Aaron Gwin Wins Mont Sainte Anne World Cup

Aaron Gwin has won his third World Cup race of the season taking victory in Mont Sainte Anne. Out the gate Gwin went fastest straight away, and while he lost time in the rock garden in the middle of the long, demanding course, he still crossed the line nearly a second and a half up on Minnaar’s time.

Mick Hannah was having a great race run and looked to be making a return to the form we saw at the start of the season in Pitermaritzburg, up at the first two splits and fastest through the speed trap, but a snapped chain stole his chances of a podium spot. Still, Hannah crossed the line just a few hundredths of a second back from current hot seat occupier Thibaut Ruffin. Brendan Fairclough was also having a greta race, squashing the jumps and skipping over the rocks but suffered the same misfortune of a lost chain.

This was Neko Mulally’s first World Cup race with the American Flag on his sleeve having been belatedly awarded the title USA National Champion title. Having decided not to race at Fort William and to instead rest his injured ankle, Mulally was hoping for another solid top 20 result. But Mulally’s front wheel slid out on the take off to the hip jump and he took a heavy slam and looked to have been knocked out.

After treatment on site by medical staff, he walked away without any broken bones, and is suffering from a mild concussion. He will be under observation for the next 48hrs but is expected to make a speedy recovery. Mulally wasn’t the only victim on this punishing course. Matti Lehikoinen had a big crash in the rock garden that left him with a seperated shoulder.

Gee Atherton knows only too well how hard the ground is here in Mont Sainte Anne. A huge crash in practice left many people questioning if Gee would be able to ride in qualifying, let alone how he managed to ride so fast. Gee obviously hadn’t let the crash phase him and was back to race speed, finishing fourth and earning his spot on the podium.

Brook MacDonald had been looking fast all through practice and after qualifying fourth had been tipped by many to make his return to the podium. Brook was up at the first split and wrestled his way through the rock gardens, but lost time and had to settle for sixth place, just 0.3 seconds back from Sam Hill.

Danny Hart only has one riding style; wild, and that’s exactly how he made his way down the mountain, cutting in to every berm and getting loose on every jump. It’s only got to be a matter of time before Hart wins his first World Cup, but he should be more than happy with a third place.
Greg Minnaar’s c riding couldn’t be more different to Hart’s if he tried. He just looks so clean and calculated. Minnaar is also a more powerful rider than Hart, and was able to put that power down and go up on the second split, carrying the speed down and finishing in second place.

 In the last 11 World Cup races there have only been two winners; Greg and Gwin. With Greg already in the finish pit Gwin was on his way down to claim his eight victory, thus extending his lead in the overall standings by 135 points. Speaking about his win in Mont Sainte Anne, the track he debuted on in 2008, Gwin said: “It feels amazing! I kind of made some mistakes towards the end, but the rest of the run was good enough. This track is hard from the top to the bottom, you really have to work for it!”

Elite Men’s Top Five

1 Aaron Gwin 4:14.022
2 Greg Minnaar 4:15.329
3 Danny Hart 4:16.162
4 Gee Atherton 4:17.082
5 Sam Hill 4:17.631

Full results can be found here.

Racing continues in Windham next weekend where no doubt Gwin will be looking for another victory on home soil.

IMB Issue 18 Goes Live

IMB Issue 18 has just gone live and features a photo taken by me as the front cover! The main feature this issue is 'The Spanish Inquisition', mine and Will's adventure to Spain with Pure Mountains. This was easily the best riding trip I've been on and was so fun to write about. Plus Will's photos are pretty amazing!

Big interview this issue has to be the Anthill Films talking about their new film 'Strength In Numbers', which hails their return to the top of the game. This issue I also interviewed Swiss Cross Country rider Ralph Naef who races for the Multivan Merida Team.

Naef's been having a great 2012 season and after his podium finish in La Bresse was selected to be a part of the Swiss Olympic mtb squa. Cross country riding isn't my usual field of expertise so it was cool to have to do a bit of research and find out more about what it takes to be an elite rider. Definitely an eye opener and a great read.

Anthill Films - Strength In Numbers

The Spanish Inquisition

 Ralph Naef

Aaron Gwin Wins Fort William World cup

Aaron Gwin has claimed his seventh first place finish having won the third round of the UCI Downhill World Cup in Fort William! Gwin laid down a flawless race run in less than perfect conditions.

 Having crashed twice in his qualifying run Gwin, testing new tyres, relied on being a protected top 20 racer to secure his spot at the top of the mountain, meaning he set off for his race run a lot sooner than he’s used to. Gwin joked afterwards that this was the longest time he’d ever spent in the hot seat, and as a Californian native was starting to feel the cold!

Steve Peat suffered a nasty crash in a practice run that left him with a torn hamstring and unable to do anything more in his qualifying run than too simply roll out the start gate to reserve his place in the race. Unfortunately though Peaty’s injury was too much and after the first section was forced to simply roll down the hill, clearing the track for Gwin and Transition’s Sam Dale, who finished eighth, his highest ever World Cup finish.

There’s a lot of history at Fort William and last year Brook MacDonald played his part in it finishing third, but today a crash in the woods dashed any chances of a repeat success so instead the Mondraker put on a great show for the crowds, turning on the style and whipping all the new tabletops on the motorway section and the famous Fort William archway. Cam Cole is another kiwi who has done well here in the past, but today tenth place was the best he could muster up.

Sam Hill has had a rough past two seasons, but a seventh place in Val di Sole last week and a fourth place finish today means one thing. Hill is back, no doubt about it. Greg Minnaar has won here more than any other rider, but today wasn’t his day and as he crossed the line it looked like he had to nurse home a mechanical and he finished in sixth place.

With conditions worsening and the top section of the track almost a white out conditions were not too dissimilar to those in Champery last September. If one man was going to excel in circumstances like this and knock Gwin off the hot seat it was going to be Danny Hart. At the first split Hart was up on Gwin’s time and the pit area was getting wild, but Hart lost time in the middle section, and hard as he tried in the final section he crossed the line just eight hundredths of a second back on Gwin, his first World Cup victory still eluding him.

Gee Atherton was also up on Gwin’s time at the first split, but if there’s one thing Gwin is known for it’s finding time where no-one else has, and that’s exactly what he did here in Fort William, with Gee slipping back into third place when he crossed the line. It’s all about context though. Just a few weeks ago it was questionable whether Gee would be able to even make it to this race, let alone stand proudly on the podium.

Gee’s teammate Marc Beaumont was the last man down, qualifying fastest in very different conditions. No doubt Marc wanted a repeat of Val di Sole and to be up on the podium with Gee once again but a crash on the boardwalk at the top of the track halted any chances of that. Marc wasn’t the only rider to have been caught out by the slippery boardwalk. Steve Smith qualified fourth even with his hand injury, but also wiped out on the top of the track.

With Marc down victory went to Gwin and he reclaimed the series overall! Gwin said: “That was a hard run! I was hanging out by the bottom and didn’t have much left to give. I just tried to conserve it at the top and I can’t believe it paid off! The fans here are just taking it to another level so thanks so much to them for making it so cool for us!”

Elite Men’s Top Five
1 Aaron Gwin 4:48.210
2 Danny Hart +0.834
3 Gee Atherton + 2.516
4 Sam Hill + 3.532
5 Josh Bryceland + 5.056

Full results can be found here.

CRC/Nukeproof’s Joe Smith and Matt Simmonds finished seventh and ninth respectively, which along with Sam Dale in eighth meant there were six British riders in the top ten. I’m no mathematician but even I know that’s 60%! That’s a big turn around from the kiwi domination here last year. Must be all the jubilee celebrations!

Aaron Gwin Wins Val di Sole World Cup

Aaron Gwin has just blown the competition out the water, winning the second round of the UCI Downhill World Cup by nearly eight seconds. Gwin is now tied with Greg Minnaar, who finished second today, in the overall standings. In the women’s race Rachel Atherton made an incredible return to World Cup racing winning the women’s race on her new GT Fury.

 
In fact it was a great day for the GT team, with every member of the team earning a podium finish. It’s crazy think it’s four years ago since Gee Atherton won the World Champs here back in 2008, and today, having only been off crutches for a few weeks, Gee finished in third. Adopted brother Marc Beaumont is no stranger to success here himself, winning here in 2010, and today he stepped onto the podium again with a fourth place finish.

Loic Bruni had a fantastic race run with a time that would have seen the junior rider qualifying second. Richie Rude, another junior rider also had a brilliant race, only his second at World Cup level, oozing speed and style but unfortunately lost time dabbing his foot and finished 21st.

Devinci rider Steve Smith hasn’t really had much luck on this course, breaking his foot here at the final race of the year last season, and broke his hand here in practice. Smith opted to skip qualifying, not a problem for the top 20 protected rider, and raced today with his hand taped up and knocked Loic off the hot seat, and ended up finishing tenth.

Danny Hart just missed out on a podium spot to Cameron Cole in his first World Cup race this year after breaking his arm at the World Champs. Josh Bryceland was on a great run until his foot bounced off his pedal, and spun his bike into a nasty crash. New father Sam Hill made a return to form with his typical loose style seeing him finishing seventh.

Gee Atherton was already up on current leader Cameron Cole by three and a half seconds at the first split, lost time in the lower section but had done enough early on to take the hot seat. As usual Minnar’s smooth style saw him so composed and unphased by anything the course threw at him and he crossed the line half a second up on gee.

But Gwin somehow managed to find time where nowhere else could and just like he did in qualifying, finished over seven seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Gwin said: “It was a good solid run. I felt good here all weekend so all I had to do was put everything together. I just tried to focus on riding and not that it was a race run”.

 Elite Men’s Top Five

1 Aaron Gwin 3:10.577
2 Greg Minnaar 3:18.427
3 Gee Atherton 3:18.970
4 Marc Beaumont 3:19.514
5 Cameron Cole 3:20.320

In the women’s race Rachel Atherton, Myriam Nicole and Emmeline Ragot looked to be in a different league to all the other riders, and their times proved it. Tracey Hannah admitted that the course didn’t suit her riding style, and Manon Carpenter had to sit this race out with a shoulder injury. Rachel came back to World Cup racing with a bang, taking the win with a comfortable four and a half second lead over Myriam Nicole.

Elite Women’s Top Five

1 Rachel Atherton 3:49.438
2 Myriam Nicole 3:53.921
3 Emmeline Ragot 3:57.519
4 Florian Pugin 4:04.822
5 Morgane Charre 4:09.737

Nino Schurter Wins In Nove Mesto

Scott Swisspower’s Nino Schurter has reclaimed his series lead having won the third round of the XCO World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic! Schurter, who also celebrated his 26th birthday on the race day has now won two out of the three races this year.

 
Specialized rider and local hero Jaroslav Kulhavy gave it his all and was leading for most of the race, keeping the large crowds happy, but was beaten to the finish line in the final stage of the race and finished just six seconds behind Schurter.

Ralph Näf had a fantastic race, starting on the fourth line, within minutes he had sprinted up to fifth place, where the Multivan Merida rider managed to stay, earning his first podium finish in two years! Reflecting on the race Näf said: “Although I had planned to do differently, I lacked a bit of self-confidence to take the lead in technical sections. Due to the accordion effect I lost some terrain and had to give chase repeatedly, which cost me some power.

“The fact that I still scored a top5 finish and thus step on the podium gives me an enormous mental boost. Ths success comes at the right time, right in the middle of the Olympic selection. With his fifth-place finish, Näf indeed has scored a substantial point in his favour. Teammate José Hermida had a less successful race, starting on the front row but falling back into 18th place just minutes later.  Hermida worked hard throughout the race and clawed his way up to a tenth place finish.

Double Olympic champion Julien Absalon had an off day. “I got sick on Wednesday and I didn’t have the power in my legs to continue,” he said after giving up the race. He crashed in the first lap and had to run in pain, so retired after the fourth lap. “I was really tired. Now I just want to save my energy and recover properly before the next World Cup round in La Bresse.”Despite not finishing the race, Absalon still remains in fifth place in the overall standings.

Elite Men Top FIve

1 Nino Schurter 1:26.46
2 Jaroslav Kulhavy + 0.06
3 Burry Stander + 0.17
4 Marco Aurekio Fontana + 0.46
5 Ralp Näf + 0.47

Full results can be found here.

IMB Issue 17 Goes Live

 The latest issue of IMB has just gone live and features an interview with one of my all time riding heroes Fabien Barel. Getting photos for this feature was a bit of a nightmare, but Irmo Keizer steped forwards and saved the day. I love the opening DPS our designer created for this. It was great to find out about what Barel's been up to since 'retiring', no doubt it's going to be a very different World Cup series without him.

Also in this issue with Morewood's Lloyd Ramsay. I'd spoken to Lloyd a couple of times over twitter about working on an article together so it was great to make it happen. Oh, and the Trail Guide and 'glamping' in Dartmoor. The less said about that the better really...

Fabien Barel

 Morewood Bikes - 10 Years Strong

 Trail Guide

Marc Beaumont Wins Halo BDS Round One

Marc Beaumont has won the opening round of the 2012 BDS in Combe Sydenham with nearly a three second lead over Josh Bryceland! Crowd favourite Brendan Fairclough crossed the line in third on board his new Scott downhill bike with Matt Simmonds in fourth and Rich Thomas rounding up the podium in fifth spot.

Combe Sydenham was last used as a venue by the NPS (National Point Series) back in 2004. The new track was purpose built by local riders on private land kindly lent to the BDS for the race, proved a huge hit with both racers and spectators. Granted it looks a bit dead in the picture below, but Bryceland was the penultimate man down, and everyone had moved down to the finish area…

 Matti Lehikoinen added a touch of international flavour to the day finishing 19th in his first race back since his injury at the end of the season last year. In fact all the CRC/Nukeproof boys had top 20 finishes, including team manager Nigel Page who won the veterans category, ahead of Jason Carpenter.

Elite Men Top Five

1 Marc Beaumont 2:25.976
2 Josh Bryceland 2:28.902
3 Brendan Fairclough 2:30.035
4 Matt Simmonds 2:30.426
5 Rich Thomas 2:30.458

In the women’s race all eyes were firmly on Rachel Atherton and Manon Carpenter. With Rachel having missed out on the opening round of the World Cup in Pietermaritzburg this was their first race together in 2012. Rachel’s brother Gee may have missed out on racing due to his broken tibia, but he was on his crutches by the side of the track to give Rachel his support. But it was Manon Carpenter who took her first BDS victory, beating Rachel by just over half a second.

 
Elite Women Top Five

1 Manon Carpenter 2:51.960
2 Rachel Atherton 2:52.594
3 Jess Stone 3:03.585
4 Angela Coates 3:17.421
5 Emma Wareham 3:17.759

Full results can be found on here on roots and rain.

Greg Minnaar Wins Pietermaritzburg World Cup!

Greg Minnaar has stormed to victory taking first place in the opening round of the World Cup on home soil in Pietermaritzburg!

Last year’s World Cup winner Aaron Gwin was just over half a second behind Minnaar’s time, and Mick Hannah who finished in third was only a second back, with Gee Atherton and Steve Smith rounding up the podium.

As the top 30 gathered at the top of the hill, Brendan Fairclough was sweating it out on the hot seat. Fairclough will be the first to admit that this isn’t a track that suits him, and it was a crash on this track last year that plagued his season, but with a new knee and a new bike, the Scott Gambler, he was able to come away finishing twentieth.

It was Gwin’s team mate Neko Mullaly who knocked Fairclough off the hot seat, only to have to make way for next rider down Julien Camellini. Camellini qualified third here last year but disaster struck in his race run when his gear cable snapped and he was forced to ride single speed, destroying his chances and leaving him absolutely devastated.

With this being the first race of the season we were going to see many riders on new teams or with new bikes, and Camellini is one such rider, going it alone this year on his own race program. Lots of big names set out, but it wasn’t until South African rider Andrew Neethling crossed the line that Camellini’s time was bettered, although he had done enough for a top ten finish.

Needles looked to be tucking between the jumps for speed and to conserve energy, and it paid of, with the home crowd going wild. Needles’ time at the top was short lived with Yeti/Fox rider Jared Graves just edging him off the hot seat. This year Graves is focussing purely on racing downhill, completely changing his training regime and it paid off, with Graves finishing in sixth place, just half a second off a spot on the podium.

Sick Mick famously qualified fastest here last year, only to crash out so hard he snapped his stem bolts in his race run. There would be no repeat of that today, and no doubt spurred on by his sister’s earlier victory Mick set off. Mick is an incredibly powerful rider and was nearly four seconds up at the second split after the gruelling pedalling section of the track, and was the first rider of the day to beat the qualifying times, with a 3:58.97 run.

Gee Atherton had a disappointing top section, but was able to make up time mid-track to finish in fourth. Steve Smith is another dangerously strong rider and was down at the second split, but was able to buck the trend of losing time on the bottom section and managed to sprint into fifth place.
Pietermaritzburg was the venue for Gwin’s first victory last year, and the start of his campaign for domination. Qualifying was so close between Gwin and Minnaar, with just eight hundredths of a second separating them.

Today saw more of the same, and Minnaar shot into the lead beating Gwin by just over half a second. Greg’s home crowd went wild as he sprinted past the line, taking his sixteenth World Cup victory greeted by team mate Steve Peat, then swamped by his One Life crew!

Men's Top Five

1 Greg Minnaar 3:57.98
2 Aaron Gwin 3:58.61
3 Mick Hannah 3:58.97
4 Gee Atherton 3:59.28
5 Steve Smith 4:02.36

Full results can be found here.

2011 World Cup Re-Cap Part Three

Never before in the history of downhill racing have the words “worst kept secret” been used so frequently in the off-season. In fact in many cases when the press releases were finally sent out their contents were no longer news at all. Still, rumours and gossip aside we were all sat at our screens waiting for those official statements to come out!

Comic by @teamrumours

The award for the biggest shake up as to go to the Athertons, who after five years of running Commencal bikes, said their goodbyes and joined the GT Factory Racing Team, alongside Marc Beaumont. As well as parting ways with Commencal, it was also announced the Athertons had parted ways with Animal after 10 years of support, and would now be riding for One Industries.

Not to be outdone, Brendan Fairclough had everyone gussing who his new team would be, before it was finally announced in December last year that he would be part of the Scott 11 Racing team. Fairclough carried over some of his major sponsors from previous years, including Troy Lee Designs and Monster Energy. Fairclough had a busy off season undergoing reconstructive surgery on his knee before hading out to California to get in some training in the sun. While we might know what team he’s on, it’s still not entirely clear what bike he’ll be running…

Ms Evil Racing paired with Mondraker Factory racing to become Ms Mondraker Team combining members of both former teams, along with the addition of Emmeline Ragot. This could well prove to be the team to beat with Emmeline riding alongside Brook MacDonald, Damien Spagnolo and Markus Pekoll.

With the Athertons now riding for GT, many people were left wondring what would happen to former GT rider Mick Hannah. Well, along with his sister, Hannah, Sick Mick will be a part of the Hutchinson United Ride team. Also new to the team is Guillaume Cauvin, who finished 3^rd at the last Junior World Championship in Champéry.

Whilst no-one joined or left the Santa Cruz Syndicate, there were a few changes within the team. After an eight year long partnership it was announced that they would no longer be running SRAM/RockShox components, and were making the switch to a Shimano and Fox setup. This marked the end of a 16 year relationship between Steve Peat and Rock Shox. After what’s got to be a similar length of time Greg Minnaar parted ways with Alpine Star, and will now be riding for O’Neal.

Giant Factory Off Road said goodbye to Duncan Riffle, who found a new ride with the Dirt Norco team, meaning it will be just Danny Hart and Andrew Neethling taking care of the downhill duties for Giant, but I’m sure they’ll be more than capable. Just like his teammate, Neethling is now a part of the SRAM BlackBox program.

After winning the BDS Alex Bond was picked up by Chain Reaction Cycles/Nukeproof then flew out to California for some pre-season training with the Athertons, only to break his collarbone. But having packed his hand luggage full of paracetemol Al will be racing in Pietermaritzburg this weekend.

Tracy Moseley announced at the end of 2011 that she would not be a member of the Trek World Racing team for 2012, and would instead be doing her own thing as part of T-Mo Racing focussing on competing in select events, still with support from Trek. Whilst TWR haven’t got any new riders, they have enlisted former World Champion Myles Rockwell to act as a rider liaison to help the team with their training and race strategy’s. Aaron Gwin’s hard work last year paid of with the overall World Cup title as well as being picked up by Red Bull.

Not wanting to be left out of all the Chinese whispers, Red Bull decided they wanted to join in the fun and games and hinted that they would be broadcasting the World Cup series, and then waited until last week, when we could take no more suspense before announcing that they would indeed be brining us every single race, along with commentary from Rob Warner.

So be sure to be logged on to www.redbull.com/bike at 2pm local time South Africa, when the World’s best will come together to kick start the greatest race series. Are you excited yet, because you sure as hell should be!

2011 World Cup Re-Cap Part Two

While the track at Mont Sainte Anne may have witnessed many changes over the years, with tweaks to the course and new lines carved down the mountainside, the venue itself still remains one of the oldest on the World Cup circuit. It’s quite ironic then that the top ten was made up entirely of the ‘new wave’ of riders.

The Punisher - Mont Sainte Anne world cup 2011 from TriRide on Vimeo.

It was here in 2008 that Aaron Gwin made his World Cup debut, exploding onto the scene with a number ten finish. With three years more experience and knowledge, not to mention the confidence from already winning to World Cups that season, Gwin returned and took the victory. Also full of confidence from a win at the BDS the previous week was Josh Bryceland who had the race of his life, finishing in second place just half a second behind Gwin.

Also making a return to the podium in Mont Sainte Anne were Brook MacDonald, Danny Hart and Cameron Cole. Disaster struck Gee Atherton early on in his race run when his tyre blew off and wrapped itself around his wheel. Gee could barely contain his frustration as he was forced to carry his bike down the rest of the track. Greg Minnaar also suffered on the Canadian track with a crash in his race run that saw him finish in eight place.

Having won the World Champs here in 2010, Sam Hill would have been hoping for a similar result, but a crash the week before the race re-aggravated his shoulder injury from crashing in Fort William, also in the 2010 season, which left him unable to continue with the 2011 series.

Windham, USA made its return to the World Cup Circuit, and while it might be the shortest track, it still remains one of the most popular with the riders. While Gwin might have been on home soil all eyes were firmly on Steve Peat, who had a flying race run here with a time that would seen him take a comfortable win, but had a huge crash coming into the final stretch. Peaty may have only qualified in ninth spot, but he held things together in his race run and was sitting comfortably in the hot seat up until last man down the hill Aaron Gwin set off and beat Peat’s time by nearly two and a half seconds.

The last time Gee and Greg raced here there were just a handful of points separating them, that would decide who would take the overall win. Once again on this course it was Gee who would beat Greg, but this time they were down in 11th and 12th place respectively, and their chances of taking the overall title were slipping further away from them.

After two races stateside the World Cup returned to Europe for round six, with French venue La Bresse also returning to the circuit. Peaty was the last rider to win here, and in doing so equaled Nico Vouilloz’s record of an incredible 16 World Cup wins. Peaty qualified in fourth place with Gee Atherton, Steve Smith and of course Aaron Gwin ahead of him.

Old School - La Bresse world cup 2011 from TriRide on Vimeo.

Ben Cathro had an incredible race run, and spent most the afternoon on the hot seat until top ten regular Justin Leov nudged him out the way. In fact apart from the opening and closing rounds of the series Leov was always a top ten finisher. Aaron Gwin may have been scooping up the big points, but Leov’s consistency certainly helped Trek World Racing take the team title.

Josh Bryceland had a flying run and could have been on for a second podium, but just metres away from the finish line he slipped a pedal, went over the bars and ended up in a disappointing 54th place. Team mate and mentor Steve Peat was equally unlucky in his race run, slipping off the track at the top of the course and slipping in through some tape fractionally further along, slowing him down by a few seconds and giving him a time that would have placed him fourth. But the UCI decided that as he had left the track, and did not re enter from the same spot, he would be disqualified from the race.

Greg Minnaar stepped in and saved the day for the Santa Cruz guys, with his second and final win of the series. Gee Atherton was just half a second behind Greg, but ended up with his best result of the series. While Gwin didn’t have the perfect race run, he did enough to finish in third place, and that was all he needed to be crowned the overall winner of the 2011 series.

But the real story at La Bresse was the announced retirement of Fabien Barel. On home soil and standing on the podium for a final time, Barel announced that this would be his final season of downhill racing. His big crash last year had obviously taken it’s toll on him, and with two podiums this season Barel had proved to himself that he had successfully returned to top level riding, but he had done enough, and would be bowing out.

Having already taken the overall series win, Val di Sole in Italy would prove to be Gwin’s victory lap. With no pressure to perform Gwin comfortably qualified first for Sunday’s race just ahead of Steve Smith. Unfortunately for Steve he crashed hard during Sunday mornings practice and broke a bone in his ankle. But his high performance across the season meant he hobbled onto the overall podium in fifth place, even after missing out on the final race.

Troy Brosnan had a fantastic race run, sprinting out of every corner and tucking in every straight. He finished fourth here in Val di Sole, earning his first spot on the Elite mens podium. In 2011 Troy not only won the Junior World Cup series, but also finished eighth overall in the Elite class.

Gee Atherton had done well at VdS before, winning the World Champs here in 2008, but Danny Hart had one hell of a wild race run knocking beating Gees time by nearly three seconds. Somehow though Gwin managed to dig even deeperand took his fifth victory of the season, the first rider ever to do so in the history of the sport.

There is no denying it, Gwin dominated the 2011 season. The question on everyone's lips now is whether or not he can pull it off again, or if his success has acted as inspiration to force everyone to train harder and put in more hours on the bike. I guess we’ll find out in nine days time…

Stay tuned for the final part of this feature, when I’ll be looking at the team changes coming in to the new series.