost time in the unforgiving flat section where every pedal stroke counted.

But it was Aaron Gwin who put together the run of his life and destroyed Peaty's time by nearly seven seconds! Gwin didn't even look out of breathe as he stepped off his bike.

Fabien Barel was the next man down with a brilliant comeback to racing but didn't have it in him to nudge Gwin off the top spot. Even a new line on the hip jump from Gee Atherton didn't turn out to be enough.

Cedric Gracia had made a brilliant return to form at Pietermaritzburg with the fastest run in timed practice and qualifying in fourth, but on race day he just couldn't get it right and ended up finishing 16th. Fellow French rider Julien Camellini also had trouble putting a solid run together and couldn't match Gwin's time.

All eyes were on Greg Minnaar as he set off. Pietermaritzburg is his hometown and the crowds were out in force to cheer him on, would he be able to secure another win on home turf? As hard as he tried Greg would have to settle for second place.

The only man that could stop Gwin now was GT's Mick Hannah, but a crash early on soon ended Hannah's plans for a victory, and Gwin secured his first World Cup win.

1st Aaron Gwin - 4.08.634
2nd Greg Minnarr - 4.08.875
3rd Gee Atherton - 4.10.555
4th Fabien Barel - 4.12.880
5th Steve Peat - 4.15.443

In the women's race it ended up being a British one two with World Champion Tracy Moseley winning and Fionn Griffiths taking second place. They were joined on the podium by French trio Emmeline Ragot, Sabrina Jonnier and Floriane Pugin. Madison/Saracen rider Manon Carpenter managed a top ten fnish and crossed the line in eigth place.

Check out the full results and press releases from the teams here.

Aston Hill Black Run Race

No bike meant no racing for me, but I guess that was a blessing in disguise as in meant I got to brush up on my photography 'skills'. These are my first attempts at getting some riding shots for about a year. Last time I gave it a go I hated every second of it but this time I actually enjoyed taking photos!

I found a few nice spots, chose a favourite and waited there for my friends who were racing to come down so I could get some cool photos of them. What I forgot was they'd seeded quite high so I ended up with about 200 images of the same corner! Oh well, lesson learned.

Anyways, pretty happy we a few of them, and pretty keen to get out and try it again sometime. Enjoy.

Cycle Show

In case you missed it, or missed us, IMB had a stand at the Cycle Show in London. We turned up on Wednesday evening and started setting up our stand just as everyone else was finishing off theirs.

I was only there for the trade day, and I kind of threw up on my lunch break, but it was really fun promoting the magazine and talking to people about everything bike related. By the end of the show the rest of the team had managed to get over a thousand new subscribers and generate a lot of interest in the magazine.

When he wasn't handing out stickers or playing with the office iPad, Rou managed to get some photos of what everyone else was showing off so check out the Industry News section of the Forum.

World Champs 2010

Yeah, this video from the Santa Cruz Syndicate pretty much sums up what the UCI are doing to Downhill. Cheers guys...

ICE Bike Winter

ICE bike is the trade show held by madison to show off their latest kit to dealers and the press. This year they deiced that one show a year wasn't enough so as well as their February show they held one in the summer. To show of their winter kit...

This time instead of just enjoying the free food and chatting to people about bikes I did something a bit more productive. Check it out here.

BUCS cross country, Sun 22nd March

To be honest I don't think I slept at all last night. Somehow it was warmer outside the tent than it was inside. At first I was planning to just wake up, pack up, and leave; but after chatting to some of the Bournemouth boys I decided to hang around.

And I'm glad I did. I helped get the Bournemouth guys water and got to shout 'support' to all the other teams; which was great till it came to packing up and I realised I was surrounded by everyone I'd been shouting at. Never mind.

I got home at about half seven and the lack of sleep caught up with me. I was so tired I struggled to walk up the stairs. It felt great to finally sleep in a warm bed again.

BUCS race day, Sat 21st March

I'm not really sure if I slept for more than an hour last night. Every time I closed my eyes I woke up shivering or with my tent mate lying on top of me. Camping on a hill will never be a good idea.

Once I got out the tent I soon warmed up and got my riding gear together and headed out for some more practice runs with the guys from Bournemouth university. Before setting off I let some air out my tyres and immediately had more grip.

My first race run wasn't till six past two so I got to watch some other guy's runs before suiting up. I thought that my first run went really well. I went flat out through the top section and nailed the corner I'd crashed on the previous day.

My front wheel did slip off on one corner but I lifted it back on and got on with the rest of my run, sprinting to the finish line.

On my second run I managed to stay on the track but I slipped a pedal sprinting at the start, and I had to dab my foot halfway down the track. I knew I hadn't done as well but was still pretty confident with my first run.

I found out my time later in the evening and was not impressed: 1.56.12.

I could make up lots of shitty excuses as to why my time was so bad but the bottom line is I rode badly. Twice. Overall I finished 176th out of nearly 300 which is no where near the top 100 result I was aiming for.

After embarrassing myself in the downhill I withdrew my entry for the four-cross race. Instead of racing I brought a takeaway, grabbed some cans of Strongbow and watched the 100 metre sprint that was the 'floodlit four-cross'.

BUCS Practice day, Fri 20th March

Today was the practice day for the downhill championship race. The organisers chose the 'Devils Dyke' track, which starts with a drop then a road gap landing on the rock garden. After a dodgy landing on my first run, and after chatting with other riders I decided to just roll the gap instead and get a better line through the rock garden.

The rest of the course is made up of off-camber straights and tight, steep, rooty corners. In fact the track is pretty much the polar opposite of the tracks I excel on. The track ends with some switch backs that have you pedaling uphill.

I had a few good runs and a few not so good runs. A lot of the time a wheel would slip off the track or I'd have to put a foot down to stop me going over the bars.

Quite early on I had a crash which was strangely relieving. I tried to slam my bike into one of the final berms but just ended up slamming myself onto the ground. After lunch I had another crash after messing up my line into a corner and riding straight into a tree. Neither me nor the bike broke so I wasn't too fussed.

The guys at UK Bike Park were running an excellent uplift service with their old army trucks and trailers so a huge thanks goes out to them.

When the uplift finished the sun went down and the temperature dropped. It was incredibly cold but that didn't affect the festival atmosphere of the weekend, with various students getting up to mischief.